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August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012 |
From the middle of the Eighties to the late Nineties she was one of the world's best-selling artists,
The showbiz world was rocked with the tragic news that one of music's biggest legends Whitney Houston is dead, her life was tragically cut short at the age of 48.
Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born to a middle class family in Newark, New Jersey in 1963.
She was the third and youngest child of Army serviceman and entertainment executive John Russell Houston, Jr., who passed away in 2003, and gospel singer Cissy Houston. Her cousins Dionne Warwick and the late Dee Dee Warwick, and also her godmother Aretha Franklin all made a huge mark on the gospel and R&B scene.
It was clear that natural talent in music ran through her family. She first became interested in music after frequently accompanying her mother Cissy when she performed in nightclubs
Sometimes the teen would even take to the stage herself and perform.
Houston was offered her very first recording contract at the age of 14 by Michael Zanger, after she wowed him with her back-up singing on a record for his group, Michael Zanger band.
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| Whitney is seen here with her mother Cissy and late father John Russell Houston, Jr. in 1985 |
But she was forced to turn it down as her mother determined that she should instead finish school.
However, in the years that followed she lent her voice to albums of American soul, jazz, and blues singer Lou Rawls and Michael Jackson's brother Jermaine Jackson.
Naturally stunningly beautiful, Houston began dabbling in modelling after being spotted by a fashion photographer whilst she was performing with her mother.
She went on to become the first ever woman of colour to appear in a fashion magazine after gracing the pages of Seventeen magazine in the early Eighties.
Subsequently she appeared in Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Young Miss magazines, and also in a TV advertisement for Canada Dry soft drink.
It was around that time when music mogul Clive Davis first heard Houston perform.
Houston made her album debut in 1985 with the self-titled record Whitney Houston.
It sold millions and spawned hit after hit including Saving All My Love for You, which won her her first Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal.
The New York Times wrote that Houston 'possesses one of her generation's most powerful gospel-trained voices, but she eschews many of the churchier mannerisms of her forerunners.
'She uses ornamental gospel phrasing only sparingly, and instead of projecting an earthy, tearful vulnerability, communicates cool self-assurance and strength, building pop ballads to majestic, sustained peaks of intensity.'
Her decision not to follow more soulful inflections drew criticism by some who saw her as playing down her black roots to go pop and reach white audiences.
The criticism would become a constant refrain through much of her career. She was even booed during the Soul Train Awards in 1989.
'Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?' she told Katie Couric in 1996. 'You're not black enough for them. I don't know. You're not R&B enough. You're very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them.'
Some saw her 1992 marriage to former New Edition member and soul crooner Bobby Brown as an attempt to refute those critics.
It seemed to be an odd union; she was seen as pop's pure princess while he had a bad-boy image, and already had children of his own.
The couple went on to have a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, in 1993.
Over the years, he was arrested several times on charges ranging from DUI to failure to pay child support.
But Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.
'When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place,' she told Rolling Stone in 1993.
Whitney's life after marriage and divorce
Houston's only major tours in the last decade were overseas, far away from the critical eyes of the American media. In September 2009, she did a short comeback concert for "Good Morning America" in Central Park. The blurring of the line between entertainment and news on morning shows became apparent as hosts Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts lauded Houston's performance on their show, even as every other media outlet was reporting on how the voice of a generation could no longer handle the demands of even an abridged show, clean or not.
In recent days, one solution for returning Houston to the limelight without subjecting her singing voice to harsh scrutiny had seemingly been arrived at. Rumors had been floated — and published by the Hollywood Reporter — that she was up for contention as a judge on "The X Factor." Simon Cowell told Piers Morgan that Houston had not actually been approached, but that in response to the news reports (which he implied might have been instigated by Houston's camp), his team had planned to have a meeting about considering her.
But getting in that public scuffle Thursday night with Stacy Francis, an admirer who was one of the Season 1 "X Factor" finalists, might not have done Houston any favors, had she lived to come up for contention with Cowell and his producers this week.
Even in as high-profile a period as Grammy week, Houston couldn't seem to shy away from small acts of self-sabotage.
Coming to be regarded as a lush or addict in her last months had to be a harsh rebuke for someone who'd claimed to have cleaned up while attempting a comeback a few years earlier. But the events of the past year made it clear that, in contrast to celebrated redemption stories like Robert Downey Jr.'s, rehab hadn't really taken for Houston.
Her sobriety had been a matter of public concern since the late '90s. A common public misassumption had been that if she ever got out from under the sway of husband Bobby Brown, she would be all right. "He was my drug," she told Oprah in 2009, two years after their divorce, after apparently cleaning up. "I didn't do anything without him. I wasn't getting high by myself.
But more recently, it'd started to look like her ex-husband was no longer the sole driving force of her substance abuse, if ever he had been. Last May, a Houston rep acknowledged that the singer was involved in outpatient rehab for ongoing drug and alcohol problems.
A few of months after the March 2011 edition of the National Enquirer that featured a double-page photo spread of Bobbi Kristina allegedly snorting lines of cocaine at a party (albeit with her mom nowhere in sight).
The tabloids also reported last year that Houston's fortune had run out. With no new albums on the horizon, her best hope for career renewal was the movie Sparkle, in which she played a supporting role as Jordin Sparks' mom. The film — her first since The Preacher's Wife in 1996 — was shot late last year and will come out in August, accompanied by a soundtrack that includes two new Houston tunes.
Houston's final public performance happened at the club that fateful thursday night. It lasted just under a minute, as she sang "Jesus Loves Me" with Price in an impromptu, ramshackle duet captured by any number of videographers in the crowd. Perhaps needless to say, she wasn't in her very best voice for what turned out to be her swansong appearance.
Whitney Houston’s Death: Police Statement
Following is a statement on Whitney Houston's death issued Saturday night by police in Beverly Hills, Calif.:
“At approximately 3:43 p.m. the Beverly Hills Police Department received a 911 call to respond to the Beverly Hilton hotel regarding a medical emergency. Police and fire personnel were immediately dispatched. Fire Department personnel were already on scene at the hotel due a pre-Grammy event taking place later this evening.
"Fire Department personnel, accompanied by hotel security, responded to the hotel room occupied by entertainer Whitney Houston. Upon arrival, first responders discovered Whitney Houston unresponsive. They initiated CPR, but were unable to revive her. At approximately 3:55 pm. Whitney Houston, age 48, was pronounced dead at the scene. Whitney Houston was positively identified at the scene by members of her entourage, which included friends, co-workers and family. Ms. Houston’s daughter and mother were notified of her death.
Prescription drugs were allegedly the downfall of Whitney’s too-short life
Whitney Houston‘s cause of death has been revealed to be drugs — not drowning, as previously reported.
Whitney, who was 48, died of an alleged combination of Xanax with other prescriptions and alcohol, TMZ reports. The L.A. County Coroner informed the family that there was not enough water in her lungs to point to drowning, but rather she was likely already dead from the mixture by the time she became submerged in bathwater.
Despite her troubled end she will be dearly missed and always remembered as one of the greatest voices of her time.
A private funeral will be held Saturday 18th February 2012 at her childhood church in New Jersey, according to the owner of the funeral home handling the arrangements.
The service will start at noon at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, said Carolyn Whigham of Whigham Funeral Home.
As with the private burial, the ceremony is open to invited guests only.
Very informative!! Learnt a lot.
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