Whitney Elizabeth Houston was an American singer, actress, film producer, and philanthropist. Known as "the Voice", she is one of the most awarded entertainers and one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales of over 220 million records worldwide. Houston’s crossover appeal on the popular music charts and her performances influenced the breaking down of gender and racial barriers, as well as popular culture. Known for her vocal delivery and distinctive timbre, Rolling Stone ranked Houston second on their list of the greatest singers of all time. Her life and career have been the subject of multiple documentaries and television specials.
Houston began singing at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, as a child and became a background vocalist while in high school. She was one of the first black women to appear on the cover of Seventeen after becoming a teen model in 1981. With the guidance of Arista Records chairman Clive Davis, Houston signed to the label at age 19. Her first two studio albums, Whitney Houston (1985) and Whitney (1987), both peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and are among the best-selling albums of all time. She is the only artist to have seven consecutive number-one singles on Billboard Hot 100 since 1988. Her third album, I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990), yielded two US number-one singles, the title track and "All the Man That I Need". Houston's rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV in 1991 received widespread media coverage.
Houston entered the film industry with the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard (1992), which despite its mixed reviews became the tenth highest-grossing film to that date. Its soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and remains the bestselling soundtrack album of all time. The lead single "I Will Always Love You" won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became the best-selling female single in history. Houston went on to star and record soundtracks for the films Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996). The former soundtrack scored her 11th Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)", while the latter, produced by Houston herself, became the bestselling gospel album of all time. As a film producer, she produced the series The Princess Diaries and The Cheetah Girls, and movies Cinderella (1997) and Sparkle (2012).
Following the success of My Love Is Your Love (1998), Houston's first studio album in eight years, she renewed her contract with Arista Records for $100 million in 2001, one of the biggest recording deals of all time. However, her next album Just Whitney (2002) received mixed reviews, while her drug use and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown began to overshadow her music career. After divorcing Brown, Houston returned to the top of the Billboard 200 chart with her final album, I Look to You (2009). In February 2012, Houston accidentally drowned in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, with heart disease and cocaine use as contributing factors. News of her death coincided with the 2012 Grammy Awards, which took place the day following her death, and was covered internationally along with her memorial service. Her assets amounted to $250 million, earned over a 25-year career.
