AS A teenager in the late 1980s and early 90s, I adored Whitney Houston’s songs — particularly the ones from the 1992 film, The Bodyguard, with Kevin Costner.

Imagine my delight when I realised South African singer Belinda Davids — who did so well in the 2020 Britain’s Got Talent series — was appearing as Whitney at Shanklin Theatre earlier this month.

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The Greatest Love of All, starring Belinda Davids, was a fantastic show which got the audience up on their feet singing and dancing on several occasions.

Isle of Wight County Press: Whitney Houston tribute at Shanklin Theatre.

Belinda Davids as Whitney Houston.

Belinda simply had so much pizazz and really knew how to engage the crowd, but it was her voice that captivated me. Incredibly Belinda has never had vocal training, but is blessed with a rare four-octave vocal range.

She performed more than 20 of Whitney’s best-known hits, including I Will Always Love You, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, How Will I Know, One Moment in Time, I Have Nothing, Run to You, Didn’t We Almost Have It All, Greatest Love of All, I’m Every Woman, Queen of the Night, Exhale (Shoop Shoop), Million Dollar Bill and more.

Credit must also be given to her band at the Shanklin Theatre performance — themselves from all corners of the world — who produced a spectacular musical backdrop to Belinda’s voice.

I particularly loved the saxophone player and the incredibly energetic pair of male dancers.

Belinda loved performing from an early age, but in 2013, John Van Grinsven, creator and producer of Showtime Australia’s The Greatest Love of All, was on his final round of global auditions to find a star for the new production and Belinda was chosen.

The show has since been performed across the globe.

In 2017 Belinda won the BBC’s Even Better Than the Real Thing talent programme, and later that year gave a rousing performance on Fox TV’s iconic, long-running talent show Showtime at the Apollo, hosted by Steve Harvey.

In 2018, Belinda reached another milestone as a performer when she debuted a special orchestral concert series of The Greatest Love of All and sang accompanied by The National Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.