Bad news for flesh-and-blood humans: Another one of our deceased icons has joined the undead legion of holograms, alongside recent inductees like Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, and Amy Winehouse. This comes from The New York Times, which says Whitney Houston’s estate has signed a deal with a “boutique music and marketing company” called Primary Wave Music Publishing in order to put together a Houston hologram that can go on tour and a new album of unreleased music. Houston died in 2012, and her sister-in-law/former manager Pat Houston has announced that—after several “emotional” years—she has decided to start being “strategic” about Whitney Houston’s legacy, selling off half of the estate’s assets to Primary Wave and signing away the right to “exploit her name and likeness” (both of which are important to a hologram).
Specific details haven’t been confirmed, but it sounds like the plan is to move forward with the tour and hologram quickly and figure out future plans later—including a Broadway musical and a “Vegas-style spectacle.” As for that new album, it’ll apparently be built on unreleased tracks from her 1985 self-titled debut, but Primary Wave will have to work out a deal with Sony for that (as it still owns her catalog). Whatever form any of this takes, it should at least be exciting to know that some people are finally ready to make a bunch of money off of White Houston now.