A previously unreleasedrecording made when Whitney Houston was 17 years old was sold Tuesday in a 24-hour auction on the oneOf NFT platform. The winning bid was for $1 million, the highest priced NFT auction item on the Tezos (XTZ) blockchain.In total, the full collection, which features rare images and videos, has generated over $1.1 million in sales thus far.
The winner of the auction has personal access to Houston’s recording in their oneOf Vault, along with a digital video by 17-year-old artist Diana Sinclair; the name of the song is at the discretion of its new owner, who did not acquire the rights to the recording or its publishing, to reveal.
Proceeds from the sales of the collection will go to theWhitney E. Houston Foundation, a non-profit which continues Houston’s work to empower, support, and inspire young people, such as Sinclair.
“I’m excited to see Whitney’s legacy and her wonderful music expand into bold new technology of this era,” said Pat Houston (Executor, Estate of Whitney E. Houston).“It was a joy partnering with 17-year-old Diana Sinclair and watching the artistry of Whitney’s music influence a new generation.”
“Before shooting, I spent a lot of time consuming not only the music that Whitney sang, but also the visuals that surrounded her,” said artist Diana Sinclair. “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 stands 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 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.”
