Canadian Fashion model Winnie Harlow is paying tribute to Whitney Houston this Halloween with a string of performances that have other A-listers swooning.
The model who has transcended her skin pigment deficiency condition, vitiligo, to break out on America’s Next Top Model in 2014 is also known for her sensational outfits on Halloween every October 31.
But her most recent performance has drawn encores from the likes of Ciara, Shay Mitchel, and Lebron James’ wife, Savannah.
Harlow dedicated three consecutive Instagram dumps to her Whitney Houston imitation
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Harlow’s impersonation of the so-monickered “Prom Queen of Soul” was documented in three Instagram posts.
In the first, she can be seen performing “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” followed by a photo dump depicting the model in a voluminous, frizzy hairstyle and various outfits.
In the third, posted just 21 hours ago (at the time of writing), she sports a strappy dress and mimics a singer, not only in appearance, but also in her singing.
Harlow’s followers, as is evident from the comment thread, include many notable figures from the same industry that Houston helped define, and they were impressed by the performance.
Winnie Harlow’s performance impressed some of the music industry’s high-grossing artists
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Russel Wilson, better known by her stage name Ciara, who was propelled to fame through her song Goodies in 2004 and sold more than 55 million records since, was one of the singers to comment.
“So good!” she wrote and pasted three laughing emojis.
Christina Millian, who became known for her hits “AM to PM” and “Dip it low ” at the turn of the century, was there to echo this sentiment.
Other non-musical celebrities also weighed in with fellow Canadian actress Shannon Ashley Mitchell, better known as Shay, writing “Soooooooo good !!!!”
Netizens were not so impressed, and some posted racist remarks
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Average netizens, however, were less impressed.
One, unfamiliar with Harlow’s skin disorder, which is brought on by the destruction of pigment-producing cells, took issue with her appearance and even piled on racist rhetoric.
Others were amused that one famous person was dressing as another for Halloween.
“I wonder, why do pop stars dress like other pop stars on Halloween? I mean, it’s Halloween, you should be dressed creepy and terrifying, no?” they wrote.
The controversy around Harlow’s performance seems to stem from Houston’s narcotics troubles
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Houston had a substance dependency issue and admitted as much in great detail to Oprah in 2009. Three years later, she was discovered unconscious in her hotel room bathtub and subsequently passed away.
But leading up to pharmaceutically-fueled accidental demise, it became clear to fans through her mannerisms on stage and elsewhere that she was spiraling.
To some, Harlow mimicked these physical quirks too, thus making her performance less of a tribute and more of a mockery.
Some fans felt that Harlow imitated Houston at a bad time in her life
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“Winnie Harlow dressing up as Whitney Houston making a mockery of her wasn’t funny at all to me. Very poor judgement on her & her team’s behalf. She in fact did not eat anything up, ew,” wrote one person on Instagram’s Threads.
“I was thinking why do that when someone was at their lowest-everything is for entertainment,” remarked another.
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“Maybe it’s just me but no matter WHO it is, THERE’S NOTHING funny about anyone fighting [a narcotics dependency]. So Winnie Harlow picking that moment of Whitney Houston’s career to reenact is sick,” came a third criticism.
Another less chagrined fan felt it was okay to have chuckle as Houston would too; if she knew left a few reasons for levity behind
As the conversation continued to swirl on the various social media platforms, some netizens ruminated over the negative reactions and arrived at the conclusion that – as one wrote, and various singers observed – Harlow was “spot on.”
By extension, said netizen suggested, hawkishness directed at the model was unnecessary, given the probability that “Whitney is […] laughing that she left us with a moment that we can have fun with.”
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“We’re OK… This is all right,” they concluded. “We can love her as fiercely as we do and laugh at the moment when she was out of pocket.”
“Humans are not just one thing all the time, duality is real.”
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