Whitney Houston

She had three older brothers, paternal half-brother John III (1943–2021), maternal half-brother Gary Garland, a former basketball player and singer, and Michael Houston, a songwriter and road manager.

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress.

Known as "the Voice", she is regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of music and one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with over 220 million records sold worldwide.

She influenced many singers in the recording industry, and was known for her powerful, soulful vocals, vocal improvisation skills, use of gospel singing techniques in pop music, and live performances.

Houston had 11 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and is the only artist to have seven consecutive number-one singles on the chart.

Her accolades include eight Grammy Awards, 22 American Music Awards, two Emmy Awards, and 30 Guinness World Records.

Houston's inductions include the Grammy Hall of Fame (twice), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, the New Jersey Hall of Fame, and the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.

Houston began singing at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, as a child and became a background vocalist while in high school.

Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born on August 9, 1963, at Newark Beth Israel Hospital (now Newark Beth Israel Medical Center) in Newark, New Jersey, the daughter of Emily "Cissy" (née Drinkard) and John Russell Houston Jr. (1920–2003).

Houston's mother Cissy was a Grammy-winning gospel and soul singer, who was a member of The Drinkard Singers and the founder of The Sweet Inspirations, a popular session vocal group that recorded background vocals for the likes of Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley.

The group later earned a Grammy nomination for their hit, "Sweet Inspiration".

Cissy later left the Sweet Inspirations, starting a solo career that later resulted in two Grammy Award wins for gospel work.

Her father John was a former Army serviceman who later became an administrator who worked for Newark mayor Kenneth A. Gibson.

Her parents were both African-American.

On her mother's side, Houston was alleged to have partial Dutch and Native American ancestry.

Through Cissy, Houston was a first cousin of accomplished singers Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick as well as a distant cousin of opera singer Leontyne Price.

Aretha Franklin became an "honorary aunt", while Darlene Love later became Houston's godmother.

The family later relocated to a suburban area of East Orange three years following the Newark race riots of 1967.

She was one of the first black women to appear on the cover of Seventeen after becoming a teen model in 1981.

With the guidance of Arista Records chairman Clive Davis, Houston signed to the label at age 19.

Her first two studio albums, Whitney Houston (1985) and Whitney (1987), both peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and are among the best-selling albums of all time.

Hit singles from the albums, including "How Will I Know", "Greatest Love of All" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", established her as a catalyst in the acceptance of black female artists on MTV.

Her third studio album, I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990), yielded two Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, the title track and "All the Man That I Need".

Houston's rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV in 1991 received widespread media coverage.

Houston made her acting debut with the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard (1992), which despite its mixed reviews became the tenth highest-grossing film to that date.

Its soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and remains the bestselling soundtrack album of all time.

It generated multiple hit singles, including "I Have Nothing", "I'm Every Woman" and "I Will Always Love You"; the latter won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, spent a then-record 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and became the best-selling single by a woman in music history.

Subsequently, she went on to star in the films Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996), and she recorded their respective soundtracks; the former scored her last Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)", while the latter, produced by Houston herself, became the bestselling gospel album of all time.

As a film producer, she produced multicultural movies and series such as Cinderella (1997) and The Princess Diaries and The Cheetah Girls.

Houston's first studio album in eight years, My Love Is Your Love (1998), spawned several hit singles, including the title track, "Heartbreak Hotel", "It's Not Right but It's Okay" and the Academy Award-winning Mariah Carey duet "When You Believe".

Following the success, she renewed her contract with Arista for $100 million in 2001, one of the biggest recording deals of all time.

However, her personal problems began to overshadow her career.

Her 2002 studio album, Just Whitney, received mixed reviews, while her drug use and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown received widespread media coverage.

After divorcing Brown, Houston returned to the top of the Billboard 200 chart with her final studio album, I Look to You (2009).

In February 2012, Houston accidentally drowned in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, with heart disease and cocaine use as contributing factors.

News of her death coincided with the 2012 Grammy Awards, which took place the day following her death, and was covered internationally.

Her assets amounted to $250 million, earned over a 25-year career.

Her life and career were dramatized in the 2022 biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody.

Through her father, her great-great-grandfather Jeremiah Burke Sanderson was an American abolitionist and advocate for the civil and educational rights of black Americans during the mid-19th century.

Houston was the youngest child of her parents.