Whitney Houston was an American singer, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, Guinness World Records cited her as the most awarded female act of all time.
Let’s find out some interesting facts about her!
1. Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born August 9, 1963 in Newark, New Jersey.
2. She was the daughter of Army serviceman and entertainment executive John Russell Houston, Jr., and gospel singer Emily “Cissy” (Drinkard) Houston.
3. Her elder brother Michael is a singer, and her elder half-brother is former basketball player Gary Garland.
4. Her parents were both African American.
5. Through her mother, Houston was a first cousin of singers Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick.
6. Her godmother was Darlene Love and her honorary aunt was Aretha Franklin, whom she met at age 8 or 9 when her mother took her to a recording studio.
7. Houston was raised a Baptist, but was also exposed to the Pentecostal church.
8. After the 1967 Newark riots, the family moved to a middle-class area in East Orange, New Jersey, when she was four.
9. At the age of 11, Houston started 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.
10. Her first solo performance in the church was “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”.
11. When Houston was a teenager, she attended Mount Saint Dominic Academy, a Catholic girls’ high school in Caldwell, New Jersey, where she met her best friend Robyn Crawford, whom she described as the “sister she never had”.
12. While Houston was still in school, her mother continued to teach her how to sing.
13. 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.
14. Houston spent some of her teenage years touring nightclubs where her mother Cissy was performing, and she would occasionally get on stage and perform with her.
15. In 1977, at age 14, she became a backup singer on the Michael Zager Band’s single “Life’s a Party”.
16. In 1978, at age 15, Houston sang background vocals for Chaka Khan and Lou Rawls.
17. In the early 1980s, Houston started working as a fashion model after a photographer saw her at Carnegie Hall singing with her mother.
18. She appeared in Seventeen and became one of the first women of color to grace the cover of the magazine.
19. She was also featured in layouts in the pages of Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Young Miss, and appeared in a Canada Dry soft drink TV commercial.
20. Her looks and girl-next-door charm made her one of the most sought after teen models of that time.
21. While modeling, she 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.
22. For that project, Houston 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”.
23. 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.[30]
24. Houston had previously been offered several recording agencies (Michael Zager in 1980, and Elektra Records in 1981), but her mother declined the offers stating her daughter must first complete high school.
25. In 1983, Gerry Griffith, an A&R representative from Arista Records, saw her performing with her mother in a New York City nightclub and was impressed. He convinced Arista’s head Clive Davis to make time to see Houston perform. Davis was impressed and immediately offered a worldwide recording contract which Houston signed. Later that year, she made her national televised debut alongside Davis on The Merv Griffin Show.
26. Houston signed with Arista in 1983, but did not begin work on her album immediately. The label wanted to make sure no other label signed the singer away. Davis wanted to ensure he had the right material and producers for Houston’s debut album. Some producers had to pass on the project because of prior commitments.
27. Houston first recorded a duet with Teddy Pendergrass entitled “Hold Me” which appeared on his 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.
28. Houston’s debut album, Whitney Houston (1985), became the best-selling debut album by a woman in history.
29. Rolling Stone named it the best album of 1986, and ranked it at number 254 on the magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
30. Her second studio album, Whitney (1987), became the first album by a woman to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
31. Houston’s first acting role was as the star of the feature film The Bodyguard (1992).
32. The film’s original soundtrack won the 1994 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Its lead single, “I Will Always Love You”, won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became the best-selling single by a woman in music history.
33. With the album, Houston became the first act (solo or group, male or female) to sell more than a million copies of an album within a single week period under Nielsen SoundScan system.
34. The album makes her the top female act in the top 10 list of the best-selling albums of all time, at number four. Houston continued to star in movies and contribute to their soundtracks, including the films Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher’s Wife (1996).
35. The Preacher’s Wife soundtrack became the best-selling gospel album in history.
36. She released seven studio albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification. Houston’s crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for “How Will I Know”, influenced several African American women artists who follow in her footsteps.
37. Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits.
38. She is the second artist behind Elton John and the only woman to have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards (formerly “Top Pop Albums”) on the Billboard magazine year-end charts.
39. In 1987, Michael Jackson wanted Whitney Houston to record “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” with him. His request was denied.
40. Robert DeNiro had a major crush on the lovely Ms. Houston in the late ’80s. “She’s the sexiest woman I have ever seen. She is gorgeous. I want her by my side,” he is rumored to have said.
41. In the 1980’s, Whitney Houston dated American football player Randall Cunningham and actor Eddie Murphy.
42. She met R&B singer Bobby Brown in 1989 at the Soul Train Music Awards.
43. Whitney and Bobby got married on July 18, 1992.
44. Whitney’s favorite color was purple so the entire bridal party wore attire in the hue. Groomsmen even wore purple tuxedos with matching custom-made alligator dress shoes.
45. On March 4, 1993, she gave birth to her only child Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown.
46. In October 1994, Houston attended and performed at a state dinner in the White House honoring newly elected South African president Nelson Mandela.
47. In 2004, husband Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston starred in a reality TV program, Being Bobby Brown.
48. They divorced after a tumultuous, drug-fueled 14 years together.
49. Her favorite actress was Jessica Lange and her favorite cereal was the sugary sweet Fruity Pebbles.
50. The last 10 years of Houston’s life were dominated by drug use, rumors of relapses and trips to rehab.
51. On February 11, 2012, Houston was found dead in her guest room at the Beverly Hilton, in Beverly Hills, California. The official coroner’s report showed that she had accidentally drowned in the bathtub, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors.
52. News of her death coincided with the 2012 Grammy Awards and featured prominently in American and international media.
53. Her daughter, Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, was found unresponsive in a bathtub in late January 2015. She was kept in a medically induced coma for several months; she died in hospice care on July 26, 2015, at the age of 22.
Got anything to add?