Les Fabian BrathwaiteA video of Christina Aguilera dueting with a hologram of the late Whitney Houston on The Voice leaked Thursday, leading the internet to close one more door because we don't want to hurt anymore. It's hard enough living in a post-Whitney world as it is, but a hologram of the original The Voice smacks of disrespect. I get it, it's the future, and the technology is there. But for Whitney, someone who dedicated her life to public consumption, shouldn't death give her some much-deserved time-out?
Sure, holograms of dead celebrities may seem like a good idea, having clearly learned nothing from 2Pac's cameo at Coachella, and will most likely be an inescapable thing in the future, but not too soon. The Whitney Houston Estate put the kibosh on the Xtina performance, slated to air during The Voice finale.
In a statement to ET, Pat Houston, executor of the estate, explained their decision:
We are so appreciative of the opportunity for the Whitney Houston hologram to appear on NBC’s The Voice with a talent pairing as extraordinary as Christina Aguilera and Whitney Houston. We were looking to deliver a ground breaking duet performance for the fans of both artists. Holograms are new technology that take time to perfect, and we believe with artists of this iconic caliber, it must be perfect. Whitney’s legacy and her devoted fans deserve perfection. After closely viewing the performance, we decided the hologram was not ready to air. We have much respect and appreciation for Christina, and she was absolutely flawless.
The video has already been removed by NBC Universal, so who knows if it will ever see the light of day again, but I will say this: hologram or not, Whitney will always live on; Xtina sounds great, though this is the only way she and Whitney will have ever shared a stage, at least on Whitney's watch; and it gave me a lot of feels, not all of them grossly uncomfortable. Grossly being the key word.
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