Whitney Houston Dead at 48
On the eve of music’s biggest night, the music industry was shocked, stunned, and saddened by the unexpected death of former Grammy Award winning diva Whitney Houston. An autopsy is yet to be performed on the 48 year old mother of teenage daughter, 18 year old Bobbi Kristina Brown. She is believed to have either passed out drowning in the bathtub of her hotel room at the Beverly Hills Hilton, or her sudden death is just an accumulation of how her life has been in a downward spiral for the past decade. Grammy’s host L.L. Cool J. paid tribute by Opening the Show with these heartfelt words, “There is no way around this. .We’ve had a death in our family. And so at least, for me, the only thing that feels right is to begin with a prayer for a woman who we loved, to our fallen sister, Whitney Houston.” Everywhere Whitney went, the people she touched made a dramatic impact in many lives. Her death wasn’t just felt by many in the music industry, but affected many others who’s lives she touched all over the nation. Sunday morning, on the steps of the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, NJ stood a grieving pastor Joe Carter. He stood on the same steps where a young Whitney first came to the microphone many decades ago.
An established church singer from East Orange, NJ, she arrived on the scene in 1985 with incredible, beauty, passion in her voice, and a charismatic charm that would go on to not only generate record-breaking album and single sales, but she set the bar, and launched many dreams for future pop stars and divas belting Whitney songs in front of the mirror. Grammy Award winning singer Beyonce expressed her remorse, “I, like every singer, always wanted to be just like her. Her voice was perfect. Strong but soothing. Soulful and classic. Her vibrato, her cadence, her control. So many of my life’s memories are attached to a Whitney Houston song. She is our queen and she opened doors and provided a blueprint for all of us.
Her livelihood and death mirrors that of another former pop icon Michael Jackson. According to Bill Werde, editorial director for Billboard noted, “When a performer with a public and troubled persona dies, I think a lot of the baggage evaporates and what’s left behind is this spectacular career of work and music. Part of that process starts right away.” Her path also follows music legends; Janis Joplin, Jim Morrision, Elvis Presley. Songwriter Diane Warren had performed several songs with Houston on the Red Carpet prior to the show expressed her love for Whitney, “Sunday’s Grammys, a night meant for musical merriment, was overshadowed by the death. It’s like a big cloud, it’s sad.” Her sudden death came hours before she was scheduled to be the guest of honor at the annual pre-Grammy party Saturday night of her mentor , music mogul Clive Davis. Police were called to the Beverly Hilton around 3:43 PM PT. Fire department personnel responded immediately, but on her fourth-floor hotel room, the once Grammy Award winning Superstar diva was unresponsive to CPR and pronounced dead at 3:55 PM
Many current music superstars, and celebrities expressed their condolences; “She will never be forgotten as one of the greatest voices to ever grace the earth”-Mariah Carey, “Whitney’s voice was so special to me. Her notes soared to places most singers dream of reaching.”-Christina Aguilera. She leaves behind her mother Cissy Houston, teenage daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, godmother Aretha Franklin, older cousin Dionne Warwick, and cousin De Dee Warwick. All these people have once upon a time made their mark in Music History as well. Her story began when she became one of the first African-american women to grace the cover of Seventeen Magazine, as an up and coming magazine model. Record mogul producer Clive David signed her to his Arista Records label in 1983 and their Journey began. Her debut album “Whitney Houston” in 1985 received rave reviews, featuring hit singles, “You Give Good Love”, “Saving All My Love For You”, “How Will I Know”, “The Greatest Love of All”. The album sold 13 million copies domestically. She even guest starred in the NBC hit “Silver Spoons” playing herself. Her follow-up album, self titled “Whitney”, sold 9 million copies in the USA. It featured record-breaking hits; “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), “Didn’t We Almost Have It All”, “So Emotional”, and “Where do Broken Hearts Go”. This would cement her place in history with a record seven chart-toppers in a row.
As the 1980’s came to a draw, her third album “I’m Your Baby Tonight” resembled her move into a more urban direction. The album was produced by L.A. Reid, Babyface, Stevie Wonder, and Luther Vandross, but it failed to generate the publicity of the first two. She captured our Nation’s attention with the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before Super XXV, while our Country was still at War. To this day it currently is measured by all National Anthem Singers. In 1992, she made a career altering move by breaking into acting. She co-starred with Kevin Costner in the film “The Bodyguard”. The film would gross $121 million at the box office, and feature an award winning soundtrack with Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”. The song remained at No. 1 on the Billboard Music Charts for 14 consecutive weeks. She would make another National appearance two years later, performing at a state dinner at the White House to honor newly elected South African President Nelson Mandela. She would later perform in his country to 200,000 people. Her next two films at the box office were quite successful. 1995’s “Waiting To Exhale”,and 1996’s “The Preacher’s Wife”. A year later, she would branch into TV starring alongside Brandy in a remake of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella”, where she would play the Fairy Godmother. This led into her first studio album in eight years, “My Love is Your Love”. The album only sold 4 million copies. As the 1990’s came to a close, Houston’s fading popularity from the National Spotlight began to show, and what would be an epitome of her dramatic fall from fame to her sudden death Saturday.
Rumors of drug use with future husband, R&B sensation Bobby Brown, erratic behavior, weight loss, missed interviews, canceled concerts was accumulative to how she lived the next decade in absurdity. After signing a $100 million/Six album deal with Arista/BMG in 2001. She appeared on Michael Jackson’s 30th Anniversary Special sporting a very thin frame. Then the most shocking revelations of her admittance to drug usage on a Prime-Time interview with Diane Sawyer. She declared, “Crack is cheap. I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Let’s get that straight. OK? We don’t do crack. We don’t do that. Crack is wack.” At the time, “Just Whitney” became her least selling album to date, and due to personal turmoil, maybe it was time to put her singing career on personal hiatus, or just hang it up altogether. Surprisingly her Final Tour in 2010 were a recollection of her once Powerhouse voice that sold many records, and lost years of drug abuse. She once blamed Bobby Brown’s jealousy for taking marijuana and rock cocaine. It’s quite obvious that Bobby Brown brought Whitney Houston down, but a lot of it was her own personal struggle of trying to stay in the National Spotlight after spending a majority of the 80’s and ‘90’s on top of the world. Her legacy and death will be remembered by her singing, her voice. As contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine Anthony DeCurtis noted, “That will be the lasting legacy. If an event like this can have a positive effect, it’s to restore focus on the person’s artistry rather than the foilbles.” One thing is for certain ‘Whitney, We Will Always Love You.”
