Super diva Whitney Houston, kept crowds waiting in sweltering heat at Sheffield Arena last night in her first Yorkshire concert in six years.

Whitney defied the high temperatures in a pink and black full-length fun fur coat and prepared to amaze the crowd with her stunning voice, despite admitting to suffering from a bad throat.

Holding her neck, she said: "This is an instrument and it doesn't always work as it should."

In the country to promote her new album, My love is Your Love, Whitney still kept older fans happy with classics including I Will Always Love You and I Wanna Dance With Somebody.

Review: Whitney Houston, Sheffield Arena

Houston, we have a problem. Where are you? The superdiva was already 45-minutes late from making her first appearance in Sheffield Arena for six years and the crowd was getting impatient.

Adding to the mounting tension was the unbearable heat. "It's not usually as hot as this," confessed an usher. "She likes the temperature turned right up to 85 degrees, for her voice, you see."

Oh, so that's all right then. A voice comes over the sound system, apologising for the delay and blaming 'technical difficulties'. The crowd decides to entertain itself with a Mexican wave.

Then the lights go down and a cheer goes up as the band starts to play and the striking set (imagine three Ferris wheels floating in space against a backdrop of tiny stars) bursts into life.

Whitney enters stage right in a shocking pink and black, fun-fur full-length coat and quickly rattles off some numbers from her latest album, My Love Is Your Love.

She asks those in the crowd to clap if they haven't bought it yet. A brave few respond, and she points her finger towards them in school-mistress style. "What do I have to do - give it to you?" Everybody laughs.

Things are warming up, so much so that Whitney takes off her coat and reveals more about those 'technical problems.' Her voice sounds hollow and scratchy as she speaks to the crowd.

"This voice is an instrument," she says. "And it doesn't always work as it should." Suddenly, we don't feel so bad about her keeping us all waiting. She's soldiering on.

Time for an outfit change. Brother Gary holds court, knocking out a soulful number, which goes down rather well. Then Whitney slinks back in a skin-tight dress for a rendition of I'm Every Woman. The crowd get to their feet, singing and bopping along.

This is more like it. She keeps up the vibe with a poppy Step By Step. Next is a run through her back catalogue including How Will I Know and I Wanna Dance With Somebody.

There's a gospel number: "Come to my church," invites the diva. It's very moving, but not as spine-tingling as when she pours heart, body and soul into I Will Always Love You. She teases the audience throughout the number, stopping to sip some water, leaving them begging for her to continue.

For her encore, she ups the tempo with this year's dance smash It's Not Right But It's Okay.

Many people have already left to catch the last train/beat the traffic leaving the arena, and the number which should have been a brilliant show stopper ensuring everyone left on a high, sadly fell a bit flat.

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