Joshua Henry Just Got the 2026 Met Gala Off to a Rousing Start—With a Whitney Houston Homage

Reported by Vogue.

The 2026 Met Gala hadn't even hit full stride before Joshua Henry made sure everyone understood the assignment. The Broadway star — currently lighting up Lincoln Center Theater's revival of Ragtime — opened the evening in a scarlet Bode suit, which alone would have been enough. But Henry didn't just walk the carpet. He performed it.

According to Vogue, Henry launched into a full-throated cover of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," backed by a 12-person choir, eight dancers, and a four-piece band. The sequence began inside the Greek and Roman sculpture galleries — an intentionally cinematic choice — before moving through the Met's Great Hall and finally onto the carpet itself, framed by cascading curtains of colorful wisteria. It was less red carpet entrance, more theatrical overture.

The Details That Made It Work

Choreography came courtesy of Ellenore Scott, who also served as overall creative consultant for the performance, with music production by Joseph Abate. The result wasn't spectacle for its own sake — it had architecture. A beginning, a movement, an arrival. The scarlet suit did its job throughout: sharp enough to read from a distance, bold enough to hold its own against the floral drama surrounding it. Bode, for the uninitiated, makes clothes that feel like they belong to someone with an actual inner life — which tracks for Henry, who clearly came prepared to set a tone.

Whitney Houston as a reference point is never a neutral choice. It's a statement about joy, about Black excellence, about the kind of unapologetic emotional register that high fashion events sometimes flatten in favor of cool detachment. Henry brought warmth to a room that can often run cold. If the rest of the evening's guests were watching — and they were — they now knew the bar.

At the Met Gala, the entrance is the look, and Joshua Henry just redefined what that can mean.

Read the original at Vogue.