A new Whitney Houston duet? How Calum Scott made 'I Wanna Dance with
Somebody' with the late star
[September 11, 2025]
By MARIA SHERMAN
NEW YORK (AP) — It sounds impossible, but that's the magic of it. On
Thursday, a new Whitney Houston song arrives 13 years after her death.
English singer Calum Scott is responsible. The single is a duet between
Scott and Houston, a balladic reinterpretation of the timeless “I Wanna
Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me),” using Houston's original vocal
stems. (Stems are the individual musical elements that, when combined,
make up a song.)
“It wasn’t even something I could have dreamt as a possibility, and the
fact that I'm getting to do it is, geez, one of the honors of my
career,” Scott told The Associated Press. Houston's voice is one that
soundtracked his childhood — courtesy his mom — and he refers to Houston
as one of the most influential performers in his life and the lives of
many.
“Timeless,” he describes her.
Here's how the new song came into existence.
Recording with a giant
Such an undertaking couldn't be possible without the approval of a
number of parties. Specifically, it required Pat Houston, Whitney’s
sister-in-law and the executor of her estate, and Primary Wave, which
acquired the copyrights to hit Whitney Houston songs as part of a 2022
deal.
Pat Houston says the idea for Scott's “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who
Loves Me)” actually came from Primary Wave. They were familiar with
Scott's live cover version of the song from his stint opening for Ed
Sheeran in 2024. On that tour, Scott stripped the 1987 classic down into
a ballad, blending it with Robyn's “Dancing On My Own.”
After hearing what Scott could do with the song — taking it from its
up-tempo pop spirit to a big-hearted ballad, while also taking into
consideration that 2025 marks the 40th anniversary of Houston's music
career — Pat Houston was on board. It was yet another opportunity for
celebration. “I said, you know what, this is a no-brainer. This is the
Houston style. So, let’s go with this,” she said.
“Whitney was a balladeer and that’s why we all fell in love with her,”
she continued. “And Calum turned the song into a beautiful ballad.”
From pop hit to ballad
First, the Houston estate and Primary Wave provided Scott with the
original vocal stems, produced by her longtime producer Narada Michael
Walden. Then Scott recorded the song with producers Jon “MAGS” Maguire,
Andrew Yeates and Charlie T in the U.K. in “about a week,” he recalls.
They were joined by a string section, which gave additional dimension to
their somber take on the song.
“Take a pop song and make it sad,” Scott jokes of his approach.
Recording the ballad made sense because, as Scott points out, the lyrics
to the original song are a bit melancholic. “You want to dance with
somebody who loved you, you know, you're not actually dancing with
them,” he says. It's about yearning. But in an early demo, the chorus
was recorded in a minor chord — which sounded a bit too depressing. The
change was made swiftly; even slowed, the song needed some of that
Houston ebullience.
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Calum Scott poses for photographers upon arrival at the launch event
of the film 'Fantastic Four First Steps' on Thursday, July 10, 2025,
in London, left, and Whitney Houston waves as she arrives for the
"Women's World Awards" awarding ceremony in Hamburg, northern
Germany, on Wednesday, June 9, 2004. (AP Photo)
 Another early decision: The new song
would start with just Houston's voice, alone, in the first verse.
“Whitney starts the song because this is her song,” Scott says
simply. “I would never dare stand in front of Whitney for that first
verse.”
Eagle-eyed (eared?) fans might notice the sound of a snare drum
bleeding into her vocal on that verse — because it was originally
recorded to tape, not digitally, and because “we can’t change
anything like that because those are etched into the song and into
her vocal,” says Scott. “And to remove it would be taking a piece
away.”
It's one of the reasons they kept the song's iconic key change in
the last chorus as well.
“I really had to dig for those high notes,” he says of the
recording. “It was an honor just to harmonize with her.”
Getting the blessing
Scott looked to the original songwriters for approval — the dream
team of George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam. They were immediately on
board.
“Some people would have come in and they would have added something
... to boost their visibility next to Whitney. And he had the
boldness to tear it all down and just have acoustic piano, just
Whitney, and then give her the first verse,” said Merrill. “And I
mean, this is his project. To me, that’s showing such respect.”
That, and they recognize Scott as a virtuosic vocalist. “His music
really features his voice, as with Adele or Whitney, and rightly so
because he can carry it off,” said Rubicam. “There aren’t just
hundreds of people who can carry that off with his kind of power.”
“They’re a good vocal match together,” she adds. “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.”
A duet and a collaboration — but not a tribute
“I felt like I gently walked alongside Whitney,” says Scott. The
song is meant to feel alive, channeling the spirit of Houston — not
a tribute, but an active single. It's why their version of “I Wanna
Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” will be featured on his new
album “Avenoir,” out Oct. 10.
“This is as much part of my story as any other song on the album,”
he says. “Just being given the honor of it has been, you know, I
could die a very happy man now.”
“Forty years ago, this particular song was hot then and it’s hot
now,” says Pat Houston. “So why not keep producing. But it’s the
right connection, it's the right platform and it certainly is the
right artist to collab with her on this.”
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