WHITNEY E. HOUSTON, THE GREATEST VOICE OF ALL

Whitney Houston

Today, The Grandma has been recovering old long plays and singles at home. She loves music and she has got an extense collection. Between them, they have found some of Whitney Houston, the American singer and actress whose voice is considered one of the most incredible and beautiful ever listened to.

Whitney had an amazing career and her legacy is unforgettable and full of good music but she also had a complicated life, main reason of her death on a day like today in 2012. The Grandma wants to remember her talking about her music, because legends never die if their music continues being listened to.

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963-February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. She was cited as the most awarded female artist of all time by Guinness World Records and remains one of the best-selling music artists of all time with 200 million records sold worldwide.

Houston released seven studio albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have been certified diamond, multi-platinum, platinum, or gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Her crossover appeal on the popular music charts  -as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for How Will I Know- influenced several female African-American artists. Houston was a mezzo-soprano, and was commonly referred to as The Voice in reference to her exceptional vocal talent.

More information: Whitney Houston

Houston began singing in church as a child and became a background vocalist while in high school. With the guidance of Arista Records chairman Clive Davis, she signed to the label at the age of 19. Her first two studio albums, Whitney Houston (1985) and Whitney (1987), both reached number one on the Billboard 200 in the United States, and to-date are the biggest-selling first two albums released of any artist in history.

To this day, she is the only artist to have seven consecutive number-one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, from Saving All My Love for You in 1985 to Where Do Broken Hearts G in 1988.

Whitney with her mother Cissy Houston

Houston made her screen acting debut in the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard (1992). She recorded six songs for the film's soundtrack, including I Will Always Love You, which received the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became the best-selling single by a woman in music history. The soundtrack album received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year; it remains the best-selling soundtrack album in history.

Houston made other high-profile film appearances and contributed and produced their accompanying soundtracks, including Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996). The Preacher's Wife soundtrack went on to become the best-selling gospel album in history.

Following the critical and commercial success of My Love Is Your Love (1998), Houston signed a $100 million contract with Arista Records. However, her personal struggles began overshadowing her career, and the album Just Whitney (2002) received mixed reviews. Her drug use and a tumultuous marriage to Bobby Brown were widely publicized in media. After a six-year break from recording, Houston returned to the top of the Billboard 200 charts with her final studio album, I Look to You (2009).

On February 11, 2012, Houston was found dead at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. The coroner's report showed that she had accidentally drowned in the bathtub, with heart disease and cocaine use as contributing factors. News of her death coincided with the 2012 Grammy Awards and was featured prominently in international media.

More information: VEVO

Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born on August 9, 1963, in what was then a middle-income neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Army serviceman and entertainment executive John Russell Houston, Jr. and gospel singer Emily "Cissy" (Drinkard) Houston. Her elder brother Michael is a singer, and her elder half-brother is former basketball player Gary Garland. Her parents were both African American.

Through her mother, Houston was a first cousin of singers Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick. Her godmother was Darlene Love and her honorary aunt was Aretha Franklin, whom she met at age 8 or 9 when her mother took her to a recording studio.

Young Whitney

Houston was raised a Baptist, but was also exposed to the Pentecostal church. After the 1967 Newark riots, the family moved to a middle-class area in East Orange, New Jersey, when she was four. Her parents later divorced.

At the age of 11, Houston started performing as a soloist in the junior gospel choir at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where she also learned to play the piano. Her first solo performance in the church was Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.

In the early 1980s, Houston started working as a fashion model after a photographer saw her at Carnegie Hall singing with her mother. She became the first woman of color to appear on the cover of Seventeen and appeared in Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Young Miss, and appeared in a Canada Dry soft drink TV commercial.

With production from Michael Masser, Kashif, Jermaine Jackson, and Narada Michael Walden, Houston's debut album Whitney Houston was released in February 1985 and sold 25 million copies worldwide; Houston won her first Grammy Award with this LP. Rolling Stone magazine praised Houston, calling her one of the most exciting new voices in years while The New York Times called the album an impressive, musically conservative showcase for an exceptional vocal talent.

Arista Records promoted Houston's album with three different singles from the album in the US, UK and other European countries. In the UK, the dance-funk Someone for Me, which failed to chart in the country, was the first single while All at Once was in such European countries as the Netherlands and Belgium, where the song reached the top 5 on the singles charts, respectively.

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By 1986, a year after its initial release, Whitney Houston topped the Billboard 200 albums chart and stayed there for 14 non-consecutive weeks. The final single, Greatest Love of All (a cover of The Greatest Love of All, originally recorded by George Benson in 1977), became Houston's biggest hit yet; the single peaked at No. 1 and remained there for three weeks on the Hot 100 chart, making Houston's debut the first album by a woman to yield three No. 1 hits.

Houston was No. 1 artist of the year and Whitney Houston was the No. 1 album of the year on the 1986 Billboard year-end charts, making her the first woman to earn that distinction. At the time, the album was the best-selling debut album by a solo artist. Houston then embarked on her world tour, Greatest Love Tour.

Whitney Houston

Houston's second album, Whitney, was released in June 1987. The album's first single, I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me), was also a massive hit worldwide, peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and topping the singles chart in many countries. Her next three singles, Didn't We Almost Have It All, So Emotional, and Where Do Broken Hearts Go, all peaked at number one on the US Hot 100 chart, giving Houston a record total of seven consecutive number one hits; the previous record of six consecutive number one hits had been shared by the Beatles and the Bee Gees.

At the 30th Grammy Awards in 1988, Houston was nominated for three awards, including Album of the Year. She won her second Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me).

On June 11, 1988, during the European leg of her tour, Houston joined other musicians to perform a set at Wembley Stadium in London to celebrate a then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday.

She met R&B singer Bobby Brown at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards. After a three-year courtship, the two were married on July 18, 1992. Brown would go on to have several run-ins with the law for drunken driving, drug possession and battery, including some jail time.

Houston's first film role was in The Bodyguard, released in 1992 and co-starring Kevin Costner. The soundtrack's lead single was I Will Always Love You, written and originally recorded by Dolly Parton in 1974. Houston's version of the song was acclaimed by many critics, regarding it as her signature song or iconic performance. Houston won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1994 for I Will Always Love You.

More information: Rock & Roll-Hall of Fame

In 1995, Houston starred alongside Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, and Lela Rochon in her second film, Waiting to Exhale, a motion picture about four African-American women struggling with relationships. The film's accompanying soundtrack, Waiting to Exhale: Original Soundtrack Album, was written and produced by Babyface.

In 1996, Houston starred in the holiday comedy The Preacher's Wife, with Denzel Washington. Houston recorded and co-produced, with Mervyn Warren, the film's accompanying gospel soundtrack. The Preacher's Wife: Original Soundtrack Album included six gospel songs with Georgia Mass Choir that were recorded at the Great Star Rising Baptist Church in Atlanta. Houston also duetted with gospel legend Shirley Caesar. The album sold six million copies worldwide and scored hit singles with I Believe in You and Me and Step by Step, becoming the largest selling gospel album of all time.

Whitney Houston

After spending much of the early and mid-1990s working on motion pictures and their soundtrack albums, Houston's first studio album in eight years, the critically acclaimed My Love Is Your Love, was released in November 1998.

In May 2000, Whitney: The Greatest Hits was released worldwide.

In August 2001, Houston signed one of the biggest record deals in music history, with Arista/BMG. She renewed her contract for $100 million to deliver six new albums, on which she would also earn royalties. After years of controversy and turmoil, Houston separated from Bobby Brown in September 2006 and filed for divorce the following month.

Houston released her new album, I Look to You, in August 2009. The album's first two singles were the title track I Look to You and Million Dollar Bill. The album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1.

More information: Classic Whitney

In January 2010, Houston was nominated for two NAACP Image Awards, one for Best Female Artist and one for Best Music Video. She won the award for Best Music Video for her single I Look to You. On January 16, she received The BET Honors Award for Entertainer citing her lifetime achievements spanning over 25 years in the industry.

Houston reportedly appeared disheveled and erratic in the days immediately prior to her death. On Thursday, February 9, 2012, Houston visited singers Brandy and Monica, together with Clive Davis, at their rehearsals for Davis' pre-Grammy Awards party at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. That same day, she made her last public performance when she joined Kelly Price on stage in Hollywood, California and sang Jesus Loves Me.

Two days later, on February 11, Houston was found unconscious in Suite 434 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, submerged in the bathtub.

Houston was buried on February 19, 2012, in Fairview Cemetery, in Westfield, New Jersey, next to her father, John Russell Houston, who died in 2003.

More information: The New Yorker

When I decided to be a singer,

my mother warned me I'd be alone a lot.

Basically we all are. Loneliness comes with life.

Whitney Houston