Whitney Houston Dead at 48

Whitney Houston, who commanded the pop music scene in the 80s and 90s has died from unspecified causes. She was 48-years-old. TMZ reports that there were cop cars and paramedics at the Beverly Hilton hotel; sources told the celebrity news website that a member of Whitney’s team found her in her room at the hotel, called for hotel security – who then dialed 911, however it was too late. Paramedics had attempted to perform CPR, however the singer had already been dead. The time of death was 3:55 PM.

Whitney had been scheduled to attend American record producer Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammy party; Davis was the one who discovered Houston in 1983. The death just so happened to occur on the eve of The Grammy Awards; a scene Houston was quite accustomed to as she held six awards and was nominated for 26. CNN reports that this year’s ceremony will include tributes to the singer.

Along with the six Grammys Houston held, she also held 2 Emmys, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards; all among a total of 415 career awards and 562 nominations.

Houston’s tumultuous relationship with New Edition singer, Bobby Brown, caused much uproar during their almost 15 year marriage together; many fans blamed Brown for the downhill spiral Houston went through in the late 90s through the mid 2000s.

Houston’s behavior changes would see the entertainer showing up late for photo shoots, interviews, and rehearsals for her concerts; this would then escalate into cancelled shows and talk-show appearances. After Houston steadily showed signs of weight loss, fans established rumors about drug usage being the cause for this erratic behavior.

During the peak of Houston’s career, she enjoyed worldwide concert touring success, regularly selling out stadiums and arenas. On June 11th, 1988, during the European leg of her tour, Houston accompanied a large group of prominent entertainers and speakers at “Nelson Mandela’s 70th Birthday Tribute Concert” held at Wembley Stadium. According to Forbes magazine, Whitney Houston was one of the top 20 highest earning entertainers for 1987-88.

Looking upon the many highlights of Whitney Houston’s singing career, she rose to worldwide prominence after the release of her debut album, titled “Whitney Houston.” The album topped the Billboard 200 chart for 14 straight weeks in 1986; the Billboard Hot 100 featured three number-one singles from the debut album – “Saving All My Love for You,” “How Will I Know,” and “Greatest Love of All.” The string of Billboard Hot 100 hits would continue, as four other songs would join the list at the number one spot, making Houston the only artist to chart seven consecutive #1 Billboard Hot 100 hits.

Those four songs were, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me),” “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” “So Emotional,” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go?”

Releasing seven studio albums and three movie soundtrack albums, Houston also saw success as an actress, as her first role was the star of the film, “The Bodyguard,” a 1992 American romantic-thriller. This movie would lead the way to Whitney recording a song many fans would claim as being her most notorious, the Dolly Parton written track, “I Will Always Love You.” The song sits at #68 on Billboard’s “Greatest Songs of All Time” list, as well as spent 14 weeks in the top spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Houston’s last album before her death was released in 2009, titled, “I Look to You,” which generally received favorable reviews from critics albeit the time between her fifth studio album, “Just Whitney,” which came out in 2002 and “I Look to You.” Houston also released a Christmas album in 2003, titled, “One Wish: The Holiday Album,” which reached the top 20 on Billboard’s U.S. Adult Contemporary chart.

“I Look to You” debuted on the U.S. Billboard 200 at number one with sales of 305,000, which actually beat her previous career best first-week sale of 205,000 copies sold with, “Just Whitney;” it was also Houston’s first album to reach number one in the United States since 1992’s original soundtrack album, “The Bodyguard.”

Houston did tour in support of, “I Look to You;” it was called the “Nothing But Love” tour, and it was Houston’s first in over ten years, however poor reviews spewed out due to the inconsistency Houston rendered during some of her shows. Many fans were disappointed in the quality of the shows, and in some cases, fans walked out before the concerts were over.

The world will definitely remember Whitney Houston as being one of the greatest singers of all time, however it truly is a shame to have lost such a talented entertainer at such a young age. It’s hard to say that a fair chunk of fans were disappointed in the rollercoaster ride that was the life of Whitney Houston, however it’s true. That doesn’t mean we won’t miss her, though.

Rest in peace, Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9th, 1963 – February 11th, 2012)


People also view

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *