Remembering Whitney Houston

On Sat. Feb, 11, 2012 Whitney Houston's staff pulled her unconscious body from a full bathtub in the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.  Around half an hour later, Houston was pronounced dead. The cause of death will not be known for the next couple of weeks, but there were prescription pills and alcohol found in her room and in her body at the time of death. The award winning recording artist, actress, producer and model from Newark, New Jersey was only forty-eight when she died, and the music industry which she impacted so much felt the sorrow.

The Guinness World Records named Houston the most awarded female act of all time, which can be seen in the long list of awards and honors she had received during her musical career. She had won two Emmys, six Grammys, thirty Billboard Music awards, twenty-two American Music awards, four hundred-fifteen career awards as well as having 170 million albums, singles and videos universally. Amazingly, she had seven consecutive number-one hits including "Saving All My Love for You", "How Will I Know", "I Wanna Dance with Somebody".  Her first acting role was "The Bodyguard" which made the album single "I Will Always Love You" incredibly famous and iconic.

            Houston grew up in Newark, New Jersey and was influenced to perform at a young age by her mother, cousins, and godmother Aretha Franklin; they were all prominent singers in gospel. Houston started her singing career in church choirs and was heavily influenced by the musical talents of her godmother, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, and Roberta Flack.

            At a young age of fourteen Houston appeared as a backup singer for Michael Zager Band's "Lifes a Party" and at fifteen she sang background to the hit "I'm Every Woman" by Chaka Khan. During her early adolescence, Houston worked as a fashion model and appeared in Seventeen, Glamour and Cosmopolitan. She had just started to become a noticeable face and voice in the media when she was finally noticed and signed to a label. Clive Davis, head of Arista Records spotted Houston in a New York City nightclub, and was impressed with her immediately. She was signed to Arista Records shortly after.  In order to protect Houston from being signed away by other recording artists, she sung duets with other artists on the label. She finally released her first solo album, Whitney Houston, in 1985. Rolling Stone and The New York Times published rave reviews about the singer's first of many groundbreaking albums.

            Houston married Bobby Brown on July 8, 1992 and they gave birth to Bobbi Kiristina Houston Brown on March 4, 1993. During their relationship, they struggled with drugs and crime which was exposed to the public through Bobby's reality show Being Bobby Brown. Houston clearly started struggling with drugs and spoke openly about using during a 2002 Diane Sawyer interview. She admitted to using cocaine and other drugs. She started failing to attend or being late for numerous interviews and performances which started to tarnish the performers public image.

            Houston was honored at this year's 54^th Grammy Awards on Sun. Feb. 12 2012, which consisted of many people in the music industry honoring and paying respects to the music icon. Jennifer Hudson sang her hit song "I Will Always Love You" and Houston's presence and legend lived on through the music industry that night as it will for the rest of time. She will always be remembered and respected through her breathtaking voice and legendary music.