Could Whitney Houston Bring You Closer To Your Mom?

Whitney Houston's new album I Look To You bridges gap between the Diana Ross and Aretha days our moms miss and today's Beyonce craze.

A media maelstrom happened this month with the release of Whitney Houston's first album in seven years, I Look To You.

Three weeks ago Whitney told Oprah that the album is not a "comeback," but a "come-through." With her drug addiction and tumultuous marriage to career-envious Bobby Brown behind her, I Look To You marks the beginning of a new era in Whitney's career.

Fans like me have welcomed Houston's return with open ears -- in fact the album enjoyed the number one spot on the Billboard charts in its first week on sale. The aesthetic combines her Bodyguard dance club sound from the '90s (the beat from "Million Dollar Bill" calls to mind "I'm Every Woman") with her distinguished femininity from the '80s when her youngest fans like me were tots."I Look To You" is a nudge toward self-acceptance, same as "The Greatest Love Of All" was in 1986.

I called my mom into my office as I sampled some of the new album's songs on YouTube. Mom and I sat shoulder-to-shoulder slinking to the "Million Dollar Bill" video (written by Alicia Keys: "If he make you feel like a million dollar bill, say it"). "Look at her Mom, Whitney's the same as she was when I was little," I said. "Now that's a woman."

Mom set her chin in her hand and dazed into the screen like a kid. "She really is," she mused. We gazed bewitched at the video's sparkles and smile, and I surmised this must have been how Mom looked at Diana Ross back in the 1960s, when female performers set the stage for how a contemporary woman should present and feel about herself. The cohort of stars like Diana, Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick asked for r-e-s-p-e-c-t and told men to stop in the name of love in defense of a broken heart. Theirs was a class of class-acts whose self-assured spirit, apart from gems like Beyonce whose VMA microphone hand-off to Taylor Swift two weeks ago, one rarely gets to see anymore.

And in the 1980s as well as today, Whitney Houston -- who credited 16-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina with giving her the courage to record the new album -- bears the torch to bridge these generations. Once nicknamed "the voice" and "a national treasure," Whitney's open, honest approach to womanhood is one our moms' generation had hoped to pass on to their daughters. And as Mom and I both dolled ourselves up for a girls' night humming the "Million Dollar Bill" tune, I realized that Whitney's "I'm Every Woman" encouragement to bond with other women got handed down too. Thanks to Diana, Whitney and Beyonce, being proud of being a woman is a message and a legacy that never goes out of style.

The "Million Dollar Bill" vid is below...and if you like this story, get a kick out of the baby who's making a media explosion jamming to Beyonce's "Single Ladies."