Calum Scott on his breathtaking duet with the late Whitney Houston: ‘A whole new audience needs to hear this’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Scott's re-imagined ballad of 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)’ is steeped in the same melancholic reverence that made his own music resonate with millions
By Callum Wells
It was a moment that felt like a prank. “Shut your mouth!” Calum Scott remembers thinking. “That just doesn’t exist.”
But it did. He was being told that the Whitney Houston Estate wanted to send him a raw vocal track from the late icon, presenting the incredulous opportunity of a duet only made possibly with modern technology. The result is a breathtaking masterpiece, a re-imagined ballad of Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)’, steeped in the same melancholic reverence that made his own music resonate with millions.
For Scott, this isn’t just a marketing ploy. “It’s just obviously I have a deep burning desire to sing a Whitney Houston song,” he says. The journey to this duet began, fittingly, on tour with another pop titan, Ed Sheeran. Scott was performing ‘Dancing on My Own’ in stadiums full of tens of thousands. He had an idea to create a mashup, a surprise for the audience. “I just remember the lyric being like so neat and tidy: ‘I keep dancing on my own. I want to dance to somebody.’ It’s just unrequited love,” he said. He started performing a mashup of the two songs, and the crowd’s reaction was electric. It was a “double whammy,” as he puts it – they would get hyped for his known hit, and then erupt with a second wave of energy when they recognized the iconic Houston chorus.
“There’s still an element of it where I was like, ‘I’m just not worthy'” – Calum Scott on duetting with the late Whitney Houston
A video of this performance was shared with the original songwriters of Houston’s 1987 classic. That clip was then forwarded to the Whitney Houston Estate, and soon, Calum and his team got the call. “We had word from Pat Houston that she absolutely loved it,” he recalls. “And would she let us let wanted her to send the vocal.” A week later, a raw, unreleased vocal track from Houston herself was in his hands.
With the immense gift came an immense sense of responsibility. Scott knew he had to treat this with the utmost care, well aware that even as a platinum-selling artist who has performed for stadiums worldwide, he was walking into a hallowed space. “This is Whitney. This is their idol,” he says, humbly adding, “There’s still an element of it where I was like, ‘I’m just not worthy.'”
He and his producer reimagined the song as a ballad, complete with string sections and a piano. He made a deliberate choice to leave Houston’s vocal largely untouched. “I was very adamant with the producer,” he recalls. “We don’t tune, not that she needed it. We don’t tune. We don’t change, we don’t chop.” In fact, he demanded they leave in the sound of a snare drum bleeding through her headphones, which can be heard in the first verse. “By chopping into that, you take away a bit of a of their voice,” he explains.
This respect stemmed from his deep admiration for Houston and her legacy. “The last thing that I would ever want to do is somehow wade into this as if I’m taking ownership,” he says. Instead, he wanted to use his platform to “keep the legacy of this lady and this incredible woman in this icon alive by reimagining the song in a way that we’ve never heard her voice before”.
“I get to put Whitney’s voice out there again, in front of a whole new audience” – Scott
The Houston Estate gave Scott full creative control, a privilege he called “a real honour”. While he initially considered a more sombre, minor-key chorus, he and his producer decided on a happier, major-key arrangement. “I thought, that’s not how I want this song to live on,” he says. “I want this to be hopeful and I want it to be rejoiceful.”
For the music video, Scott wanted a way for him and Houston to be in the same frame, not just him singing alongside her photos. The solution: a “really beautiful way that me and Whitney could be in the same video at the same time”. Projections of her smiling and singing were cast onto his white shirt and drapes in the background.
Scott is also aware that this duet will introduce Houston’s music to a new audience. “Unfortunately, and this sickens me to say, there’ll be people who haven’t heard this song,” he notes. By reimagining it, he hopes they will be able to “rediscover it because of you”, as I suggest. “That really is the best level,” Scott replies. “That is the, for me, that is the only reason.”
The project has been a deeply personal one. “I get to put Whitney’s voice out there again, in front of a whole new audience,” he says. It is a tribute and a privilege, a chance to not only celebrate an icon, but to ensure her voice continues to reach new listeners and new generations, a reminder of the power and beauty that made her a legend in the first place.
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) by Calum Scott and Whitney Houston is available to stream and purchase today (12 September).