{"id":145247,"date":"2026-01-31T09:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/145247\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T09:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:43:11","slug":"on-pre-grammy-gala-whitney-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/145247\/","title":{"rendered":"On Pre-Grammy Gala & Whitney Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOn Saturday night (Jan. 31), legendary record executive Clive Davis and the Recording Academy will host their annual Pre-Grammy Gala at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. It will be the 51st\u00a0edition of the event, which was turned into a fundraiser last year following the devastating Los Angeles fires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe party is one of the most coveted invitations of the year, drawing A-listers from the worlds of entertainment, sports and politics and featuring an array of one-of-a-kind performances from newcomers and icons alike.<\/p>\n

\n\tDavis tells\u00a0Billboard\u00a0the party is a highlight of his year too, and it makes him feel good that it is still as \u201calive and anticipated\u201d more than a half-century later.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPrior to the party, Davis\u2019 prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Whitney Houston<\/a> will be honored posthumously with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. To be sure, asking Davis his favorite Houston song is, as he says, akin to asking him his favorite child. Instead, he settles for a major moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI can\u2019t separate the thrill of the seven consecutive No. 1 records we had because I would listen to a demo from music publishers, I would listen with my A&R staff to hundreds and narrow it down to 12 or 13, meet with Whitney for the album and to realize from hearing the demo to having the record recorded, to having the record released, to have it explode to No. 1 seven times\u201d was incredibly special, he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tDavis, an avid\u00a0Billboard\u00a0reader, also noted \u201cI was both surprised but gratified\u201d in October 2023 when\u00a0Billboard\u00a0named Houston\u2019s 1987 hit, \u201cI Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me\u201d)\u201d the No. 1 Greatest Pop Song<\/a> of all time. He recalls hearing the Shannon Rubicam and George Merrill-penned demo \u00a0for the first time and sending it to producer Narada Michael Walden, who modified it for Houston to make it more soulful.\u00a0Davis and Houston were musical soulmates, despite the differences in their ages and background, he says, which led to their ability to create magic over and over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the interview, Davis also reveals some unbelievable pairings that he still can\u2019t believe he pulled off at past parties and the guests that remain on his wish list to attend.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough the performances are kept top-secret until showtime, Davis says that Olivia Dean and Alex Warren are two new artists who have caught his eye. Not secret are the Industry Icons honored at the event, who this year are brothers Monte and Avery Lipman, founder\/chairman and founder\/vice chairman of Republic Collective, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday night (Jan. 31), legendary record executive Clive Davis and the Recording Academy will host their annual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[7082,60886,26535,56,58,57,6300],"class_list":{"0":"post-145247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-awards","9":"tag-clive-davis-grammy-party","10":"tag-grammys","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-headlines","13":"tag-houston-news","14":"tag-music-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}