Houston continued her work in the film industry, starring in Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996), and co-producing Cinderella (1997), The Princess Diaries (2001), The Cheetah Girls (2003), and Sparkle (2012).

[74] However, the music video to "Saving All My Love for You" eventually got airplay due to the song "hit(ting) so hard and explod(ing) so heavy" that the channel "had no choice but to play it", according to Houston.

A bonus track from the album's Japanese edition, "Higher Love", was remixed by Norwegian DJ and record producer Kygo and released posthumously in 2019 to commercial success.

[185] In 1995, Houston starred alongside Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine and Lela Rochon in her second film, Waiting to Exhale, a motion picture about four African-American women struggling with relationships.

"[192] Houston was nominated for a second acting NAACP Image Awards nod for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for her role in the film, but lost to her co-star Bassett.

[186] Consequently, the album featured a range of contemporary R&B female recording artists along with Houston, such as Mary J. Blige, Brandy, Toni Braxton, Aretha Franklin and Patti LaBelle.

The San Francisco Chronicle said Houston "is rather angelic herself, displaying a divine talent for being virtuous and flirtatious at the same time" and she "exudes gentle yet spirited warmth, especially when praising the Lord in her gorgeous singing voice".

[209] Later that year, Houston paid tribute to her idols, such as Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross and Dionne Warwick, by performing their hits during the three-night HBO Concert Classic Whitney: Live from Washington, D.C.

[217] Billboard magazine noted the album had a "funkier and edgier sound than past releases" and saw Houston "handling urban dance, hip hop, mid-tempo R&B, reggae, torch songs and ballads all with great dexterity".

[233] Along with the album, an accompanying VHS and DVD was released featuring the music videos to Houston's greatest hits, as well as several hard-to-find live performances including her 1983 debut on The Merv Griffin Show and interviews.

In his book, The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards, author Steve Pond revealed that "Houston's voice was shaky, she seemed distracted and jittery, and her attitude was casual, almost defiant"; though she was supposed to perform "Over the Rainbow", she would sing a different song during rehearsals.

[245][246] Rolling Stone published a story in June 2000 stating that Cissy Houston and others had held a July 1999 intervention in which they unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Whitney to obtain drug treatment.

[310] Jon Pareles of The New York Times stated Houston "always had a great big voice, a technical marvel from its velvety depths to its ballistic middle register to its ringing and airy heights".

Take her cover of Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You', which became one of the defining singles of the 1990s; it opens with her gently brooding, her unaccompanied voice sounding like it's turning over the idea of leaving her lover behind with the lightest touch.

By the end, it's transformed into a showcase for her limber, muscular upper register; she sings the title phrase with equal parts bone-deep feeling and technical perfection, turning the conflicted emotions at the song's heart into a jumping-off point for her life's next step.

"[312] Matthew Perpetua of Rolling Stone also acknowledged Houston's vocal prowess, enumerating 10 performances, including "How Will I Know" at the 1986 MTV VMAs and "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the 1991 Super Bowl.

"Whitney Houston was blessed with an astonishing vocal range and extraordinary technical skill, but what truly made her a great singer was her ability to connect with a song and drive home its drama and emotion with incredible precision", he stated.

[308] Elysa Gardner of the Los Angeles Times in her review for The Preacher's Wife Soundtrack highly praised Houston's vocal ability, commenting, "She is first and foremost a pop diva – at that, the best one we have.

No other female pop star – not Mariah Carey, not Celine Dion, not Barbra Streisand – quite rivals Houston in her exquisite vocal fluidity and purity of tone and her ability to infuse a lyric with mesmerizing melodrama.

With regard to her singing style, he added: "Her [Houston's] stylistic trademarks – shivery melismas that ripple up in the middle of a song, twirling embellishments at the ends of phrases that suggest an almost breathless exhilaration – infuse her interpretations with flashes of musical and emotional lightning.

[334] The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stated: "Her sound expanded through collaborations with a wide array of artists, including Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, Babyface, Missy Elliott, Bobby Brown, and Mariah Carey.

[4][339][340] According to author Ann Kaplan in her book Rocking Around the Clock: Television, Postmodernism and Consumer Culture, "until the recent advent of Whitney Houston, Tina Turner was the only female Black singer featured regularly, and even so, her videos are far and few between.

[335] The New York Times stated that "Houston was a major catalyst for a movement within black music that recognized the continuity of soul, pop, jazz and gospel vocal traditions".

[319] Jon Caramanica, another music critic of The New York Times, called Houston "R&B's great modernizer", adding "slowly but surely reconciling the ambition and praise of the church with the movements and needs of the body and the glow of the mainstream".

"Because Whitney, more than any other single artist – Michael Jackson included – effectively mapped out the course of modern R&B, setting the bar for standards of soul vocalese and creating the original template for what we now routinely refer to as the 'soul diva' ", stated Gill.

Gill said that there "are few, if any, Jackson imitators on today's TV talent shows, but every other contestant is a Whitney wannabe, desperately attempting to emulate that wondrous combination of vocal effects – the flowing melisma, the soaring mezzo-soprano confidence, the tremulous fluttering that carried the ends of lines into realms of higher yearning".

[348] Similarly, Steve Huey from Allmusic wrote that the shadow of Houston's prodigious technique still looms large over nearly every pop diva and smooth urban soul singer – male or female – in her wake and spawned a legion of imitators.

[349] Daphne Brooks wrote in a tribute to Houston that her vocal talent during the performance of the "The Star Spangled Banner" "cemented her title as the voice of the post–civil rights era.

[357][358][359][360] In March 2020, the Library of Congress announced that Houston's 1992 single "I Will Always Love You" had been added to its National Recording Registry, a list of "aural treasures worthy of preservation" due to their "cultural, historical and aesthetic importance" in the American soundscape.

[364][365] A number of artists have acknowledged Whitney as an influence and inspiration, including Michael Jackson,[315] Aaliyah,[366] Rihanna,[367][368] Beyoncé,[369][370] Sam Smith,[371] Britney Spears,[372] Lady Gaga,[373][374] Celine Dion,[375] Adele,[376] Lucky Daye,[377] Demi Lovato,[378] Kelly Clarkson,[379][380] Nicole Scherzinger,[381] Kelly Rowland,[382] Toni Braxton,[383] Ashanti,[384] Deborah Cox,[385] Robin Thicke,[386] Ciara,[387] Brandy,[388] Monica,[389] LeAnn Rimes,[390] Melanie Fiona,[391] Jennifer Hudson,[392] Christina Aguilera,[393] Jordin Sparks,[394] Alicia Keys,[395] Leona Lewis,[396] Ariana Grande,[397] Mariah Carey,[398][399] Jennifer Lopez,[400] Coco Jones,[401][402] and Nicki Minaj.