Whitney Elizabeth Houston (Newark, New Jersey, August 9, 1963 – Beverly Hills, California, February 11, 2012) was an American singer, model, and actress. With 220 million records sold worldwide, Houston is one of the best-selling artists of all time.

Houston was the daughter of Cissy Houston (backing vocalist for Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, among others) and John Houston, and a niece of singer Dionne Warwick. Houston was exposed to music at an early age.

As a teenager, she toured various nightclubs with her mother, developing her singing voice. As a fourteen-year-old, she was the lead vocalist on the Michael Zager Band’s song “Life’s a Party” in 1977.

Frontman Zager arranged a recording contract for the singer, but her mother felt Houston should finish school first before pursuing potential success. In 1978, Houston was one of the backup singers on Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman,” which Houston would later re-record in her own version for the soundtrack of the film The Bodyguard in the 1990s.

Houston also appeared on albums by Jermaine Jackson and Lou Rawls. In the early 1980s, her career as a model took off. She posed for Seventeen and was one of the first women of color to appear on its cover. In 1983, Gerry Griffith (who worked for Arista Records) saw Houston perform with her mother in a New York nightclub.

He was impressed by her talent and introduced Houston to Clive Davis, the label’s president. After a showcase, Davis was also captivated by her talent, and a recording contract soon followed. Houston made her American television debut on The Merv Griffin Show.

Houston died on February 11, 2012, at the age of 48. The singer was found dead, face down in the bathtub of her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. According to the coroner, Houston died by drowning, possibly after a heart attack caused by a medical issue and drug use.

Within a week of her death, over 1 million copies of her older work were sold. Many singles re-entered the charts; in the Netherlands, for example, eleven reached the top 100.

On February 18, 2012, the funeral service took place at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. Houston had sung in the gospel choir there as a child. The service was attended by approximately 1,500 guests, including Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Elton John, and Kevin Costner.

Fans were not welcome at the service, and the surrounding streets were closed for this reason. However, the service was broadcast live online and on American television.

Her ex-husband, Bobby Brown, left the church before the ceremony began because the organizers didn’t assign him and his entourage proper seats. On February 19, Houston was buried at Westfield Cemetery, where she lies next to her daughter and father.

In August 2012, Sparkle, the film that had been filmed shortly before Houston’s death, was released. She had recorded two songs for the soundtrack: the single “Celebrate” with Jordin Sparks, completed just four days before her death and the last she recorded, and “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.” A music video was filmed for “Celebrate” in which the Sparkle cast members filled in for Houston’s singing.

In the last years of her life, Houston was particularly in the news due to problems with her husband, Bobby Brown, and rumors of drug use. In 2005, she had detoxed at the Crossroads Centre on the Caribbean island of Antigua.

On April 24, 2007, she divorced Brown and was granted custody of their daughter, Bobbi Kristina (1993–2015). Her daughter died under similar circumstances.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia