Naomi Ackie takes on the difficult task of portraying the late, great Whitney Houston, but does Naomi Ackie sing in Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody? Directed by Kasi Lemmons from a screenplay by Anthony McCarten, the Whitney Houston biopic has all the genre trappings, but it’s Ackie’s performance as the chart-topping singer that really sells the story. As with most music biopics, I Wanna Dance With Somebody tells the true story of an icon beloved by countless fans.
There is obviously a lot of pressure on the movie to get certain aspects right and that is especially true of the actor tasked with playing someone who most of the audience already knows so well. With this being Ackie’s breakout performance, she had a lot to live up to in playing Whitney Houston and recreating her most famous singing performances. While some actors in biopics do their own singing, others lip-sync over the original recordings of the famous songs. But did Naomi Ackie do her own singing in I Wanna Dance With Somebody?
Naomi Ackie Doesn’t Actually Sing In I Wanna Dance With Somebody
Houston’s Voice Is Used For Her Recorded Songs
Ackie’s six-month-long vocal training allowed her to perfect Houston’s style…
Naomi Ackie has an abundance of performance scenes that see the actress emulating Whitney Houston’s stage presence and energy, but Ackie isn’t really singing in I Wanna Dance with Somebody — she is lip-syncing. The actress nails the late singer’s mannerisms and the obvious joy Houston exudes while performing, but it’s Whitney Houston’s vocals that are heard whenever Ackie is singing. That said, it’s not as though Ackie doesn’t sing at all in I Wanna Dance with Somebody. She provides her vocal talents in scenes where Houston’s popular songs aren’t fully used.
Ackie sings an office scene with Stanley Tucci’s Clive Davis, as Whitney goes about choosing her next single. Ackie also sings the first song in I Wanna Dance with Somebody, in a scene where a young Whitney Houston is practicing her singing alongside her mother. Ackie’s six-month-long vocal training allowed her to perfect Houston’s style so that the actress could fully embody the role, singing along to playback of Houston’s biggest hits. All told, Ackie told Yahoo UK that she doesn’t sing too much in the film and that “97.9% of it is Whitney.”
Related
What is the best performance in a musical biopic movie?
Austin Butler’s Elvis and Rami Malek’s Freddie Mercury stand out as recent, critically acclaimed performances of famous musicians. However, my favorite is Cate Blanchett’s interpretation of Bob Dylan in I’m Not There. It’s the only biopic that I believe truly captures the essence of its subject artist, and it does so by acknowledging that a person’s complexity can’t be simplified into a typical movie narrative structure. The prolific singer-songwriter is played by an ensemble of iconic actors throughout the film, but Blanchett is the most quintessentially Dylan.
Why Whitney Houston’s Vocals Were Used Instead Of Naomi Ackie’s
Houston’s Voice Is Distinctive
Whitney Houston was dubbed “The Voice,” and it would have been difficult for anyone to replicate — or even come close to — Houston’s impressive vocal range. Record producer Clive Davis, who worked with Houston during her entire career, told USA Today that he “didn’t think anyone could capture her vocal genius.” To be sure, Houston’s vocal range was impressive, and the celebrated singer could go low as an alto before shifting into soprano to hit the higher notes. Her pitch was perfect, and she effortlessly guided her voice over every note, making every song her own.
Naomi Ackie spent eight months preparing for her role after being cast as Whitney Houston in I Wanna Dance with Somebody, but, regardless of Ackie’s own vocal talents, it was unlikely she (or anybody else, for that matter) could match Houston’s own singing abilities. Hearing Houston’s voice during the performance scenes in the biopic is a reminder of what a beautiful, powerful voice she had.
Ackie’s physical performance only adds to the experience. While it won’t be the last time a music biopic employs the vocal talents of its subject, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody ensures the audience relives Houston’s most iconic performances in her own voice.
Where Naomi Ackie’s Performance Stacks Next To Other Biopics
Other Biopics Have Included Actors Singing
…while it is impressive that actors can do their own singing, it is not essential in capturing the spirit of these musicians…
When it comes to Naomi Ackie’s singing in I Wanna Dance with Somebody, it is interesting to see how it compares to other music biopics. There have been actors who do their own singing while playing famous musicians with one of the most recent notable examples being Austin Butler in Elvis. The actor gained widespread acclaim for his accurate take on the so-called King of Rock. Likewise, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon received awards and accolades for their performances as Johnny Cash and June Carter cast in Walk the Line in which they also did their own singing.
One of Chadwick Boseman’s most underrated roles was in Get on Up where he played James Brown and Boseman took a similar approach as Ackie in partially doing the singing while also using recordings of Brown’s own performances. On the other hand, Rami Malek won an Oscar for playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody despite lip-synching all the singing sequences. Certainly, while it is impressive that actors can do their own singing, it is not essential in capturing the spirit of these musicians as Naomi Ackie’s proves with her performance in I Wanna Dance With Somebody.
How Was Naomi Ackie’s Performance Received
Naomi Ackie’s Performance Was Praised By Critics
Overall, I Wanna Dance With Somebody received mixed reviews. While some critics wished that certain aspects of Houston’s life had been highlighted more, like her struggles with substance use, others praised the focus on her relationship with a woman before marrying Bobby Brown, something that those around her had often attempted to hide from the public. The movie was criticized for seeming like a by-the-numbers biopic, but the performances in the movie, particularly those of Stanley Tucci, Nafessa Williams, and Naomi Ackie, were praised.
Film Threat is one of the outlets that disliked how much the movie glossed over Houston’s drug use in the movie, but they didn’t find any fault with Ackie’s portrayal of her. They praised her effort at portraying the pop sensation, calling the movie “her show” and explaining:
She makes Whitney feisty with a big F. The actor fully gives us the anger and the pain that was the price paid for the artist’s spine of iron. Her acting is triumph and tragedy, simultaneously firing across all pistons. While there is wonderful supporting work here, this is Ackie’s show, and she earns it.
Time calls Ackie’s performance as Houston “girlishly vulnerable,” though, for the outlet, it’s actually the scenes between Ackie and Tucci as Houston and Davis that have a great spark:
The movie’s finest scenes—there are quite a few of them—are the ones set in Davis’s office, where he pops in one demo cassette after another. The two listen together, but he says nothing before she does. Instead, he scans her face, wanting to know only what she thinks. She hears one song—it happens to be “How Will I Know?”—and brightens immediately; he gently counters that he’s not sure it has a hook. “I’ll give it a hook!” she says, and history proves that she did.
For any faults the audience might find in the story, there aren’t any in the emotional performance given by Ackie in I Wanna Dance With Somebody.
