It’s the song that’s sent countless wedding guests to the dance floor, a pop treasure if we’ve ever heard one: Whitney Houston’s 1987 single “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).” Though the legendary singer died in 2012, her legacy is living on through a harmonious new duet of the beltable tune that features her original vocals.
The project was sparked in 2024, when English recording artist Calum Scott opened for Ed Sheeran and performed a ballad version of the song that weaved in Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own.” After hearing the moving remix, music publisher Primary Wave, which owns the copyrights to many of Houston’s hits, floated the idea for a balladic reinterpretation of the pop anthem.
And last Thursday, Scott released a slowed-down duet that makes use of the late musician’s original vocal stems (the isolated audio files of her singing). “You can hear it on the song, I didn’t oversing, I didn’t do anything new, I didn’t do any ad-libbing,” Scott told the Associated Press. “I felt like I gently walked alongside Whitney — if I can even say I walked alongside. I mean, I’m in absolute awe of her.”
George Merrill, one of the original song’s co-writers, instantly approved of the rendition: “Some people would have come in and they would have added something … to boost their visibility next to Whitney. And [Scott] had the boldness to tear it all down and just have acoustic piano, just Whitney, and then give her the first verse. And I mean, this is his project. To me, that’s showing such respect.” Scott added that he would “never dare stand in front of Whitney for that first verse.”
Merrill wasn’t the only one who backed the new version, which comes on the 40th anniversary of the start of Houston’s music career. Houston’s sister-in-law and executor of her estate, Pat Houston, voiced her support after listening to Scott’s rendition.
“I said, you know what, this is a no-brainer. This is the Houston style. So, let’s go with this,” Pat said. “Whitney was a balladeer and that’s why we all fell in love with her. And Calum turned the song into a beautiful ballad.”
Another selling point for both Pat and the song’s other co-writer, Shannon Rubicam, was that they believed Scott was the perfect choice to breathe new life into the ’80s hit. “It’s the right connection, it’s the right platform, and it certainly is the right artist to collab with her on this,” Pat said.
Whitney Houston performing in 1985
“They’re a good vocal match together,” Rubicam agreed. “They both got a lot of emotionality and command also of their vocal instrument. … Whitney could overpower a lot of people. But for Calum, he’s confident and he had a vision about it and they both are meeting at an emotional level.”
The decision to put a balladic spin on an energetic anthem — or, as Scott joked, “take a pop song and make it sad” — came from his interpretation of the lyrics, which he believes are slightly somber. “You want to dance with somebody who [loves] you, you know, you’re not actually dancing with them,” he said.
And for Scott, whose own music has been influenced by Houston since he was a child, this opportunity was a special honor. He said, “Even just gently walking beside her has been an absolute career highlight.”
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