Every singer says Whitney Houston is the standard — but very few dare to prove it live. Monica did. At the V-103 Soul Session here in Atlanta, Monica stood in front of the crowd and took on one of the biggest ballads of all time, “I Will Always Love You,” and FreddyO’s camera caught the whole thing. When an Atlanta girl sings Whitney in Atlanta, you already know the room went quiet.
Monica is in a real moment right now. Her album Still Standing just dropped in March, the single “Everything to Me” is all over radio, and she is reminding everybody why she has been a voice of R&B since she was a teenager. A performance like this shows exactly why. “I Will Always Love You” is not a song you can fake — the notes are too big and the emotion is too honest — and Monica does not run from any of it. She leans all the way in and makes the tribute her own.
The timing makes it even more special. Whitney herself is in the middle of her own comeback with I Look to You, so hearing one of the great voices of the next generation lift up Whitney’s signature song, live and stripped down, feels like a passing of the torch in real time. The Soul Session crowd knew exactly what they were witnessing, and you can hear it in the room.
Press play above and watch Monica honor Whitney the right way, then dive into the gallery for more of Monica singing Whitney live and Whitney’s own American Music Awards moment from 2009. Two generations, two phenomenal voices — Atlanta, we are blessed to witness both.
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