I was coming home from my dad’s house when I got a text message from my cousin. He told me Whitney Houston was dead. My first thought was “Oh my God!” even though the news of her death was just as imminent as that of Michael Jackson’s.
Houston rose to fame when rep Gerry Griffith heard her in a NYC nightclub and convinced Clive Davis to give her a chance. Houston was just 20-years-old when she signed with Arista. Her first hit was a duet with Teddy Pendergrass, but tons of hits would follow – “Saving All My Love for You,” “Greatest Love of All,” “”Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” and of course, “I Will Always Love You.”
Houston would receive many accolades, including the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits. At the time of its release, her debut album, Whitney Houston, was the best selling female debut of all time. It made such an impact that her second album, Whitney, debuted at No. 1.
As for awards, Houston is the most awarded female artist of all time with 415. That includes 2 Emmys, 6 Grammys, 30 Billboard Music Awards, and 22 American Music awards. She shares the record with Michael Jackson for most American Music Awards received in one year (8).
However, she also shared something else with Jackson – a dark side. Once the epitome of freshness and beauty with the voice of an angel, Houston’s life seemed to decline after she married bad boy Bobby Brown.
Houston and Brown met in 1989 and married in 1992. Her last number one hit – “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” (which most people probably don’t even remember) occurred in 1995. You do the math.
Houston and Brown made for a volatile pair. By the late ‘90s, trouble had surfaced. Houston was late to interviews and cancelled concerts. She lost weight and in January 2000, marijuana was discovered in her suitcase. Houston failed to show up and perform as promised when Clive Davis was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. She was fired from singing at the Academy Awards and became infamous for the “crack is whack” comment she made during a Diane Sawyer interview.
The couple documented their strange lifestyle in the Bravo reality show “Being Bobby Brown.” Many said it was like watching a train wreck.
By 2007, Houston and Brown were divorced and in 2009, she released a new album, but a comeback never really happened. She admitted in an interview that year to doing drugs with Brown, saying the pair “laced marijuana with rock cocaine.”
Her representative released the news of her death today. Reports are that the Beverly Hills Police Department showed up at her hotel room at 3:43 p.m. to find an unresponsive Houston. While the cause of death hasn’t been released, I am assuming it was either a drug overdose or death due to all the damage her drug use did to her body.
We will always love you Whitney, even if you couldn’t conquer your demons.