Foreword

It has been 9 years since one of the most appreciated of all times died, leaving behind songs that
made history, but also questions that will not be answered. On February 11, 2012, the world of the
music industry would be irreversibly shaken by terrible news. Whitney Houston, an unparalleled
voice and an established artist, was found dead in a hotel tub at just 49, and her autopsy revealed
shocking details about the one who charmed tens of thousands of people with her voice.
Whitney Houston, the owner of six Grammys and a voice that caused a stir, died nine years ago,
after years of struggling with addiction to banned substances and the traumas that have marked her
throughout her life. The stormy applause, the worldwide success and the appreciation of his friends
did not bring him the joy he dreamed of, and his love life only increased his inner turmoil.

Whitney Houston, (born August 9, 1963, Newark, New Jersey, USA - died February 11, 2012,
Beverly Hills, California), American singer and actress who was one of the best-selling music
performers of the 1980s and ' 90.
The reason I have chosen to write about her is pretty obvious; she was a very interesting and
talented singer. Whitney Houston's music icon has left a legacy that breaks down barriers that
continue to inspire singers who have come after her. After moving from modeling to music,
Houston aligned with a team that allowed her voice to grow around the globe. But it was her talent
that carried her.
The first chapter is about her journey through life, where we found out that at the height of her
career, Whitney Houston was the golden face of the music industry. From the mid-1980s to the late
1990s, she was one of the best-selling artists. He amazed the audience with his strong voice, with
chords rooted in gospel music, but with a pop glow.
The second chapter is dedicated to her activity as a singer and actress. The singer has sold seven
studio albums to approximately 200 million children worldwide and had seven consecutive hits on
the Billboard Hot 100, a record she shares with Madonna. The artist's awards include six Grammys,
two Emmys, 30 Billboard Music Awards and 22 American Music Awards. The artist has also starred
in several films - "The Bodyguard" (1992), "Waiting To Exhale" (1995), "The Preacher's Wife"
(1996) and "Cinderella" (1997).
The third chapter deals with her puzzling death and the theories that surround it. For such a
celebrated musician, Houston’s life was cut dismally short. She died a tragic death in 2012 at the
age of 49. The news of her death was sudden and came as a shock at a time when nobody expected

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it, especially under the circumstances it took place. It was a tragic turn of events, and it left the
world of music completely shook.
We have seen too many instances of how drug abuse often overtakes artists who work day in and

day out within the entertainment industry. Houston was no different. Her struggle with drugs,

alcoholism and smoking as well as her declining health affected her all through her career until one

day it reached a point of no return.

The fourth chapter presents some information from the private life of the famous artist, which not
many knew. In this chapter we learn that already after Houston's death, journalists learned
mysterious details from her biography that could explain her behavior. As it turned out, Whitney
liked women all her life, but she was afraid of her speaking openly - she just didn't want to upset her
parents who were negatively related to sexual minorities. Even as a teenager, the singer approached
Robin Crawford, who had long been her assistant.
Despite her tumultuous life, Whitney Houston has managed to influence the lives of the younger
generation of children to do what they want to do in life and has influenced them to sing. Her voice
and tone have influenced even the singers who live today. They could be singers you've never
thought of, like Nicki Minaj and Kelly Rowland. More information about this music star can be
found in the following pages.

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 Chapter 1: Life, family, and career beginnings

The first chapter of my paper is dedicated to the life, family and career begining.
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 ex-Army serviceman and Newark
city administrator John Russell Houston Jr. and gospel singer Emily "Cissy" (Drinkard)
Houston. Her elder brother Michael is a songwriter, and her elder half-brother is former basketball
player and singer 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 eight or nine
when her mother took her to a recording studio. 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 age eleven, Houston began 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".

New Hope Baptist Church,

where Houston sang in the choir as a child

While Houston was still in school, her mother,

Cissy, continued to teach her how to sing.Cissy was a member of the group The Sweet
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Inspirations which also opened for and sang backup for Elvis Presley. Houston spent some of her
teens touring nightclubs where Cissy was performing, and she would occasionally get onstage and
perform with her. Houston was also exposed to the music of Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight,
and Roberta Flack, most of whom would have an influence on her as a singer and performer. In
1977, aged 14, she became a backup singer on the Michael Zager Band's single "Life's a Party". In
1978, at 15, Houston sang background vocals for Chaka Khan and Lou Rawls.

Houston attended Mount Saint Dominic Academy, a Catholic girls' high school in Caldwell, New
Jersey; she graduated in 1981. During her teens, Houston met Robyn Crawford, who she described
as the "sister she never had". Crawford went on to become Houston's best friend, roommate,
and executive assistant. After Houston rose to stardom, she and Crawford were rumored to be
lovers, which they both denied in 1987.In 2019, several years after Houston's death, Crawford
stated that their early relationship had included sexual activity, but that Houston ended this for fear
of others' reactions.

In the early 1980s, Houston began 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. Her looks and girl-next-door charm made her one of the
most sought-after teen models. In 1982, under the suggestion of longtime friend Valerie Simpson,
Houston signed with Tara Productions and hired Daniel Gittleman, Seymour Flics, and Gene
Harvey as her managers. With them, Houston continued her burgeoning recording career by
working with producers Michael Beinhorn, Bill Laswell and Martin Bisi on an album they were
spearheading called One Down, which was credited to the group Material. For that project, she
contributed the ballad "Memories", a cover of a song by Hugh Hopper of Soft Machine. Robert
Christgau of The Village Voice called her contribution "one of the most gorgeous ballads you've
ever heard". She also appeared as a lead vocalist on one track on a Paul Jabara album, entitled Paul
Jabara and Friends, released by Columbia Records in 1983.

In 1983, Gerry Griffith, an A&R representative from Arista Records, saw Houston performing

with her mother in a New York nightclub. He convinced Arista's head Clive Davis to make time to
see her perform. Davis was impressed and immediately offered a worldwide record deal, which
Houston eventually signed after being alternatively sought after by another label. (Houston had
been offered deals by recording agencies before—by Michael Zager in 1980, and by Elektra
Records in 1981—but her mother declined them on the grounds that Whitney had yet to complete

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high school. Later that year, Houston made her national television debut alongside Davis on The
Merv Griffin Show.She performed "Home", a song from the musical The Wiz.

Houston did not begin work on an album immediately. The label wanted to make sure no other
label signed her away, and Davis wanted to ensure he had the right material and producers for her
debut album. Some producers passed on the project because of prior commitments. Houston first
recorded a duet with Teddy Pendergrass, "Hold Me", which appeared on his gold album, Love
Language. The single was released in 1984 and gave Houston her first taste of success, becoming a
Top 5 R&B hit. It would also appear on her debut album in 1985.

Throughout the 1980s, Houston was romantically linked to musician Jermaine Jackson, American
football star Randall Cunningham and actor Eddie Murphy.

She then 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. On March 4,
1993, Houston gave birth to their daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown (March 4, 1993 – July 26,
2015), the couple's only child. 

Houston performing at a
state dinner in the White House honoring then-South African president Nelson
Mandela in 1994

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 Chapter 2: Awards and achievements

The next chapter of this paper is about Whitney’s Houston awards and achievements.
Houston won two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 16 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American
Music Awards, among a total of 415 career awards as of 2010. She held the all-time record for the
most American Music Awards of any female solo artist and shared the record with Michael Jackson
for the most AMAs ever won in a single year with eight wins in 1994. Houston won a record 11
Billboard Music Awards at its fourth ceremony in 1993.She also had the record for the most WMAs
won in a single year, winning five awards at the 6th World Music Awards in 1994.

In May 2003, Houston placed at number three on VH1's list of "50 Greatest Women of the Video
Era", behind Madonna and Janet Jackson. She was also ranked at number 116 on their list of the
"200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons of All Time". In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the
Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary, ranking Houston
at number nine. Similarly, she was ranked as one of the "Top 100 Greatest Artists of All Time" by
VH1 in September 2010.  In November 2010, Billboard released its "Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists
of the Past 25 Years" list and ranked Houston at number three who not only went on to earn eight
number-one singles on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but also landed five number ones
on R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.

Houston's debut album is listed as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling
Stone magazine and is on Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Definitive 200 list. In
2004, Billboard picked the success of her first release on the charts as one of 110 Musical
Milestones in its history.  Houston's entrance into the music industry is considered one of the 25
musical milestones of the last 25 years, according to USA Today in 2007. It stated that she paved the
way for Mariah Carey's chart-topping vocal gymnastics. In 1997, the Franklin School in East
Orange, New Jersey was renamed to The Whitney E. Houston Academy School of Creative and
Performing Arts. In 2001, Houston was the first artist to be given a BET Lifetime Achievement
Award. Houston is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, with over 200 million records
sold worldwide. As of 2020, she ranks fourth on the list of best-selling female artists in the United
States by the Recording Industry Association of America with 60 million certified albums sold. She
held an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Grambling State University, Louisiana. Houston
was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2013.  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). In August 2014, Houston was inducted
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into the official Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in its second class.  In October 2019,
Houston was announced as a 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee, one of nine first-time
nominees and 16 total. On January 15, 2020, Houston was announced as an inductee into the Hall's
2020 class, along with five other acts. In March 2020, it was announced that Houston's 1992 cover
of "I Will Always Love You" was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Recording
Registry, which preserves music for their significant contribution to American sound-system.[

Whiteny Houston singing ,,I will always love you”

But all the while, Houston is abusing drugs. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2010, the
singer said that by the year the film "The Preacher's Wife" was released, drug use had become daily.
In the same interview, Houston blamed her troubled marriage to Brown, who was accused of
domestic violence in 1993. The two divorced in 2007.
Houston has undergone detox several times, declaring herself cured of this addiction in 2010, as
she also states in an interview for Winfrey. but, all this time, there were canceled concerts, bizarre
public appearances and a detention for drug possession.
Houston had a successful comeback in 2009, with the album "I Look To You", which debuted at
number one on the charts and brought him the platinum record. but soon things began to degenerate.
At a concert to promote the album, during the TV show "Good Morning America", his voice
seemed broken. Whitney blamed a previous interview with Winfrey.
But the world tour released to promote the 2009 album confirmed that Whitney had lost her voice.
Many fans were unimpressed, some left the concerts. Canceled shows have sparked speculation that
he is abusing drugs again, but his spokesmen denied this, saying she was ill.

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 Recently, the American press wrote that Whitney Houston was facing bankruptcy and that she was
financially supported by her record company, from which she received a check in advance for the
next album. A source told RadarOnline that the artist was "poor to the ground."

Whitney Houston is the only artist in the world to have released seven consecutive platinum-
winning albums, surpassing even the Beatles in this regard. Worldwide, the American diva has sold
over 170 million albums and singles, including the song "I Will Always Love You", released in
1993 and which has become one of the best-selling songs of all time. . Her list of awards also
includes, among others, 2 Emmys, 30 Billboard Music Awards and 22 American Music Awards.

Houston at the O2 Arena in London, April 28, 2010,

as part of her Nothing but Love World Tour

Houston performing "My Love Is Your Love" with

her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown on Good Morning
America, September 1, 2009
Chapter 3: Death under mysterious circumstances

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 The next chapter of this paper deals with more enpleasant facts about Whitney’s Houston: her
death under mysterious circumstances.
Houston reportedly appeared "disheveled" and "erratic" in the days immediately prior to her
death. On 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. Beverly Hills paramedics arrived at approximately
3:30 p.m., found Houston unresponsive, and performed CPR. Houston was pronounced dead at
3:55 p.m. PST.  The cause of death was not immediately known; local police said there were "no
obvious signs of criminal intent". On March 22, 2012, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office
reported that Houston's death was caused by drowning and the "effects of atherosclerotic heart
disease and cocaine use".The office stated the amount of cocaine found in Houston's body indicated
that she used the substance shortly before her death. Toxicology results revealed additional drugs in
her
system: diphenhydramine (Benadryl), alprazolam (Xanax), cannabis and cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril). 
The manner of death was listed as an "accident".

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 The Beverly Hilton Hotel, where Houston's body was found
The autopsy report, which reached the press 8 years after the artist's death, shows that she had lost
11 teeth and had almost no eyebrows. Also, according to the same report, the heart disease he
suffered from was extremely serious, one of the arteries being blocked in proportion of 60%.
The singer had spent several days in Los Angeles and was preparing to go to a party the day
before the Grammy Awards gala, being accommodated at The Beverly Hilton Hotel. She went into
the bathtub to take a bath and told her assistant that she felt a sore throat. She was found dead in the
water, with severe burns on her back and loose skin on her legs. By the time it was discovered, the
water in the tub would have been 60 degrees. A sting could be seen on his left arm and the scars left
after the breast implant operation could be seen.
She and most of Whitney's death were experienced by Bobby Christina's only daughter. The
girl clearly suffered from depression and was addicted to alcohol and drugs.
In addition, the public was constantly put on it: the legacy of the cult artist criticized the fact that
she married Nick Gordon. The young man was the son of a close friend of Whitney and sat in the
house at the stars of the 12th.
The artist's daughter died in 2015, in the same circumstances as her mother. The husband found
Bobby Christina in the bathroom unconscious. Doctors artificially introduced a girl to whom and
for six months tried to save her, but there were no improvements and she was disconnected from the
artificial ventilation of the lungs. Many network users suspected that Bobby Christina's death was
involved in the nickname. Like, the guy eliminated the celebrity first and then her daughter to
attribute all the inheritance. However, law enforcement decided that Gordon had nothing to do with
these tragedies.

Flowers near the Beverly

Hilton Hotel

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 We miss
you" message at the Los Angeles Theatre

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 Chapter 4: Scary secrets

The fourth chapter presents some scary secrets from the private life of the famous artist, which
not many knew.
Already after Houston's death, journalists learned mysterious details from her biography that
could explain her behavior. As it turned out, Whitney liked women all her life, but she was afraid of
her speaking openly - she just didn't want to upset her parents who were negatively related to sexual
minorities. Even as a teenager, the singer approached Robin Crawford, who had long been her
assistant.

According to rumors, Whitney Houston and her assistant Robin Crawford have not only
befriended.
Whitney herself claimed that only a friendly relationship is connected with Robin. "We are
childhood friends and now they work together. And that's it. If I communicate with a woman, it
doesn't mean we have a novel!" - said the star on the American rolling stone.
In 1999, Houston and Crawford stopped cooperating. The former celebrity stylist said that at that
moment, the "drop" began: "It seems to me that if Robin stayed, Watti would have been alive today.
She has no close friends at all."
There is a version that the artist always dreamed of being with his personal assistant and married
the scandalous Bobby Brown came out only for the sake of the cover of his true novel. However,
confirmation or denial of this information is unlikely to ever be obtained.
In the spring of this year, Star Biographies opened other curious details. She is believed to have
been another child who was sexually abused by her cousin, the singer di de Warwick, 18 years her
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senior. It is alleged that a woman was abused by Whitney and her brother. Relatives of Warwick, of
course, said that these facts are mentally relevant. However, some believe that the singer's whole
life with a magical voice could go downhill.
CONCLUSIONS

On August 9, one of the greatest performers in the history of world music, Whitney Houston,
could celebrate her 55th birthday. On February 2012, the life of the artist with a difficult fate was
tragically broken. On the anniversary date, the site tells how the star burst on the pedestal of glory
and what was its downfall.
When the people of Whitney Houston go, they say the loss was irrelevant. The world lost a lot
when there was no actor with a five-octave voice ... probably not a single singer was able to
perform romantic ballads like Houston. It is no coincidence that the composition „I will always love
you” has become a hit forever.
Houston won a large number of prestigious awards, become one of the best successful singers in
history, her concerts collected entire stadiums of four from all over the world.
She lived a bohemian life and indulged in many harmful activities, such as drugs, but in her work
she promised morality and clearly had noble aspirations.
Whitney Houston was a romantic personality, but her love was more impersonal as she tended to
focus on her dreams instead.
When not in harmony with her true nature, Whitney could fall into the mood, she could become
distant and withdrawn. She could also become shy, insecure, and ungrateful, blaming herself for her
troubles on others or the world. She was often disappointed by the realities of life, her own
shortcomings, and those of others, and was constantly driven to improve everything — striving for
greater accomplishments. This is Whitney's life lesson - to accept the natural limitations of the
world and its inhabitants to make it possible for her to enjoy life more fully.
During the research for this paper I found out so many interesting aspects of this great artist. It
was a fascinating journey în which I discovered her life and work, with both positive and negative
aspects. Too bad that her star could not shine for more time. But her music will alive on for ever.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_Houston#Influence

2. https://www.profm.ro/stiri/whitney-houston-biografia-si-cele-mai-cunoscute-piese-vezi-clipurile-
18467

3.https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/whitney-houston-had-reservations-about-her-
character-in-the-bodyguard-she-was-a-little-bich.html/

4. https://www.click.ro/vedete/celebritati/opt-ani-de-la-moartea-lui-whitney-houston-dramele-care-
au-marcat-viata-tumultoasa

5. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/whitney-houston-tragic-death/

6. https://iia-rf.ru/ro/girls/uitni-hyuston-lichnaya-biografiya-uitni-hyuston-proshchanie-s-legendoi/

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