What you’ll remember if you think back to the first time you heard Whitney Houston, saw the confidence, the composure, the soul and the talent, was more than anything that you now knew, without question, exactly what a truly great artist looked and sounded like. You didn’t have to wait for the reviews, the opinions of others had no meaning, because you were seeing it with your own eyes. You were getting to watch a human being operating on a whole different level, and you felt lucky to have the chance to watch.

Elmo: You ever hear of Pele?
Louden Swain: Yeah, he’s a, a soccer player.
Elmo: A very famous soccer player.
[pause]
Elmo: I was in the room here one day… watchin’ the Mexican channel on TV. I don’t know nothin’ about Pele. I’m watchin’ what this guy can do with a ball and his feet. Next thing I know, he jumps in the air and flips into a somersault and kicks the ball in – upside down and backwards… the goddamn goalie never knew what the fuck hit him. Pele gets excited and he rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium waving it around his head. Everybody’s screaming in Spanish. I’m here, sitting alone in my room, and I start crying.
[pause]
Elmo: That’s right, I start crying. Because another human being, a species that I happen to belong to, could kick a ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings, up to a better place to be, if only for a minute… let me tell ya, kid – it was pretty goddamned glorious.
[Dialog from Vision Quest]

The many who came after to copy her her vocal runs and inflections could never copy the soul of the artist, it is by definition something that can’t be copied. We lost the great one, we gained from her presence.