Whitney Houston hologram ‘not ready’ for duet with Christina Aguilera on ‘The Voice’ finale
Whitney Houston’s hologram is still shy of perfection and won’t debut in a duet with Christina Aguilera on the Tuesday finale of “The Voice.”
“After closely viewing the performance, we decided the hologram was not ready to air,” Pat Houston, Whitney’s sister-in-law and executor of her estate, told “Entertainment Tonight” in a statement after footage of the duet leaked Thursday. The technology is new and takes time to perfect, she said.
“We believe with artists of this iconic caliber, it must be perfect,” she said, calling Aguilera’s contribution “flawless.”
Rumors about the duet surfaced about a week ago.
The leaked footage, which opens with some great “I Have Nothing” vocals from Aguilera leading into a surprise reveal of Houston and then moves on to other songs as timecode ticks away at the bottom of the frame, definitely wasn’t “perfect.” It showed up Thursday on an unspecified Facebook page after it was seen by the estate a couple of days prior, TMZ said.
“The videos that were leaked of ‘The Voice’ performance simply were still ‘a work in progress’ and not ready to be judged,” a rep for Hologram USA, the company behind the technology, said in a statement Friday.
The company, which in coordination with Houston’s estate is working on a tour that uses a digital representation of the singer, is still “on track” with the tour plans, the statement said.
The Houston Estate could not be reached for further comment.
Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ.
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