About
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer, actress, film producer, and model. Commonly referred to as "the Voice", she is one of the most awarded performers of all time. A cultural icon, she influenced the breaking down of gender and racial barriers through her artistic achievements and music videos. Her emergence in the mid-1980s as a vocalist in popular music had a significant impact on the era of powerhouse vocals, power ballads, and contemporary R&B, spanning roughly from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s. Known for her vocal delivery, gospel singing style, genre-crossing appeal, and live performances, Houston was ranked second on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest singers of all time in 2023. Houston became one of the first black women to appear on the cover of Seventeen after becoming a teen model in 1981. She signed to Arista Records at the age of 19. Her first two studio albums, Whitney Houston (1985) and Whitney (1987), topped the Billboard 200 for 14 and 11 weeks, respectively. The former remains the best-selling debut album by a solo artist in history, while the latter made her the first woman to debut atop the US and UK charts. Houston took a more urban turn with her third album, I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990), and performed an acclaimed rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV in 1991. She then starred in the films The Bodyguard (1992), Waiting to Exhale (1995), The Preacher's Wife (1996) and Cinderella (1997), and produced the film franchises The Princess Diaries (2001–2004) and The Cheetah Girls (2003–2006). Soundtracks of The Bodyguard and The Preacher's Wife, respectively, rank as the best-selling soundtrack album and gospel album of all time, with the former winning the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and topping the Billboard 200 for 20 weeks. Following the success of My Love Is Your Love (1998), Houston's first studio album in eight years, she renewed her contract with Arista Records
