Sony Music chief creative officer Clive Davis has hosted his pre-Grammy gala since 1976. He opened the 2012 event "with a heavy heart" as news of singer Whitney Houston's passing was only hours long. A "devastated" Davis was Houston's longtime friend and mentor.
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Days after Whitney Houston’s sudden death, Clive Davis — whose pre-Grammy party went on Saturday evening hours after news of the singer’s death was made public — is feeling the heat.
Diamanda Galas, an avant-garde musician who has released 21 studio albums, wrote on her official Facebook page on Monday, calling the record executive “a colossal pig.” According to Galas, Houston “should have been allowed to study for a minimum of two years with a voice therapist/teacher before even rehearsing, let alone performing, onstage.” In the entry, she claimed that the singer “was put back onstage before she was ready to perform” by Davis.
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Galas wrote that Houston was ill prepared to perform, writing, “What was she put onstage as? A lesson that ‘drugs kill’? ‘Hey wanna see a crack ho sing?’ Courtesy of Clive Davis. ‘Wow, man, that will be some freaky sh–, right?’ ‘ You bet, man.’ “
Galas didn’t stop there, claiming that Davis can now “package her death in frills and sell it big time – even during the nadir of record sales,” even going so far as to foresee what the 79-year-old record industry vet would say in response: “And Clive and Sony will say, ‘Even though we do not hope to even break even with this uncompromising tribute to Whitney Houston, we feel, personally, that it is her due, as the foremost singer ever on our labels, and as lovely girl she always was to us.’ “
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In response, a spokesperson for Davis tells The Hollywood Reporter, “While Ms. Galas is entitled to her uninformed opinion, her Facebook post is wholly inaccurate and offensive. Clive Davis cherished Whitney and shares a mutual love for the Houston family. It is absolutely outrageous for anyone to suggest that Mr. Davis ever had anything but Whitney’s best interest at heart.”
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