Sinitta Malone is an eighties pop icon known for her big personality and strong fashion looks; even once appearing on X Factor wearing a dress made of leaves.
However, when she met superstar Whitney Houston for the first time in the nineties, the British singer, now 58, was very shy.
“I'd been talking about her to the media and just saying that if I was a man I’d want to marry her. I think she is beautiful, stunning, amazing. I just love everything about her,” said the singer to The Mirror.
“I can't remember which newspaper it was but they gave me a huge headline that said, ‘I wish I was a man so I could marry Whitney Houston.’ And she saw it!”.
“So when she came to England to do her concerts at Wembley Stadium, she summoned me because she wanted to meet this girl who wants to marry her,” she adds.
“Of course I was very shy and intimidated but she was so cool.” Luckily, the pair ended up getting on great and even went on a night out with professional boxer, Frank Bruno.
Sinitta, who is appearing on Channel 5’s show 'Queens of Pop: Aretha to Whitney' on Friday night to talk about pioneering Black female musicians, also opened up on her experience of racism during her career, describing it as happening constantly.
She said: “From being mistaken as a nanny with my children and stepchildren on holiday to being questioned when I turned up to an event or being asked if I had come to clean the room.
"I'm so used to it over the years that I don't really take offence, well I don’t act offended.”
She even revealed that once had an experience echoing a scene in the 1990 film Pretty Woman, walking into a shop on Rodeo Drive when dating Simon Cowell.
The shop assistant thought she couldn’t afford the clothing, until her then music mogul boyfriend arrived and gave her a shock. “She almost passed out!,” said the star.
Sinitta, whose great-great-grandfather Rucker was a slave in America who went on to build houses, agrees with The Mirror’s campaign that Black history should be made a compulsory part of the school curriculum in the UK
“I think there should be Black history taught across all areas, including creative subjects. I think it'd be really important, really special and I would think it would be really empowering for young Black people to feel seen”.
Queens of Pop: Aretha to Whitney, Friday 14 th October on CH5 at 10pm.
