Whitney Houston Defends Her Music in New ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ Trailer: Watch

With a little over a month left until its arrival in theaters, the second trailer for the Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody arrived on Wednesday (Nov. 9). The trailer features Naomi Ackie as the “I Have Nothing” singer responding to critics of her music being too genre bending, as well as singing the national anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl and getting into a heated spat with Houston’s father, John Russell Houston (Clarke Peters).

The trailer starts off with Houston sitting down for an interview with a radio host, who tells her,
“A common criticism of you, your music isn’t Black enough.”

“Who said that? That’s just bull. And it makes me angry actually because it’s hateful and uninformed. My whole life: ‘She ain’t Black enough, she ain’t white enough.’ Well how ’bout ‘She’s not obedient enough’? How ’bout ‘She ain’t fearful enough’?” she replies.

In between scenes from her life and performing at the Super Bowl, she continues, “Music is not a color to me. It has no boundaries. I sing what I wanna sing, be how I wanna be, and reach as big an audience as I can.”

Houston then butts heads with her father over her finances. “Whitney, you’re Daddy’s princess. We’re building something here, so you just keep singing,” advises John Houston (played by Clarke Peters).

The father-daughter pair face off, with the singer fiercely declaring, “Daddy … my money. I trusted you. You were meant to look out for me,” as Houston’s hit single “I Will Always Love You” plays in the background.

Slated to arrive in theaters Dec. 21, I Wanna Dance With Somebody was directed by Kasi Lemmons and written by Bohemian Rhapsody’s Anthony McCarten. Clive Davis, now 90 years old, is portrayed by Stanley Tucci, and served as a producer on the film.

Watch the new trailer for I Wanna Dance With Somebody above.