Honestly I wasn’t that big of a fan. Hell, I wasn’t a fan at all. But she always reminds me of this personal anecdote:

The year was 1993 and The Bodyguard (terrible movie, by the way) was all the rage. If you think “Moves Like Jagger” gets overplayed, then you definitely weren’t born in 1993 yet. It was right around some national holiday and the school was preparing one of those events. It was during classes but for some reason I was wandering around, maybe a bathroom break. Then I saw it, far away in the middle of the school yard under the scorching Monterrey sun: A lone microphone.

I walked towards it. Surely the powers to be wouldn’t leave a functional microphone alone and unattended , hooked up to the school’s PA system. I flicked the power switch to the ON position and heard the all too familiar pop of the amplified silence rushing through speakers all over the school building. It was live, and the temptation was too great to resist. I had to do it.

So I started singing: “And I will always looooooove yoooooooouuuuuuuuuuuu” in a beautiful baritone voice. The whole school shook for what felt like a long time, but was probably only the 3 seconds it took Pilar, the school principal, to cover the 50 meters between her office and the microphone. This was the beginning and the end of my singing career. Some kids ventured out of their classroom to see who the hell sounded so bad.

I don’t really remember what happened afterwards, but this is the strongest Whitney Houston related memory I have. I wonder if anyone is school remembers me doing that.