Retro Action, March 17, 1990: Houston, We Have A Donation: Whitney and Friends Raise Millions For AIDS

Whitney hasn't had it easy over the years. Not only has the Queen Diva's famously rocky marriage and battle with drug addiction kept her from the limelight, even worse, they've taken a toll . Better to remember when. Back in 1990, when she was known simply as "The Voice," the pop icon headlined the That's What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary Concert at Radio City Music Hall, raising over $2.5 million for various AIDS organizations. The concert teamed Houston with "That's What Friends Are For" singer Dionne Warwick. The cousins were joined on stage by Carly Simon, Barry Manilow, Hall & Oates, and Air Supply, along with Hollywood stars Chevy Chase, Whoopi Goldberg, and Michael Douglas. "You have to be granite not to want to help people with AIDS, because the devastation that it causes is so painful to see. I was so hurt to see my friend die with such agony," said Warwick. "I am tired of hurting and it does hurt." Despite the high profile of its stars and historic venue, the event was unable to find a single corporate sponsor an indication, perhaps, of just how necessary it was. ''You're going into millions of homes,'' said Katherine DeShaw of Gay Men's Health Crisis, one of the beneficiaries. ''Maybe a kid seeing Whitney Houston sing on an AIDS benefit will think, 'If Whitney thinks it's cool to stop the AIDS epidemic, I do, too.'"