Whitney Houston

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (born August 9 1963 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American pop, R&B, and soul and gospel singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She was one of the most popular and successful singers of the 1980s and 1990s, and has received multiple Grammy Awards, American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, two Emmy Awards, an MTV Video Music Award, and an MTV Movie Award. Also two songs which she performed have been nominated for an Academy Award, although she herself has not.

Early years

Whitney's mother (Cissy Houston), first cousin (Dionne Warwick) and Godmother (Aretha Franklin) were all established Gospel/R&B/Soul singers, which caused her to always be around the presence of music while she was growing up. At the age of 11, she started performing as a soloist in the junior gospel choir at the New Hope Baptist church in Newark and would later go on to accompanying her mother in concert. After appearing her mother's 1978 album, Think It Over, she started as a backing singer for many other established acts, such as Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson, and Lou Rawls. At the age of 16, she was featured as the lead vocalist on the Michael Zager Band's single, "Life's a Party". In the early-1980s, she started appearing as a model in various magazines (and even appeared on the cover of Seventeen magazine.) In 1982, she made her first recording as a featured vocalist with the Jazz-Funk ensemble, Material. The song is called "Memories" and is featured on the group's album, One Down.

Related Topics:
Cissy Houston - Dionne Warwick - Aretha Franklin - Gospel - Baptist - 1978 - Think It Over - Chaka Khan - Jermaine Jackson - Lou Rawls - Michael Zager Band - Seventeen - 1982 - Material

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First album

By 1983, Houston had entered a worldwide contract with Arista Records after Arista chief Clive Davis heard Houston perform at a nightclub with her mother. The following year had her first commercial success when "Hold Me", a duet with Teddy Pendergrass, crept into the U.S. top fifty on the pop-singles chart while reaching the top five of the R&B charts. However, the rest of that year was taken up with the recording of a debut album. Clive Davis, who had taken a strong personal interest in the vocalist, insisted on selecting the best songwriters and producers in search of the definitive debut album.

Related Topics:
1983 - Clive Davis - Teddy Pendergrass

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Her eponymous first album was released in February 1985, and it began its slow rise up the album charts. Its steady climb was encouraged by the success of the singles "You Give Good Love" and "Saving All My Love for You", which reached numbers three and one respectively. The latter single also saw her on top of the charts in the UK and much of the rest of the world. The soul-influenced "How Will I Know" and the more soul-flavored "Greatest Love of All", both topped the U.S. charts in rapid succession.

Related Topics:
1985 - You Give Good Love - Saving All My Love for You - How Will I Know - Greatest Love of All

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A year to the month after its release, Whitney Houston hit number one on the album charts. It eventually sold over fourteen million copies in the U.S. alone, making it the best-selling debut ever by an American female artist (tied with Britney Spears's 1999 debut album Baby One More Time) Her success was acknowledged by a series of prestigious awards, notably a Best Pop Vocal Performance-Female Grammy for "Saving All My Love for You" and an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety Program on TV.

Related Topics:
Whitney Houston - Britney Spears - Baby One More Time

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Whitney's popularity was growing fast. She landed an advertising deal with Coca-Cola, guest-starred on Gimme a Break and Silver Spoons, and even auditioned for the part of Sondra Huxtable on the number-one show in the nation, The Cosby Show (she lost the part to Sabrina Le Beauf).

Related Topics:
Coca-Cola - Gimme a Break - Silver Spoons - The Cosby Show - Sabrina Le Beauf

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Whitney

Houston cemented her superstar status on her next album, Whitney. Despite the unimaginative title, it sold over nine million copies in the U.S. "I Wanna Dance with Somebody", released in 1987, topped charts around the world, paving the way for Whitney to become the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the U.S. album chart, a feat it also achieved in the U.K. Also, Houston had a record four number-one singles from an album (a record broken in 1988, when Michael Jackson took the record when he had five number ones from his album Bad).

Related Topics:
Whitney - I Wanna Dance with Somebody - 1987 - Michael Jackson - Bad

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The album included a version of "I Know Him So Well", sung as a duet with her mother Cissy, and the ballad "Didn't We Almost Have It All", which became her fifth successive U.S. number one shortly afterwards. However, even this was surpassed when "So Emotional" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" continued the sequence, making seven consecutive number one hits, breaking a record previously shared by the Beatles and the Bee Gees. Houston was also declared by the Guinness Book of World Records to have had the most consecutive U.S. number-one singles. In 1988, she made a controversial appearance at Nelson Mandela's 70th Birthday Party, where other acts accused her of behaving like a prima donna. By September, "Love Will Save the Day" had finally broken the winning sequence in the USA, where it could only manage number nine.

Related Topics:
Didn't We Almost Have It All - So Emotional - Where Do Broken Hearts Go - The Beatles - The Bee Gees - Guinness Book of World Records - 1988 - Nelson Mandela - Love Will Save the Day

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Another series of awards followed, including the Best Pop Vocal Performance-Female Grammy for "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" and Pop Female Vocal and Soul/R&B Female Vocal categories at the American Music Awards. Rumors abounded of film offers alongside such actors as Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy; however, Houston turned down all movie offers at this time.

Related Topics:
American Music Awards - Robert De Niro - Eddie Murphy

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I'm Your Baby Tonight

Her recording of the title track to the 1988 Olympics tribute, "One Moment in Time", restored her to U.S. top-five prominence and topped the UK singles chart. The follow-up single "I'm Your Baby Tonight" put Houston back on top of the U.S. singles chart. Despite the relatively modest success of the album of the same name (number three in the U.S. charts), "All The Man That I Need" compensated by becoming her ninth number one. She became permanently enshrined in the hearts of the American public, however, when she took the microphone to perform "The Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV in Tampa. The public response ensured that the version emerged as a single shortly afterwards. The single went gold and helped to raise funds for the American Red Cross. She also performed the song and her other hits at Norfolk, VA as she welcomed back US troops returning from the Gulf War with a highly rated HBO concert.

Related Topics:
1988 Olympics - One Moment in Time - I'm Your Baby Tonight - All The Man That I Need - Super Bowl XXV - American Red Cross

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