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Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed "The Voice", she was one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston has influenced many singers in popular music, and is known for her powerful, soulful vocals and vocal improvisation skills.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Born in Newark, New Jersey, She was the daughter of ex-Army serviceman and Newark city administrator John Russell Houston Jr. and gospel singer Emily "Cissy" (Drinkard) Houston. Cissy Houston was the choir minister at New Hope Baptist Church, and it was there that a young Houston got her start. Even as a child, Houston was able to wow audiences; she later told Diane Sawyer that a rapturous response from the congregation at New Hope had a powerful effect upon her: "I think I knew then that [my singing ability] was an infectious thing that God had given me." At age eleven, Houston began performing as a soloist in the junior gospel choir at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where she also learned to play the piano. Her first solo performance in the church was "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah".
Career[]
By the time she turned 15, Houston was performing often with her mother and trying to get a record deal of her own. Around the same time, she was discovered by a photographer who was awed by her natural beauty. She soon became an extremely sought-after teen model, one of the first African American women to appear on the cover of Seventeen magazine. But she felt music was her true passion. At age 19 she signed with Arista Records, whose president, Clive Davis, prepared the gospel-based singer for crossover pop success. In 1983, Houston made her debut on national television, appearing on The Merv Griffin Show to sing "Home" from the The Wiz. She and Davis spent the next two years working on her debut album, finding the best producers and songwriters available to showcase her amazing vocal talent. Her debut album, Whitney Houston (1985), yielded three number one singles in the United States: “Greatest Love of All,” which became her signature; “Saving All My Love for You”; and “How Will I Know.”
Houston won a Grammy in 1986 for "Saving All My Love for You"; the award was presented to her by her cousin, singer Dionne Warwick. In 1987, Houston debuted her titled album "Whitney" which delivered four more number ones and earned Houston a Grammy Award (for the single “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”). During this time, the singer also appeared at a concert for Nelson Mandela's birthday and founded the Whitney Houston Foundation for Children, a nonprofit organization that funds projects to help needy children over the world. Houston was a supporter of Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement. During her modeling days, she refused to work with agencies who did business with the then-apartheid South Africa. Over 72,000 people attended Wembley Stadium and over a billion people tuned in worldwide as the rock concert raised over $1 million for charities while bringing awareness to apartheid.
Houston won seven American Music Awards in total in 1986 and 1987 and an MTV Video Music Award. The album's popularity would also carry over to the 1987 Grammy Awards, when "Greatest Love of All" would receive a Record of the Year nomination. Houston's debut album is listed as one of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Definitive 200 list. Houston's grand entrance into the music industry is considered one of the 25 musical milestones of the last 25 years, according to USA Today. Following Houston's success, doors were opened for other African-American women such as Janet Jackson and Anita Baker.
With the success of her first two albums, Houston became an international crossover superstar, appealing to all demographics. However, some black critics believed she was "selling out". They felt her singing on record lacked the soul that was present during her live concerts. At the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards, when Houston's name was called out for a nomination, a few in the audience jeered. Houston defended herself against the criticism, stating, "If you're gonna have a long career, there's a certain way to do it and I did it that way. I'm not ashamed of it."
Houston took a more urban direction with her third studio album, I'm Your Baby Tonight, released in November 1990. She produced and chose producers for this album and as a result, it featured production and collaborations with L.A. Reid and Babyface, Luther Vandross and Stevie Wonder. The album showed Houston's versatility on a new batch of tough rhythmic grooves, soulful ballads and up-tempo dance tracks. Reviews were mixed. Rolling Stone felt it was her "best and most integrated album". while Entertainment Weekly, at the time thought Houston's shift towards an urban direction was "superficial"
By 1992, Houston was on top of the world. That year she married the R&B singer Bobby Brown, former member of R&B group, New Edition, after a three-year engagement. At first, the marriage was passionate and loving, but things turned sour as the decade progressed. Both Brown and Houston battled substance abuse and increasingly erratic behavior, with Houston later alluding to emotional abuse from Brown and domestic violence.
In spite of these growing personal troubles, Houston continued to progress in her career, crossing over successfully into acting in 1992 by starring opposite Kevin Costner in the wildly popular movie The Bodyguard. With this project, she set a trend for her films to follow: For each movie she also released hit singles, creating sensational record sales for the soundtracks. Her smash single from The Bodyguard, a cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" from 1974, proved to be Houston's biggest hit ever, spending a record-breaking 14 weeks atop the U.S. charts. The soundtrack album went on to win Houston three Grammys, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year. Later in the 1990s, Houston also starred in Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher's Wife, both accompanied by hit soundtracks as well.
In 1998 Houston released My Love Is Your Love, which did not sell as well as previous efforts but was praised by the critics and earned her another Grammy Award. In 2001 she signed a new multialbum contract with Arista for $100 million, but personal difficulties soon overshadowed her recording career. Houston’s tumultuous relationship with Brown (the couple divorced in 2007) provided fodder for the tabloids, as did her acknowledged drug use and financial issues. Her 2002 album, Just Whitney, was a personal response to her detractors, but its sales were disappointing compared with earlier efforts. Other than a lackluster holiday album, One Wish (2003), Houston spent subsequent years in a state of virtual retirement.
In February 2009 she began a comeback effort with a four-song set at Clive Davis’s annual pre-Grammy Awards gala. The performance was greeted warmly, and in June Houston announced that an album of new material would be available later that year. I Look to You was released in August to positive reviews, and standout songs included the up-tempo “Million Dollar Bill” (a name given to her by singer, Alicia Keys) and the title track, a slow-building ballad written by R. Kelly.
Death[]
In February 2012, Houston was found dead in a bathtub at a Beverly Hills hotel shortly before Davis’s pre-Grammy party. A coroner’s report released in March stated that the cause of death was accidental drowning, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors. Houston posthumously appeared in the musical film Sparkle (2012), which she had coproduced. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.
In January 2015 Houston’s only child, Bobbi Kristina Brown, was found unconscious in a bathtub at her home near Atlanta. She died in July.
Jackson and Houston[]
Romance?[]
Houston was close friends with Michael Jackson. According to Matt Fiddes – Jackson’s former bodyguard – the two met in 1991 as a natural outcome of their global success and moving in similar social circles. Connecting over their shared experience of fame, the two formed a solid bond. Fiddes claimed that Houston “practically moved in” to Jackson’s famous Neverland Ranch, where the pair had a secret romance. Though the furtive fling allegedly lasted just two weeks, Fiddes (who had spoken to Jackson a mere three days before his passing) maintains that Jackson never really got over his love of Houston. according to Fiddes, Michael even “dreamed of marrying her”.
The nature of their connection was further referenced by hip hop and R&B singer Brandy, who herself shared a close, almost mentor-mentee relationship with Houston. In 2016 Brandy posted a photo on her Instagram presumably from around the time of the affair, with the caption: “She told me that Michael had a crush on her … I was like, whoa!!!!! #NippyJackson” (Nippy was a nickname given to Houston by her father.)
It's also believed that Houston had apparently been in a year-long secret affair with Michael’s older brother Jermaine, who was married at the time.
Michael and Whitney would reunite for a private concert one last time. Fiddes claimed that when the two reunited at the concert it would be the final time the two stars would embrace in person: “They shared what would be their final hugs … The two of them whispered that they loved each other as they hugged. The emotion was written all over their faces.”
Duet[]
The first time the pair almost came together for a duet was for the love song I Just Can’t Stop Loving You from Jackson’s hit 1987 album “Bad”. Initially hoping Barbra Streisand would join him on the song, Jackson eventually shifted his hopes towards Houston after Streisand turned down the opportunity. Houston’s label at the time however, Arista Records, blocked the duet as there were concerns it might interfere with the concurrent promotion of her album “Whitney”. Ultimately, singer-songwriter Siedah Garrett was included on the track. Years later, a second opportunity for a duet almost brought Houston and Jackson into the studio together – this time with Houston’s song If I Told You That. Though no clear indication has been revealed why Jackson never agreed to it, the duet was ultimately with another pop icon from the 1980s, George Michael.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Discography[]
- Whitney Houston (1985)
- Whitney (1987)
- I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990)
- My Love Is Your Love (1998)
- Just Whitney (2002)
- One Wish: The Holiday Album (2003)
- I Look to You (2009)
Filmography[]
- The Bodyguard (1992)
- Waiting to Exhale (1995)
- The Preacher's Wife (1996)
- Cinderella (1997)
- Sparkle (2012)
- Whitney: Can I Be Me (2017)
- Whitney (2018)
Tours[]
Headlining tours[]
- US Summer Tour (1985)
- The Greatest Love World Tour (1986)
- Moment of Truth World Tour (1987–1988)
- Feels So Right Tour (1990)
- I'm Your Baby Tonight World Tour (1991)
- The Bodyguard World Tour (1993–1994)
- Pacific Rim Tour (1997)
- The European Tour (1998)
- My Love Is Your Love World Tour (1999)
- Nothing but Love World Tour (2009–2010)
- Whitney Houston Hologram Tour (2020)
Co-headlining tours[]
- Soul Divas Tour (2004)
Social media[]
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