Whitney Houston came from a family of singers. Her mother Cissy Houston is a gospel singer. Her aunt is Dionne Warwick and her godmother is the great Aretha Franklin. She was destined to become a singer, but no one knew how great she would become. Whitney began as a model and was one of the first African American's to be on the cover of a magazine. She sang along with her mother at various nightclubs and eventually was noticed by Clive Davis and signed her to Arista's records.
Her self-titled debut album was released in 1985. There were four Top 10 singles, but the first release didn't make a dent. It was her second single “You Give Good Love” that brought attention to the album and to Whitney. From there she continued to receive more and more recognition for her amazing ability to sing. “Saving All My Love,” “How Will I know,” and “The Greatest Love of All” followed and made the album the biggest seller from any female artist ever with over 25 million copies sold.
In 1986 Whitney won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance Female for “Saving All My Love For You.” She went on to win 7 American Music Awards along with other awards including MTV Music Awards. MTV aired many of Whitney's videos and she became one of the first African American's that received airplay.
1987 brought Houston's second album entitled “Whitney”. It spawned seven consecutive number one singles including “So Emotional” and “I Want to Dance with Somebody” which broke records made by the Beatles and the Bee Gees who had six consecutive number ones. She was actually criticized by critics that thought her second album was too similar to her debut album. They felt as though she didn't grow enough as an artist and wanted her to develop more original work. Still, she was nominated for three Grammy's winning one for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “I Want to Dance with Somebody.”
By 1990 Whitney gained more control over her work and released her third album “I'm You Baby Tonight” which had a chart-topping title track. Three more songs reached the Top 20 and she went on to make a bigger name for herself as her she sang the Star Spangled Banner in 1991 at the Super Bowl games. It played on radios throughout the United States as American pride grew stronger.
Whitney decided to take her turn at acting in the BodyGuard with Kevin Costner in 1992. She continued acting in the 1995 film, Waiting to Exhale alongside three other incredible actresses and then in the Preachers Wife with Denzel Washington. Whitney also managed to develop successful soundtracks for each of these films with the BodyGuard being the most successful from “I Will Always Love You” as one of the biggest selling singles ever. She accomplished a steady acting career, she became one of the best singers in the world and she married Bobby Brown. Whitney seemed to fade out by 2000 with suspicion of drug use and possible weight issues as she has been seen extremely under weight. Since her divorce to Brown this past year she has begun work on a new album. We all hope to have our singing angel back.
