Whitney Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012), born in New Jersey, was the first and only black singer to own three diamond records.
In the early 1990s, Whitney was a hot American superstar, and the single "I Will Always Love You" broke a record for 14 consecutive weeks on the US singles charts, establishing her unparalleled status as empress in the music industry at that time. The album that included the song, The Bodyguard, sold more than 45 million copies worldwide and topped the U.S. Billboard Albums Chart for 20 weeks, making it the highest-selling female artist album in history, a film soundtrack, and the album also won three Grammy Awards in Houston.
Whitney showed musical talent from an early age, and her mother, cousin, and godmother were all well-known singers in the field of gospel music and soul music.
She once said in an interview that since she was a child, she has known that her singing ability is "a God-given contagion."
At the age of 15, Whitney performed on stage with his mother. Around the same time, she was spotted by a photographer, became a very popular teen model, and became the first African-American woman to appear on the cover of Seventeen magazine.
At the age of 19, she was scouted from nightclubs by Arista Records and began to train her to turn to pop stars.
In 1985, the self-titled debut album Whitney Houston became the best-selling female singer's debut album with more than 25 million copies sold worldwide.
In 1992, the success of the film "The Bodyguard" enabled Whitney, who played the heroine, to successfully transition to the film and television field, and his career map was more extensive.
But, like many star entertainers, Whitney is far less shrewd and capable in dealing with emotional marriage than running a business.
Alongside her soaring career, there was also the biggest annoyance that accompanied her for the rest of her life, Bobby Brown, nicknamed "Bad Boy".
Bobby was six years younger than Whitney and the two married in 1992, after Bobby had been married twice. At first, the marriage was a happy one, but soon Whitney's troubles exploded, and Bobby, who abused drugs, caused more and more trouble, and later when Whitney recalled the experience, he mentioned that he had also suffered domestic violence.
Punching up on security guards while hosting parties in Hollywood, beating up guests for no reason at nightclubs, peeing on police cars... All of this egregious behavior counted as Bobby's pediatrics, and he was nearly murdered in Boston in September 1995, when his 28-year-old brother-in-law became a scapegoat and was killed.
Inexplicably, Bobby, who is such an, has been tolerated by Whitney. She had separated from Bobby in August 1995, but the two had reconciled less than half a year later, and Whitney said that despite her marital frictions with Bobby, Bobby was still her good husband and she should respect him.
Outside commentators have always argued that Bobby and Whitney are very incompatible. Back in 1989, Bobby had been charged and arrested for performing obscene songs and dances on stage, and he was also a well-known alcoholic among black singers. But in Whitney's eyes, he was the most attractive man. According to Whitney, Bobby is attractive because he is simple and waiting for her, and not pretending to please her like some men.
For this so-called equal treatment charm, Whitney has been paying the price. At first, it was only a loss of money.
In 1992, Bobby was seized and auctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for $1.3 million for a $1.3 million "Duterte"-style building in Atlanta (then worth $1.5 million), which Whitney paid for to help Bobby keep it. But the once luxurious building was later left uninhabited, with closed doors and windows, sewage flowing, and became a gathering place for snakes, insects, rats, and ants. Whitney, on the other hand, believes that her actions are only working for "love", and she has to fight for her charismatic lover.
During this period, although Bobby's behavior was very bad, and the marriage between the two people was shaky in the eyes of outsiders, Whitney's career was not greatly affected, and she was one of the highest-paid artists in the world at that time, earning $33 million in 1993-1994 alone.
By the late 1990s, Bobby's impact on Whitney had far exceeded the economic scope, especially the drugs that severely affected Whitney's health, and she soon had a career crisis in poor shape, and in 2002, she cancelled several concerts. In an interview, the image that appeared on television also looked very thin and unhealthy. Speculation was that she was on the verge of collapse.
In 2004, the real lives of the two men were presented on the reality show Bobby Brown, causing a lot of criticism and controversy, and Whitney's reputation also fell to the bottom.
Over the next few years, Whitney struggled to rehabilitate and try to repair the marriage, but it struggled to succeed, and eventually, she had to suspend her career and divorced Bobby in 2007. Gained sole custody of her daughter Christina.
After years of struggling with an unhappy marriage, Whitney wanted to return to the stage with music, she released a new album and resumed on stage, but the sound quality was excessively depleted by drugs, and the stage quality was greatly disappointed.
Houston died on February 11, 2012, at the age of 48, after slipping into a bathtub at a Hilton hotel in Los Angeles. The official cause of death was an accidental drowning. The effects of heart disease and cocaine found in her body were also contributing factors.
With her death, the music industry lost one of its most legendary stars.
The pictures in this article are from the internet