Dionne Warwick has opened up about the advice she gave niece Whitney Houston before her death.
Whitney was just 48 when she was found face down in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 11, 2012.
Prior to her passing, Whitney had a close relationship with her aunt and Dionne said that while she isn’t one to offer too much advice, there was one thing she always made sure her relative knew.
“Like I told Whitney, it’s more than opening up your mouth and having some notes fall out of it,” Dionne told The Advocate magazine about being a singer. “There’s a lot more to the business than just that. I think she has a complete grasp on that by this point. But you know, I don’t really give advice. I’ll answer a question if you ask. However, the only thing I have said, and I continued to pound this into Whitney’s head as I’ll continue to pound it into [granddaughter] Cheyenne’s head, is be who you are. You can’t be someone else, nor should you want to. That’s really it.”
Dionne’s granddaughter Cheyenne Elliott is the latest member of the family to venture into the music business and is already making a name for herself with the track With You.
And Cheyenne, who is just 20 years old, says she never felt too intimidated by having Whitney as her cousin.
“She was more like an aunt to me,” Cheyenne said. “Which was really great. She was so busy and she was all over the world. But I'd see her at family events. And we recorded a song together once for a Tyler Perry movie, which was amazing.”
