Friends close to Whitney Houston say her inability to sing like she used to and her comeback concert tour being cancelled were heartbreaking for the fallen star. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
We're learning more about Whitney Houston's hearbreak over her disastrous European comeback tour in 2010 when no one could believe how bad she sounded.
The early leg of the tour was in the British isles in Dublin, Ireland in April. A week later, her tour hit London. Houston looked exhausted and bloated. By May, in Munich, Germany, she looked a mess. The tour had to be cancelled.
The London papers were brutal. "Tired and Erratic" wrote one critic. "Whitney Flops" said another.
It was a devastating blow for the woman who once had supermodel looks, and the voice to match. She even begged her friend, singer Kim Burrell, to come to Europe and comfort her.
Burrell told INSIDE EDITION, "One of the main reasons I went to Germany was because of the energy that people were giving. And their opinions of her voice and her life, it was starting to get to her."
Voice coach Gary Catona worked with Houston and tried to salvage her much abused vocal cords for that tour. He said she had smoked way too many cigarettes and simply couldn't belt out the power ballads she was famous for.
Catona told INSIDE EDITION, "When I saw her and heard her voice, it was just so heartbreaking. Singing was her life. She was the voice afterall. Without that voice what else does she have?"
Houston's close friend Aretha Franklin told the Today show that Houston was heartbroken at losing her singing talent and was never the same after that so-called comeback tour.
Franklin said, "I'm sure that she was totally devastated by the time it was over. She had to be totally devastated. You know, when you're a singer and you can't sing what it is you want to sing, it is very disheartening."
