Whitney Houston

NAME Whitney Elizabeth Houston. Widely known by the nickname "the Voice," a title bestowed by fans, critics, and fellow artists in acknowledgment of her extraordinary vocal range and power.

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Whitney Houston was an American singer and actress who became one of the bestselling music artists of all time. She is the only artist to have seven consecutive number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. She transitioned successfully into film with The Bodyguard (1992), and her version of "I Will Always Love You" remains the second bestselling single by a female artist in history.

BIRTH Born August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A.

FAMILY BACKGROUND Whitney Houston was born into a deeply musical family. Her mother, Emily "Cissy" Houston (née Drinkard), was a celebrated gospel and soul singer and a member of the Sweet Inspirations vocal group, who served as backup singers for Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley. Her father, John Russell Houston Jr., was a military serviceman and later an entertainment executive who managed his daughter's early career. (1) (2) 

Her first cousin is the legendary pop singer Dionne Warwick — Whitney's mother Cissy is Dionne's aunt. A more distant cousin on her mother's side was the acclaimed soprano Leontyne Price. 

Houston's godmother was none other than Aretha Franklin. 

CHILDHOOD Whitney Houston grew up in Newark and East Orange, New Jersey.  She began singing in the junior gospel choir of the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark at the age of eleven, where her mother Cissy was the choir director — an environment that shaped her vocal technique and her lifelong connection to gospel music.

As a child she travelled on tour with her cousin Dionne Warwick during summer months, gaining an early insight into the realities of show business. Warwick recalled asking the young Whitney: "So, you still want to be in show business?" after waking the cousins at the crack of dawn. (3) 

In her teens Houston met Robyn Crawford, who became her closest companion, at a community center in East Orange, New Jersey. (4)

EDUCATION Houston attended Franklin Elementary School in East Orange, New Jersey, from the age of six. The school was later renamed The Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts in her honour in 1997. (5) 

She subsequently attended Mount Saint Dominic Academy, a Catholic girls' high school in Caldwell, New Jersey. 

CAREER RECORD 1977 Houston began performing as a backup singer for various acts, including Chaka Khan and Lou Rawls, and featured as a lead vocalist on Michael Zager Band's "Life's a Party."

1983 She signed a worldwide recording contract with Arista Records after Clive Davis saw her performing in a New York City nightclub.

1985 She released her debut album, Whitney Houston, which became the bestselling debut album by a woman at the time.

1992 Houston made her film debut in The Bodyguard, which, despite mixed reviews, was a massive box office success and produced the bestselling soundtrack of all time.

1998, She released My Love Is Your Love, a critically acclaimed album that incorporated hip-hop and reggae influences, proving her versatility beyond traditional pop ballads.

2009 Houston released her final studio album, I Look to You, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. 

APPEARANCE Whitney Houston stood approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall (1.70 m) and had a slim, elegant build. She had warm brown skin, dark brown eyes, and naturally brown hair which she wore in a variety of styles — most famously, voluminous natural curls in her early career. Houston was widely considered one of the most physically striking performers of her era, with a presence that matched the power of her voice. (6)

Houston performing "Greatest Love of All" on the Welcome Home Heroes concert in 1991

FASHION In the early years of her career, Houston favoured pastel shades and soft, feminine silhouettes that complemented her golden complexion.  By the mid-1980s she had developed a signature look built around embellished sequinned skirt suits, graphic patterns, and bold shoulder pads — quintessentially 1980s in style. (Into the 1990s, catsuits — often crystal-encrusted from the waist up — became a tour wardrobe staple, showcasing her lithe figure at major concert performances. (7)

She frequently wore luxurious furs over red-carpet gowns and favoured chunky statement earrings, white ensembles, and Lucite heels. (8)

CHARACTER Those who knew Houston described a complex personality: warm, funny, and generous in private, but burdened by the enormous pressures of superstardom and the constraints placed on her public persona by her record label. Her mentor and producer Clive Davis had masterminded every aspect of her image, and those close to her believed that "not being able to be herself 100 per cent was a hell of a burden for her to have to carry." Despite her global fame, friends spoke of a woman with genuine insecurities and emotional struggles beneath the seemingly invincible exterior. (9) 

Dionne Warwick remembered her as "a little devil" as a child — mischievous, spirited, and "a very special baby." (3)

SPEAKING VOICE Houston's speaking voice was warm, husky, and distinctly New Jersey-accented — contrasting notably with the extraordinary controlled power and operatic range of her singing voice. 

In interviews she came across as direct, candid, and at times disarmingly blunt; her 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer, in which she disputed tabloid claims about her drug use with the phrase "crack is wack — crack is too cheap" for someone of her wealth, became one of the most quoted celebrity interview moments of the decade. 

SENSE OF HUMOUR Houston was noted by friends and colleagues for a sharp, earthy sense of humour and a love of laughter. In interviews she frequently deployed self-deprecating wit, and she did not shy away from joking about the absurdities of fame. (10)

RELATIONSHIPS Houston's closest personal relationship in her early adult life was with Robyn Crawford, a childhood friend she had met at a community centre in East Orange. Crawford later became her assistant and creative director. Crawford confirmed in her 2019 memoir that the two had a physical relationship when they met as teenagers, though this had ended by the time Houston rose to fame. 

 Houston's mother Cissy strongly disapproved of the relationship, and Crawford was eventually forced out of Houston's inner circle. Bobby Brown, Houston's ex-husband, later said: "I really feel that if Robyn was accepted into Whitney's life, Whitney would still be alive today." (11)

On July 18, 1992, Houston married the R&B singer Bobby Brown. The marriage was widely characterised as volatile and troubled; both admitted to drug use. They had one daughter together, Bobbi Kristina Brown, born March 4, 1993. Houston and Brown divorced in 2007. 

Bobbi Kristina Brown died on July 26, 2015, aged 22, under circumstances hauntingly similar to her mother's death — found unresponsive in a bathtub; she never regained consciousness following the incident in January of that year. 

Houston and her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown in 2009 By Asterio Tecson - Flickr:

MONEY AND FAME At the height of her fame, Whitney Houston was one of the highest-paid entertainers in the world. She sold over 200 million records worldwide during her Arista career. The Bodyguard soundtrack alone sold 45 million copies.

Despite her enormous earnings, Houston's long battle with addiction, costly divorce proceedings, and erratic professional commitments seriously depleted her finances in the 2000s. By the time of her death she had accrued significant debts. Her estate, however, continued to generate substantial posthumous income.

FOOD AND DRINK Houston was known to enjoy soul food — the cuisine of her New Jersey and Baptist church upbringing. 

In the final hours before her death, staff at the Beverly Hilton noted that an open bottle of champagne and beers had been found in her hotel room. Toxicology reports confirmed she had consumed alcohol alongside cocaine and prescription medication in the period before she died. (12)

MUSIC CAREER If popular music were a grand old stately home, full of creaking staircases and portraits of people who once held impossibly long notes, Whitney Houston would occupy the largest room, preferably one with very high ceilings and excellent acoustics. She is, by almost any reasonable measure—and quite a few unreasonable ones—one of the greatest singers who ever stepped up to a microphone. Rolling Stone placed her second on its 2023 list of the all-time greats, while Guinness World Records, which tends to keep count of these things with a clipboard and a certain air of authority, declared her the most awarded female act ever, with more than 411 trophies to her name. She sold over 220 million records worldwide, a figure so large it sounds less like a sales total and more like the population of a moderately sized continent.

Her rise in the mid-1980s was less a gentle ascent and more a kind of musical rocket launch. Signed to Arista Records in 1983 under the watchful eye of Clive Davis—a man with a knack for spotting talent in much the same way bloodhounds spot picnics—Houston released her debut album, Whitney Houston, in 1985. It promptly became the best-selling debut by a solo artist in history, eventually shifting 25 million copies, which is roughly equivalent to selling one copy to every person in Australia and then popping back round to sell them all another. It also produced three consecutive US number-one singles, including “Saving All My Love for You” and “Greatest Love of All,” the sort of songs that made other singers quietly reconsider their career choices.

Then, just to show this wasn’t a fluke, she released Whitney in 1987, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200—the first time a woman had managed such a feat—and stayed there for 11 weeks. By April 1988, when “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” reached the summit, Houston had amassed seven consecutive number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, a record that remains stubbornly unbroken, like a particularly well-made teacup.

By the early 1990s, Houston had already conquered the music world, so naturally she decided to have a go at films as well. Her debut in The Bodyguard turned her from a superstar into something closer to a global weather system. The soundtrack sold 45 million copies, becoming not only the best-selling soundtrack ever but also the best-selling album by a female artist full stop. Its centrepiece, “I Will Always Love You”—originally written and recorded by Dolly Parton—spent 14 weeks at number one and became the best-selling single by a female solo artist. The album went on to win the Grammy for Album of the Year, while the song itself collected Record of the Year, which is rather like winning both the marathon and the prize for best pair of running shoes.

Houston continued through the mid-’90s with films like Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher's Wife, the latter producing a gospel soundtrack that sold six million copies and became the best-selling gospel album ever—a reminder, in case one was needed, that there was very little she couldn’t sing. Her 1998 album My Love Is Your Love served as a kind of triumphant return, spawning hits like “It’s Not Right but It’s Okay” and proving that, even in a rapidly changing musical landscape, Houston could still out-sing just about everyone in it.

In terms of sheer record-breaking persistence, she was something of a phenomenon. She holds three RIAA Diamond-certified albums—Whitney Houston, Whitney, and The Bodyguard soundtrack—making her the first Black artist to achieve such a trifecta. In 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America named her the best-selling female R&B artist of the 20th century, which is rather like being told you were the tallest giraffe in a field full of giraffes.

The later years were more complicated. After signing a $100 million deal with Arista—a sum that suggests someone, somewhere, was very confident she could still hit the high notes—Houston released Just Whitney (2002) and a Christmas album, both of which were overshadowed by well-publicised personal struggles. Yet even then, she managed one final flourish: I Look to You (2009) debuted at number one in both the US and the UK, a reminder that her voice, when it appeared, still had the power to stop people in their tracks.

When she died in February 2012, the world lost not just a singer but a once-in-a-generation instrument—one that could soar, ache, and astonish, often all within the space of a single chorus. And like all the best things in life—grand old houses, improbable records, and perfectly held notes—it left behind the distinct impression that we won’t quite see its like again.

MUSIC AND ARTS Houston's primary artistic identity was as a gospel-rooted singer who crossed into pop, R&B, and soul. She cited Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, and Stevie Wonder as her greatest inspirations. 

She also demonstrated an ability as an actress, most notably in The Bodyguard (1992), Waiting to Exhale (1995), and The Preacher's Wife (1996). (2) She was a Grammy Award winner seven times, with a total of over 415 career awards. (3)

LITERATURE She was raised in a household where the Bible was the primary literary and moral guide.

Houston did not publish an autobiography during her lifetime, though she was reportedly working on a memoir.  Her close friend and former partner Robyn Crawford published A Song for You: My Life With Whitney Houston in 2019, which is considered one of the most intimate accounts of Houston's private life. 

NATURE Houston often sought refuge from fame in the seclusion of her estates, preferring private gardens to public parks.

PETS Houston loved animals so much she once said she wanted to become a veterinarian. She had a dog called "Doogie", named after the TV show Doogie Howser, M.D. She famously brought him to a taping of BET's 106 & Park.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Houston enjoyed basketball — a passion she shared with her father and brothers. She was also fond of card games and spending time with family. 

SCIENCE AND MATHS She was involved in various philanthropic efforts that supported medical research through the Whitney Houston Foundation for Children.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Houston was a lifelong and devout Baptist Christian, rooted in the church from childhood. Her faith was the bedrock of her musical identity — gospel singing was her first training ground and she returned to explicitly religious material throughout her career, most notably with the soundtrack to The Preacher's Wife (1996), an album of traditional gospel songs. (

She often spoke in interviews of her belief that her voice was a gift from God, and of the sustaining role of prayer during her darkest periods. (10)

POLITICS Houston was not publicly associated with party political advocacy, though she supported various charitable causes. She performed at the inauguration gala for President Bill Clinton in 1993. 

An Arabic version of "I Will Always Love You" was used by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as his 2002 presidential campaign theme tune.

SCANDAL Houston's drug addiction — primarily to cocaine, which she began using in the late 1980s or early 1990s — became the defining personal scandal of her life. Her 2002 television interview with Diane Sawyer, and a series of visibly deteriorated public appearances, shocked fans and the music industry. 

In 2000 she was cited for marijuana possession at a Hawaiian airport, though charges were subsequently dropped.

Her marriage to Bobby Brown was widely reported to be turbulent and mutually destructive. 

Her relationship with Robyn Crawford — long rumoured and confirmed posthumously — was a source of private controversy throughout her career, particularly given the strong disapproval of her mother Cissy. 

MILITARY RECORD Her father, John Russell Houston Jr., served in the U.S. Army.

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Houston was by all accounts physically robust and athletically built in her prime, with a powerful constitution that underpinned her ability to sustain extraordinary vocal performances over long concert tours. However, her prolonged cocaine use from the late 1980s onwards caused severe damage to her voice — she lost much of her upper range and vocal power in the 2000s — as well as to her cardiovascular system. (9) 

The official coroner's report following her death noted that she was suffering from atherosclerotic heart disease, a condition significantly accelerated by cocaine use.  Her autopsy also revealed scars consistent with drug use and a number of other physiological effects of addiction. (6)

HOMES Houston grew up in Newark and East Orange, New Jersey. 

At the height of her career she owned a substantial estate in Mendham, New Jersey, in the Oak Knoll section — a large ranch-style property set on five acres, which she purchased in 1993 for $537,000 and used as a guest home. (13)

She also maintained residences in Atlanta, Georgia, and periodically lived in Los Angeles, California, for professional commitments. 

TRAVEL Houston toured internationally throughout her career, performing across North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. She also travelled extensively for film work and promotional commitments. She had a particular affinity for the South of France and the Caribbean.

DEATH On February 11, 2012, Houston was found unconscious and submerged in the bathtub of Suite 434 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, California, at approximately 3:30 p.m. local time. She was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. PST, aged 48. 

The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office reported on March 22, 2012, that her death was an accidental drowning, with contributing factors listed as atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use.  Toxicology tests found cocaine, Xanax, Flexeril, marijuana, and Benadryl in her system, as well as cocaethylene — a substance formed when cocaine and alcohol are used simultaneously. (

Her funeral was held on February 18, 2012, at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey — the same church where she had first sung as a child. She was buried at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey. 

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Houston was the subject of two major documentaries: Nick Broomfield's Whitney: Can I Be Me (2017) and Kevin Macdonald's authorised Whitney (2018). 

In 2022, the biographical musical film I Wanna Dance with Somebody, starring Naomi Ackie as Houston, received wide release to mark the thirtieth anniversary of The Bodyguard. 

She made numerous television appearances throughout her career, including a celebrated performance at the 1994 Grammy Awards and her Super Bowl XXV national anthem performance in 1991.

ACHIEVEMENTS Holder of the unique record of seven consecutive number-one Billboard Hot 100 singles — a record that still stands. 

"I Will Always Love You" is the best-selling single of all time by a female solo artist, with over 25 million copies sold worldwide. 

Over 200 million records sold worldwide. 

Winner of seven Grammy Awards, 22 American Music Awards, 16 Billboard Music Awards, two Emmy Awards, and two Academy Award nominations. 

Rolling Stone ranked her the second greatest singer of all time in 2023. 

Posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. 

The name Whitney surged dramatically in the United States following her rise to fame: over 96,700 females in the U.S. have been given the name, the majority inspired by her prominence during the 1980s and 1990s. (14)

The elementary school she attended in East Orange, New Jersey, was renamed The Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts in her honour in 1997. 

Sources: (1) Encyclopaedia Britannica (2) Wikipedia – Whitney Houston (3) Nicki Swift – Dionne Warwick and Whitney Houston (4) ET Online – Robyn Crawford on Whitney Houston (5) Whitney Houston Official Site – School Renamed (6) Chillout Radio – Whitney Houston Biography (7) i-D – Whitney Houston's Most Iconic Outfits (8) Essence – Style File: Whitney Houston (9) Liberty House – Cocaine and Whitney Houston (10) Whitney Houston Official Website (11) ET Online – Robyn Crawford on Whitney Houston (12) Wikipedia – Death of Whitney Houston (13) Jersey Digs – Whitney Houston's Mendham House (14) Everything-Birthday – Whitney Name Popularity