Brandy: “Sittin’ Up In My Room”
Mary J. Blige: “Not Gon’ Cry”
Whitney Houston: “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)”
Whitney Houston & CeCe Winans: “Count On Me” with Chaka Khan & Aretha Franklin
39th Annual GRAMMY Awards, 1997
When the soundtrack to the feature film Waiting to Exhale was released in November 1995, it would go on to become a critical and commercial smash. With one hit after another coming from the album, its cultural impact couldn’t be denied, and in 1997 at the 39th Annual GRAMMY Awards a few of the soundtrack’s singers were invited to perform an epic medley of their GRAMMY nominated songs. Teen queen Brandy kicked it off with her fun “Sittin’ Up In My Room” before her older sisters in song brought on the heavier material. Mary J. Blige’s lamentation on “Not Gon’ Cry” was the perfect prelude to grand diva and Waiting to Exhale star Whitney Houston’s “Waiting to Exhale,” which would go on to win the GRAMMY Award for Best R&B Song that night. Once Whitney was done shoop shooping, she was joined on stage by gospel star CeCe Winans to bring their friendship anthem “Count On Me” to life and were joined by Chaka Khan and Aretha Franklin to bring the set to a rousing end. Never before, nor since, has soul sisterhood been so well represented on the GRAMMY Awards stage.
