Whitney Houston - So Emotional

What this video is

Released October 12, 1987 as the third single from Whitney Houston's second studio album Whitney (Arista Records), 'So Emotional' arrived at the apex of Houston's record-breaking chart run. The song became her sixth consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, breaking a record previously held by Elvis Presley and tying her with The Beatles and the Bee Gees for the most consecutive chart-toppers at the time.…

Why it matters

A defining artifact of late-1980s dance-pop and pop-rock crossover, 'So Emotional' documents Whitney Houston's deliberate expansion beyond ballad-centric branding into uptempo rock-inflected territory. The video's concert-documentary format was a standard-bearer for superstar promo clips of the…

The director

Wayne Isham (born December 2, 1958, Vinita, Oklahoma) is an American music video and film director who attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, where David Bowie's 'Ashes to Ashes' inspired his career. He has directed over 150 music videos for…