“I remember she was about to do one of her big videos,” Winans said in a video of her sermon posted on The Neighborhood Talk’s Instagram. “It was “I’m Every Woman.” It’s a great video, right? Really nice. When you think about how it was written, it’s a great song, right? But the lyrics don’t line up with the word of God, right? So, she knew. She said, ‘CeCe, I want you to be in this video, but I know you not gonna be in it,’ and I said, ‘You’re absolutely right’ ‘cause it started off with ‘I can cast a spell.’ I’m not singing that!”

 

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Though Winans and Houston were dear friends, the “I’ve Got Joy” singer made it clear she was not singing a song that had an “ungodly” message “wrapped up in the beats.”

“Y’all get hooked on to these beats, and it’s like demonic,” she continued in her sermon. “You’re listening to demonic stuff, and you wonder why you don’t know what’s going on.”

Despite not collaborating on “I’m Every Woman,” Winans did sing alongside Houston on the Waiting to Exhale track “Count on Me.”

While discussing that collaboration with Entertainment Tonight at her Nashville home in 2021, Winans shared that she and Houston, who passed away in 2012, had a genuine friendship outside of work.

“Whitney and I were real friends, you know, um, and you hear that. People felt that,” she said. “And, um, I could cry now thinking about it. … She knew that when she needed a break, she could come, and she would come to this house and chill out. She would go to church with me.”