GLEE's 'Heart' Episode to Pay Tribute to Whitney Houston?

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the producers of Fox's musical series GLEE are considering the idea of adding a tribute to the late Whitney Houston as part of this Tuesday's Valentine's Day episode entitled, "Heart'. Houston died in her hotel room in Beverly Hills Saturday evening at the age of 48.

Houston's signature ballad,  "I Will Always Love You", a song written by country music star Dolly Parton in 1974, is set to be a featured number in the upcoming episode. Houston performed the song in the 1992 film 'The Bodyguard' co-starring Kevin Costner. The singer's version of the song spent 14 weeks on the Billboard 100 chart, setting a record for the time. It went on to win 'Record of the Year' and 'Best Female Pop Vocal Performance' at the Grammy awards.

In the February 14th episode of GLEE, Amber Riley's character Mercedes will perform the song as she struggles to decide whether to pursue a relationship with her ex-boyfriend Sam (Chord Overstreet) or her current boyfriend Shane (LaMarcus Tinker). A spokesman for 20th Century Television revealed to the Reporter on Saturday that although the episode had been completed and sent to the Fox network last Friday, producers are considering the idea of attaching a title card before or after the episode airs, in order to acknowledge the tragic passing of the legendary singer. 

GLEE music supervisor P.J. Bloom told the Reporter on Sunday, "We chose to do the song and [Glee co-creator] Ryan Murphy chose to do the song to honor one of the greatest hits of all time. Obviously we could not predict the unfortunately circumstances that happened this weekend but at the same time instead of focusing on the dark stuff, it's nice to have an opportunity to hear her in this way and celebrate the magic that Whitney brought to this industry. I hope where ever Whitney is she's excited to see it happen," 

Regarding the idea of making the episode a tribute for the late singer, Bloom replied, "We'll see. As soon as the news hit, I texted Ryan and said, 'We should do something.' Whether he chooses to want to take that celebration past our show Tuesday when we do 'I Will Always Love You,' I couldn't say. If we don't celebrate her in one complete episode, I'm sure we'll continue to acknowledge her music in the show."

To post a comment, you must register and login.