On May 4, 1994, Whitney Houston walked into the Monte-Carlo Sporting club in Monaco and walked out with five World Music Awards. One of them came from her own mother, Cissy Houston. That same night she sang “I Will Always Love You,” the record that had carried her there. For country fans, that song had a much older story, and it started with Dolly Parton.
Five Awards Built on Record Sales
The World Music Awards were not a critics’ prize. The show, founded in 1989 under the patronage of Prince Albert of Monaco, honored the artists who sold the most records around the world, and in the spring of 1994 nobody was selling like Whitney Houston. The Bodyguard soundtrack was on its way to becoming the best-selling soundtrack ever made, and her version of “I Will Always Love You” had spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Just two months earlier, on March 1, 1994, she had won three Grammys, including Record of the Year for “I Will Always Love You” and Album of the Year for The Bodyguard.
In Monte Carlo, she was named the World’s Best Selling Overall Recording Artist, the World’s Best Selling Pop Artist of the Year, the World’s Best Selling R&B Artist of the Year, the World’s Best Selling American Recording Artist of the Year, and the World’s Best Selling Female Recording Artist of the Era.
Her official website later called the haul “unprecedented.”
A Mother’s Turn to Hand Over the Trophy
The most personal moment came with the pop prize. Cissy Houston, a gospel and session singer, presented World’s Best Selling Pop Artist of the Year to her daughter. Whitney often credited her mother with teaching her how to sing, and photographs from that night show the two of them together at the ceremony, both dressed in black.
Another of the trophies, the R&B award, was presented by Prince Albert himself, according to Heritage Auctions, which later offered it for sale. Its plaque reads “World’s Best-Selling R&B Artist of the Year.”
Royals, Movie Stars and a Dance for Whitney
The 1994 show was hosted by Patrick Swayze along with Prince Albert and Princess Caroline of Monaco. Prince, Kylie Minogue, Ursula Andress and David Copperfield were in the room. Swayze and his wife, Lisa Niemi, performed a dance as a tribute to Whitney, set to her 1991 No. 1 hit “All the Man That I Need.”
Whitney was not the only American taking home a trophy. The award for World’s Best-Selling Country Artist that same night went to Garth Brooks.
The Country Song She Sang
When Whitney Houston sang “I Will Always Love You” that night, the Monte Carlo crowd was hearing a song born in Nashville. Dolly Parton wrote “I Will Always Love You” in 1973 as a farewell to Porter Wagoner, her mentor and duet partner, when she decided to leave his television show and go out on her own. She recorded it at RCA’s Studio B on June 13, 1973.
Dolly remembered singing it to Porter before she left. In Ken Burns’ documentary Country Music, she recalled his answer:
“It’s the best thing you ever wrote. OK, you can go, but only if I can produce that record.”
Her recording went to No. 1 on the Billboard country chart in June 1974. She took it to No. 1 again in October 1982 with a new version for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Dolly Parton, who died in August 2026 at 80, never forgot the first time she heard what Whitney did with her goodbye song. Nobody had sent her a copy. She was driving and heard it on the radio, and when Whitney hit the big chorus, Dolly said she had to pull over to the side of the road.
“It was the most overwhelming feeling.”