Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston, an American singer was born on August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey. Not only a singer, she is an actress, producer and also a model. She is the only female that has been cited as the most awarded female of all time by the Guinness World Records in 2009. Houston is one of the successful singers in the whole music industry.

Houston was born to John Russell Houston, Jr., an Army serviceman and entertainment executive, and Emily “Clissy” Houston, a gospel singer. Her parents were African American. She had elder brother Michael who is also a singer and elder half-brother Gary Garland, who is a former basketball player. When she was four years old, her family moved to East Orange, New Jersey. Houston attended Mount Saint Dominic Academy in Caldwell, New Jersey. It was a Catholic girls’ high school. While she still went to school, her mother taught her to sing.

Having a singer mother, it was very helpful for her to learn singing. She performed a solo in the junior gospel choir in New Hope Baptist Church, Newark at the age of 11. “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah” was her first solo performance in the church. She used to go to the nightclubs where her mother used to sing. She started to sing as a backup singer many songs like “Life’s a Party”, “I’m Every Woman”, etc.

Houston started modeling in the 1980s after she caught the attention of a photographer while she was singing at Carnegie Hall with her mother. She appeared in Seventeen magazine. She was the first woman of color to elegance the cover of the magazine. After that, she appeared in pages of Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Young Miss and also in the TV commercial of a soft drink called Canada Dry.

Houston released her first debut album “Whitney Houston” in February 1985. The album was done production by Jermaine Jackson, Michael Masser, Narada Michael Walden, and Kashif. It was the best selling debut album of a woman in history. It was named the best album of 1986 by the Rolling Stone. The album was ranked at No. 254 in the magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The album contained the record-breaking songs like “All at Once”, “You Give Good Love”, “Saving All My Love for You”, “Thinking About You” and “How Will I Know”. She even won the Grammy Award for the song “Saving All My Love for You” in 1986. She also grabbed Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.

In 1987, Houston released another album called “Whitney”. It made to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart. She grabbed her second Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”. She won two American Music Awards in 1988 and 1989, and also a Soul Train Music Award. Houston released her third single “I Have Nothing” on February 20, 1993. It was ranked No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Houston did many concerts in those times. She did it for charities too.

Houston had a passion for acting too. Her first film was “The Bodyguard” in 1992, in which she had a role as Rachel Marron. The original soundtrack of the film won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1994. In 1995, she played in another film titled “Waiting to Exhale” as Savannah Jackson. She was nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture in 1996 NAACP Image Award. After that, she played in many films like “The Preacher’s Wife”, “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella”, “Nora’s Hair Salon”, “Sparkle” and “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story”.

Houston was married to Bobby Brown and they had a daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, who was also an actress and a singer. When Bobbi was 14 years old, Houston and Bobby got divorced. Houston gained custody of daughter Bobbi.

Houston was found dead in her guest room at Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, California on February 11, 2012. She used to take cocaine and had heart disease. She was accidentally drowned in the bathtub.

• singer