Whitney Houston’s Unreleased Music Recorded at 17 to Be Auctioned as an NFT
Music icon Whitney Houston is having her legacy honored with a debut NFT collection from OneOf, a green music NFT platform backed by megaproducer Quincy Jones.
The collection, which will be auctioned on Dec. 1 during Miami Art Week, is said to include a never-before-heard song recorded by the late singer at the age of 17. The winner of the auction will gain access to the recording in their OneOf Vault, along with a digital video created by breakout artist, Diana Sinclair.
The 17-year-old wunderkind was selected for Fortune’s “NFTy 50: The 50 Most Influential People in NFTs.” To cement how unique this is, an explanation is for what is an NFT.
NFTs are a non-interchangeable unit of data which when stored on a digital ledger (blockchain), creatives and brands can develop easily-reproducible items and use blockchain technology to give the NFT public proof of ownership.
Houston’s NFT is the first in the “OneOf Iconic” series and includes thousands of affordable, fixed-price NFTs. Rarely-seen archival photos from Houston’s early life will be designed with colorful and vibrant animations and will be available for the Gold and Platinum tier. For the Diamond tier, Sinclair’s visual artwork will be based on songs and music videos for “The Greatest Love of All” and “I Will Always Love You.”
Still of Gold tier crypto artwork created by Diana Sinclair from the Whitney Houston Collection.
“Before shooting, I spent a lot of time-consuming not only the music that Whitney sang but also the visuals that surrounded her,” Sinclair expressed in a statement. “Whether that be from photoshoots or her music videos, I saw a common theme in a lot of her work, the empowerment of Black women. One of my favorite examples of that was in the music video for her song, ‘I’m Every Woman.’ Whitney’s talent and presence stand out a lot to me as a young Black woman in the arts.
“It’s empowering to me to see such positive (often playful) depictions of Black women in the media, and matriarchal love and perseverance, like in the ‘Greatest Love of All’ music video and song. In the artworks I created, I wanted to highlight those sides of Whitney in the upper tiers, and then create animation work that simply let Whitney shine while touching on the colorful playful energy she had throughout her career.”
Pat Houston, Whitney’s sister-in-law and executor of her estate shared via statement: “I’m excited to see Whitney’s legacy and her wonderful music expand into the bold new technology of this era. It was a joy partnering with 17-year-old Diana Sinclair and watching the artistry of Whitney’s music influence a new generation.”
Registration is open now and if you want to become a pre-qualified bidder, you can join the Gold tier pre-sale for $17, which will give you 300 tokens. The main 7-day sale of the other tiers — Platinum, Diamond, and remaining Gold NFTs — will begin on Nov. 30.
