Watch Whitney Houston In The ‘Sparkle’ Trailer

Becky Bain | April 2, 2012 12:10 pm

Even if Whitney Houston had not passed away in February, her appearance in upcoming Motown musical Sparkle would still be greatly anticipated, as this is Houston’s first big-screen movie in sixteen years. (Her last acting role in a film was in 1996’s The Preacher’s Wife.) In the recently released trailer for the film, Houston shines as the mother of Jordin Sparks’ titular character, an aspiring singer who dreams of making it big in a Dreamgirls-esque girl group.

Not only did we totally forget that Cee Lo Green appears in the movie, he apparently changed the spelling of his name to Ceelo? (He may want to have a word with whoever is responsible for the trailer’s credits.)

Houston contributed two songs to the film’s soundtrack: the hymn “Eyes On The Sparrow”, and a duet with Sparks on a new R. Kelly track called “Celebrate”. And yes, that is “Something He Can Feel” in the trailer, which was made famous by our recent Backtracking artist En Vogue. (The R&B girl group propelled the tune, written for the original Sparkle soundtrack in 1976, into the Top 10 on the Hot 100 in 1992.)