Whitney Houston

Whitney met Bobby Brown at an awards ceremony and the two started dating. Eventually after courting each other for three years, the couple exchanged nuptial vows on July 18th, 1992.

However in 2007, she and Bobby Brown divorced. She gained custody of daughter, Bobbi Kristina.

She fought a long battle with drug and alcohol abuse. She entered rehab twice and in 2011, enrolled in an outpatient program.

Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born on August 9th, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Grammy-award-winning gospel singer, Emily “Cissy” Houston and John R. Houston, who managed his daughter’s production company.

She was no stranger to the entertainment industry, stemming from a line of singers and actresses. Not only did her mother’s vocal group, the ‘Sweet Inspirations’, sing backup for Aretha Franklin, but her cousins Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick are also renowned singers, as well as her godmother, Darlene Love.

She began performing in her church’s gospel choir as a soloist at the age of eleven and learned to play the piano. While attending Catholic school, she took voice lessons from her mother, with whom she would occasionally perform in nightclubs.

In 1977, she was a backup singer for Michael Zager Band’s single ‘Life’s a Party’ and the following year she sang on Chaka Khan’s single ‘I’m Every Woman’. She was offered an opportunity to sign with a recording company, but her mother declined so she would finish high school.

In the early 1980s, at seventeen, she worked as a model, appearing in several magazines including, ‘Seventeen’, where she became the first African American to be featured on the cover. She also took on acting gigs appearing in TV show episodes such as, ‘Gimme a Break’, while continuing to develop her vocal skills.

In 1983, she signed with ‘Arista Records’. President Clive Davis spent the next couple years assembling lyricists and producers to balance her gospel-like sound with contemporary melodies.

In 1985, her debut album, ‘Whitney Houston’ gradually became the number one selling album of her career. She received numerous accolades and toured sold-out concerts in the U.S. and Europe.

Through the late 1980s, hits rocketed to the top of billboard charts. She reached a record of seven consecutive number one hits and became the first woman to produce four number-one singles from one album. In 1991, while contemplating an acting career and lead role in ‘The Bodyguard’, she performed her legendary rendition of the national anthem at the ‘Super Bowl’.

Her debut album, ‘Whitney Houston,’ is her most successful, selling over 24 million copies. She is best known for her role in ‘The Bodyguard’ and its soundtrack. Her rendition of ‘I Will Always Love You’ is the best-selling single by any female singer and the album sold over 200 million copies worldwide.