"Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" is a 1995 hit single by R&B/pop
singer Whitney Houston, featured on the soundtrack of the film
Waiting to Exhale. Babyface was nominated for the Grammy
Award for Song of the Year and the Grammy Award for Best Song
Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
and won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. Whitney Houston
was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
The song, written and produced by Kenneth "Babyface"
Edmonds, is a call to handle the emotional pain of a breakup by
leaning on your friends. Houston sings the lyrics "
When you got friends to wish you well... you'll find the
point when, you will exhale". The song is also notable for
the 1960s arrangement of the chorus, repeating 'shoop shoop
shoo-be-doop.'
The camera mainly focuses on Houston with close-ups as she
sings. The video is also cut with intermediate scenes from the
Waiting To Exhalemovie. Directed by Forest Whitaker.
Houston entered the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at the #1
position with "Exhale", becoming only the third single in U.S.
history to enter at number one and Houston's eleventh and to
date last number one single on the Billboard Hot 100. It stayed
at number-one for just one week as Mariah Carey and Boyz II
Men's duet "One Sweet Day" debuted at the summit the next week.
This in turn led to "Exhale" settling into the number-two
position where it resided for eleven weeks, becoming the single
with the longest stay at number two on the U.S. Hot 100 in
Billboardhistory. The single was certified platinum, and
remained in the Top 40 for twenty weeks.
The song was also successful on other
Billboardcharts, logging eight consecutive weeks at
number one on the U.S. R&B chart. The song also reached
number five on the Adult Contemporary chart.
The song performed well in a few other major markets outside
the U.S., reaching number one in Canada, the top ten in both
Italy and Switzerland, and the top twenty in the UK and
France.