Not many know that Whitney Elizabeth Houston also known as Whitney Houston had music running through her veins with both Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin being her Cousins.
But that does not mean Whitney Houston was born with a silver spoon but in a low income American household of the 1960s US army veterans.
Just like most American girl children of the 1950s and 60s’ Whitney’s mother had a great influence on her who herself is a gospel singer at a local church.
Whitney was also in the local church choir and her musical career was taking a formidable shape with age,looks and an incredible voice on her side.
After grooming her for a few years her mother Cissy Houston introduced Whitney to her elder cousins Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin at a local Newark studio.
Whitney was one of the chorus singers for the 1978 Chaka khan single “I am very woman” and grabbed the attention of many producers, directors and ever more so strangely many modelling companies.
After much persuasion from the modelling agencies Cissy Houston finally allowed Whitney to sign a few contracts with the modelling agencies.
Whitney was featured in the cover of many American and Canadian magazines including a Canadian cola commercial.But she was never allowed to sign a contract with any major recording companies until she completed her formal schoolings.
The year 1985 the world welcomed it’s first female singer ever to win 6 Grammy awards for her album “Whitney Houston” with songs like “How Will I Know”, “Saving All My Love” Whitney announced her arrival to the world.
“Whitney Houston” sold 30 millions albums worldwide and had seven number one hits a feat only paralleled by boys from the Beatles.
The album won critical acclaim from every other critic in the industry but Whitney was still not happy with the performance of her first album and started working on the second one even before she could count the pennies from her first album.
And so in the mid 1987, she released her second album “Whitney” which had those soul soothing love songs including “Dance With Somebody” and “Where Do Broken Hearts”, set her up with an amazing platform for her biggest single ever which would be released during late 1992 “will always love you” an OST from the Kevin Costner superhit “the bodyguard”.
The album took her to dizzy heights with a whooping 45 million copies sold over the entire globe but sadly her unparalleled success introduced her to bad company who sold questionable drugs to her and even more shocking is the fact that Whitney was addicted to cocaine on a day to day basis.
Everyone in hollywood was aware of Whitney’s drug abuse but none came forward to warn her or stop her thanks to her invincible celebrity status.And so came the “preacher’s wife” the best selling christian gospel song till date but the decline has already begun.
The only good thing that happened after her smash hit”the bodyguard” was her only child Cristina Bobby Brown whom she parented along with Bobby Brown in 1993.
Her musical career showed signs of massive decline as she was not able to produce a single big hit after “the bodyguard” OST best seller, once again all the credit goes to her extensive use of cocaine.
And so in search of success she turned her attention to the very first song that put her in the spotlight, a remix of “I am every woman” by Chaka Khan.
The remix did well both at U.S and as well at the international stage and put her back in the spotlight.By this time she was a self confessed drug addict and a frequent visitor to the rehabs.
During the late 2000s Whitney houston was just a shadow of a bubbly young girl of the 80s and was slipping away faster than expected.
And so came the end to a woman on 11th feb 2012 who had promised a lot to her fans but never kept it because she loved cocaine more than her fans, her daughter and even her own life that she was found dead in her bath tub with a heart failure caused by huge usage of cocaine that no human being can ingest it and live.
R.I.P Whitney Houston
