Whitney Houston

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (born August 9 1963) is an iconic American pop and R&B singer, songwriter, actress, film producer, and former model. Houston debuted in 1985 with the release of her self-titled album, and later released a record seven consecutive number-one hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. She was also one of a few African-American artists who received heavy rotation on early MTV in the 1980's. Houston continued her success in the 1990s with the release of several films and soundtracks, particularly The Bodyguard (1992), which became one of the best-selling albums of all time, and spawned her highly successful signature song "I Will Always Love You" (a remake of Dolly Parton's original). Her record sales during the next decade were modest, and her personal life became the subject of controversy due to allegations of drug abuse. Houston has sold over 140 million albums and 50 million singles worldwide [1] and is the only female artist to have two entries in the top thirty-five of the best selling albums in the U.S. She has influenced a generation of singers and has won twenty-one American Music Awards (a record for a solo artist).

Biography

Early years

Houston born in Newark, New Jersey to John and Cissy Houston. Although she was a Baptist, she attended a Catholic high school.

Houston's mother, first cousin (Dionne Warwick) and godmother (Aretha Franklin) were all established Gospel/R&B/Soul singers, and at the age of eleven Houston started performing as a soloist in the junior gospel choir at the New Hope Baptist church in Newark, New Jersey, and would later go on to accompanying her mother in concert. After singing background on her mother's 1978 album Think It Over, she started as a back up singer for many other established acts, such as Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson, and Lou Rawls.

She was featured as the lead vocalist on the Michael Zager Band's single "Life's a Party" in 1978, and Zager was so impressed that he offered to obtain her a record deal but she declined. In the early-1980s, she started appearing as a model in various magazine advertisements and snagged the cover of Seventeen magazine. During these modeling years, she also continued to balance her burgeoning singing career by working with producers Michael Bienhorn, Bill Laswell and Martin Bisi on an album they were spearheading called One Down, credited to the group Material. It was planned to contain eight songs, each one featuring a different lead vocalist. Houston contributed the ballad "Memories," which received favorable reviews from the Village Voice when the album debuted.

1983—1991: Early music career

Whitney Houston (1985)

Houston had been offered record deals previously (from Michael Zager in 1980, and Elektra Records in 1981) and in 1983 an A&R representative from Arista saw Houston performing with her mother in a nightclub in New York City. The representative convinced the head of the label, Clive Davis, to take time to see her. Davis was convinced of her talents and offered her a worldwide-contract, which Houston signed. Her debut album took over two years to complete. Houston's first taste of commercial success was with "Hold Me", a duet with Teddy Pendergrass (which first appeared on his album, Love Language) which peaked into the top fifty on the U.S. pop chart and the top five of the R&B chart. It was during this time that Houston auditioned for acting roles, including the part of Sondra Huxtable on The Cosby Show, which was won by Sabrina Le Beauf. She earned roles on episodes of Gimme a Break, Silver Spoons, and a Canada Dry soft drink commercial.

Houston's self-titled 1985 debut album initially had a slow rise up the album chart until the success of its single "You Give Good Love", which gave Houston her first top five hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Follow-up singles "Saving All My Love for You", "How Will I Know" and "Greatest Love of All" all went to number one on the pop charts, and Whitney Houston eventually topped the album charts. The album went on to sell twenty-four million copies worldwide (with over thirteen million copies being sold in the U.S. alone), making it the best-selling debut album by a female artist at the time (Britney Spears a decade after broke this record with her debut album ...Baby One More Time which sold 25 Million world-wide). Houston received a "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" Grammy Award for "Saving All My Love for You" and an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety Program on TV", and her first worldwide tour, "The Greatest Love Tour", took place in 1986.

Houston's second album Whitney (1987) debuted at number one in the U.S. and the UK, the first album by a female artist to do so, and it eventually went on to sell over nineteen million copies worldwide (with over nine million copies being sold in the U.S. alone). the singles "I Wanna Dance with Somebody", "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "So Emotional" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" brought her total of consecutive Hot 100 number-one hits to seven, breaking a record previously shared by The Beatles and The Bee Gees (with six). Houston embarked on the worldwide "The Moment of Truth" tour and won the "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" Grammy for "I Wanna Dance with Somebody", as well as several American Music Awards. During the 1988 Olympics event, her single "One Moment in Time" peaked in the U.S. top five and reached number one in the UK.

Houston's third album I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990) featured collaborations with Stevie Wonder and Luther Vandross and reached number three on the U.S. Billboard 200. It did not sell as highly as her first two albums, with twelve million copies sold worldwide (four million of those in the U.S.). The first two singles, "I'm Your Baby Tonight" and "All the Man That I Need" went to number one in the U.S., but "Miracle", "My Name Is Not Susan" and "I Belong to You" were less successful. Houston embarked on the "I'm Your Baby Tonight" world tour, and afterwards received four Billboard Music Awards. Her performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV in January 1991 was released as a single and reached the U.S. top twenty chart, and all proceeds went to the American Red Cross. Her concert at Norfolk, Virginia as she welcomed back U.S. troops returning from the Gulf War received high ratings on the HBO network.

1992—1997: Successful acting career

The Bodyguard Soundtrack (1992)

Houston's debut film, The Bodyguard (co-starring Kevin Costner), was released four months after she married R&B singer Bobby Brown on July 18 1992. The film was commercially successful, grossing over $120 million in the U.S. and $410 million worldwide, but reviews were mixed, and Houston received three Razzie Award nominations. The soundtrack to the film (see The Bodyguard (soundtrack)) was also very popular: it sold over thirty-nine million copies worldwide (with over nineteen million copies in the U.S.) and became the biggest selling soundtrack and the biggest selling female album of all time. Houston's remake of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" spent a record-breaking fourteen weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and broke numerous chart records all over the world; it also sold over nine million copies worldwide, making it still the best-selling single by a female artist ever and one of the most-played songs of all time. Her next singles — "I'm Every Woman" (her remake of Chaka Khan's 1978 song), "I Have Nothing", "Run to You" and "Queen of the Night" (which she co-wrote) — were also radio, chart, and club hits.

On March 4 1993 she gave birth to her first and only child, Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown. During this period she and her husband Bobby wrote the song "Something in Common", which reached the UK top twenty on release. Houston won numerous awards following The Bodyguard, including Grammy Awards for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance", "Record of the Year" and "Album of the Year", a record eleven Billboard Music Awards in 1993 and a record eight American Music Awards in 1994. That year she became the first American singer to perform in post-apartheid South Africa, and her concerts raised money to aid South Africa's children.

Houston starred alongside Angela Bassett in the 1995 film Waiting to Exhale, on which she served as executive producer. The film was another success in the U.S., grossing over $70 million, but it made just $10 million elsewhere. One of three songs Houston recorded for its soundtrack, "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)", debuted at number one on the Hot 100 and became the single with the longest time spent at number two in music history. "Count on Me" (a duet with CeCe Winans) was another top ten hit, though "Why Does It Hurt So Bad" only reached the top forty. Houston won three NAACP Image Awards for "Outstanding Female Artist", "Album of the Year" and "Best Soundtrack Album", two American Music Awards for "Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist" and "Favorite Soundtrack" and a Soul Train Music Award for "Best Female R&B/Soul Single".

The 1996 film The Preacher's Wife had Houston star along Denzel Washington. It grossed nearly $50 million in the U.S., and the soundtrack saw Houston returning to gospel music. Songs like "I Believe in You and Me", the Annie Lennox-penned "Step by Step", and "You Were Loved" were popular, and the soundtrack eventually became the biggest selling gospel album of all-time with over five million copies sold worldwide. The film and soundtrack won three NAACP Image Awards in 1997 for "Best Actress" (Houston), "Album of the Year" and "Gospel Artist of the Year" (Houston). During that year, she teamed up with Brandy, Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, Bernadette Peters, and Victor Garber for a made-for-television remake of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella. Released in November 1997 to the American Broadcasting Company, the film attracted a record-breaking television audience of over sixty million U.S. viewers, won an Emmy Award and holds the record of the highest selling video of of a made-for-TV film.

1997—2002: Career development, controversy, and a mega deal

Just Whitney (2002)

My Love Is Your Love, Houston's fourth studio album, was originally conceived as a greatest hits album with a handful of new tracks, but the recording sessions went more smoothly than expected and produced enough new material for a full-length album. Recorded and mixed in only eight weeks, My Love Is Your Love was released in 1998 and sold over eleven million copies worldwide. Co-produced by Houston, it was more hip-hop and R&B driven and saw her branching out musically with collaborations with producers such as Wyclef Jean, Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill, and once again Babyface. The song "When You Believe" (a duet with Mariah Carey recorded for The Prince of Egypt soundtrack) won an Academy Award, while "Heartbreak Hotel" (with Faith Evans and Kelly Price), "It's Not Right, but It's Okay", and "My Love Is Your Love" all reached the U.S. top five. All but one of the album's singles become number-one dance hits, establishing Houston's presence on the U.S. club scene. After the "My Love Is Your Love Tour", Houston received an MTV Europe Award for "Best R&B Artist", two NAACP Image Awards, a Grammy Award for "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" ("It's Not Right, but It's Okay") and a Soul Train Music Award for "Artist of the Decade". She also performed on the VH1 Diva's Live '99 special with artists such as Mary J. Blige, Tina Turner, Cher, and Chaka Khan.

Shortly before the release of the CD and DVD Whitney: The Greatest Hits in April 2000, airport security discovered several grams of marijuana in Houston and husband Bobby Brown's luggage at a Hawaiian airport, but they boarded the plane and departed before police could arrive. Charges were later dropped against her and Brown but other rumors about drug use developed around the couple, and Houston also became infamous in the industry for cancelling appearances. In a statement Houston explained that a number of tour dates were cancelled due to air pollution, which had a negative effect on her vocal cords. 'Whitney: The Greatest Hits' was a success, selling over eleven million copies worldwide and spending two weeks at number one on the UK chart. The compilation included duets with Enrique Iglesias ("Could I Have This Kiss Forever"), George Michael ("If I Told You That") and Deborah Cox ("Same Script, Different Cast"). In August 2001 Houston signed the biggest record deal in history with Arista/BMG: she renewed her contract (worth an estimated $100 million) to deliver six new albums on which she would earn royalties. Two months later, she re-released her version of "The Star Spangled Banner" after the September 11th attacks; it reached the U.S. top ten, and its platinum sales were donated to a relief fund. 2001 also saw Houston receive the "First Annual Lifetime Achievement" at the BET Awards and she undertook her first major film producing assignment: the Disney comedy The Princess Diaries starring Anne Hathaway and Dame Julie Andrews. The film grossed over $100 million at the U.S. box office, and her production company Brownhouse received a percentage of the profits.

Shortly before the December 2002 release of her fifth studio album Just Whitney, Houston gave an interview with Diane Sawyer (where she discussed drug allegations and marriage issues) . Houston denied using crack cocaine when questioned by Sawyer, stating that "Crack is wack". Just Whitney received very poor reviews and, although it reached the top ten on the Billboard 200, it failed to reach the top seventy-five in the UK and sold just three million copies worldwide (less than a million of which were in the U.S.). The singles "Whatchulookinat" (co-written by Houston), "One of Those Days" and "Try It on My Own" failed to reach the top forty on the U.S. Hot 100, and "Try It on My Own" and "Love That Man" only achieved substantial success on the Dance/Club Play Chart.

2003—2005: One Wish

One Wish: The Holiday Album (2003)

Houston produced two other projects for Disney: the 2003 television film The Cheetah Girls (starring Raven-Symone) and the sequel The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which was almost as successful as the first film. In November 2003 she delivered her sixth studio album, a Christmas release entitled One Wish: The Holiday Album which consisted of covers of Christmas songs. Though the single "One Wish (for Christmas)" (a cover of the Freddie Jackson song) reached the top twenty on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, the album itself failed to achieve gold status in the U.S.http://www.riaa.com/ (Houston's first studio album not to do so). After a five-day stay at a drug rehabilitation facility in March 2004 (which was repeated in March 2005 for about two months), Houston embarked on an international "Soul Divas" tour with Natalie Cole and cousin Dionne Warwick which lasted throughout the summer. In September 2004 she made a surprise performance at the World Music Awards, in tribute to long time friend Clive Davis. During this period she appeared on her husband's television program Being Bobby Brown, which provided a view into the domestic goings-on in the Brown household.

2006: Currently

As of May 2006 Houston is recording a new album, although there has been little press interest surrounding the project. In the new issue of XXL's Hip-Hop Soul Bryan Michael Cox said that they were "making great music. Whitney's going to be a surprise", and predicted a career comeback for Houston on the scale of those staged by Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige. The album has been in production for over two years and will feature contributions from Jermaine Dupri, Lil Jon, Babyface, Pharrell Williams, Scott Storch, Rodney Jerkins, Diddy, Bryan Michael Cox, Timbaland and Missy Elliott. In 2004 Houston received a trophy at the Womens World Awards in Europe, and she performed live at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy where she recerived very poor reviews, could not remember the words to her songs, and received poor attendance as well.

Subsequent news outlets reported that Houston is again fighting drug addiction. The National Enquirer published pictures of a bathroom (puportedly Houston's) littered with drug paraphernalia, and credited the pictures to Tina Brown (Bobby Brown's sister). Tina Brown also said that there were holes drilled in the walls of her apartment so Houston could see if anyone was entering. The story has received substantial coverage in the media,http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/04/12/whitney_houston/index.html http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006140354,00.html http://www.azcentral.com/ent/celeb/articles/0420houston.html http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189581,00.html Fox News and in April 2006 it was rumored that Houston had returned to drug rehabilitation for the third time, but in an interview with S2S Magazine Houston's friend (1980s star Cherelle) denied the story. Cherelle stated that Houston has been rehabilitated for a long time now. It has also been reported that Houston was suffering from a brain tumour; however, Houston's website issued the following statement: "Please note that reports on Whitney's health circulating in the media at present are not true and totally unfounded."http://www.whitneyhouston.com/news/

A source told In Touch magazine that Bobby Brown could have cheated on Houston with America's Next Top Model contestant Tiffany Richardson while he was on the road http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur27010.cfm. The eyewitness said that both were spotted at 4:30 the next morning of one of his shows emerging from the elevator and going into Bobby's cabin. According to the witness, they were seen together for the next few days in the casino and the dining room. When Tiffany was asked how she thought Bobby's wife Houston might feel about her hanging around with him, she said: "She's not here".

Vocal profile

Houston is known for her powerful mid belt and range. Her lowest note in recordings is a D#3 in the song "I Learned from the Best". Her highest belting note is G5 in "Love Will Save the Day". Her highest falsetto note is C6 in "I Wanna Dance with Somebody". It was reported that earlier in her career she also sang a Eb6 in a performance of "I Wanna Dance with Somebody". In her earlier years Whitney could have been classified as a mezzo-soprano. Whitney Houston is currently classified as a Full Dramatic Soprano.