Three months after singing Whitney Houston's "I'm Your Baby Tonight" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" at the BET Awards tribute to the late icon, Brandy admits that she was scared before taking the stage along with Monica, Chaka Khan and Houston's mother and brother, Cissy and Gary.
"I was scared as bleep, seriously, it was scary, but I went out there and did what I had to do to make her proud," Brandy told Yahoo! Music in an exclusive interview.
[Related: Watch Brandy's "Put It Down" video with Chris Brown]
The "Boy Is Mine" singer explained why she chose to sing two of Houston's more upbeat songs. "I've been having a hard time with her passing and wanted to choose songs that I could, first, I could get through," she said. "I felt like upbeat songs were songs that I wouldn't just break down and be a fool at the BET Awards as well as remind people that Whitney was not just a one thing. She wasn't just ballads and pretty gowns. She got it. She was groovin', and I wanted people to remember that about her."
Brandy, who has not released an album since 2008's Human, added that she was also nervous about performing to a crowd of music industry insiders. She felt that she had to prove herself. "[I]t was a hard decision for me because I knew the entire industry that didn't believe in me anymore was gonna be there," she said. "So I knew I had to make her proud and show them that I really want this. I really want to be here. This is what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to be on stage."
Brandy's new album, Two Eleven, will be released on October 16, and includes her hit with Chris Brown, "Put It Down."