Whitney Houston biography

1987's follow up album, Whitney, became the first album by a female artist to enter the US charts at No. 1 and with the singles including So Emotional and Where Do Broken Hearts Go, she became the first artist in history to score seven consecutive US No. 1 hits. Houston's acting and dancing lessons paid off in her dynamic MTV videos and in 1990 she became permanently enshrined in the hearts of the American public when she sang The Star Spangled Banner at the US Super Bowl in Miami. She also performed the song as she welcomed back US troops returning from the Gulf War.

Whitney's massive success meant she would spend the following years touring. In her personal life, after being romantically linked with Eddie Murphy and Jermaine Jackson, Whitney surprised her family and friends by marrying the bad-boy of R&B Bobby Brown. Brown already had three out-of-wedlock children by two different women and his womanising and boozy ways were seen as inappropriate for the Prom Queen of soul. But despite Brown's apparent failure as hubby 'material', Houston continued to profess her love for him through numerous fights and disagreements. (Most recently, the police were called to the couple's house in New Jersey in January 2004 after Brown had allegedly hit Houston in a domestic row).

Whitney spent the the best part of the 90's concentrating on her movie career. She also gave birth to a daughter, Bobbi Kristina. In 1992 Whitney made her movie debut in The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner. The film was a worldwide hit, earning £300m and spawning the most successful soundtrack album ever released with sales of 33m copies due largely to Houston's soaring interpretation of the Dolly Parton classic I Will Always Love You. The song was a UK No.1, spending 23 weeks on the chart. (Although it seemed longer!)

In 1995 Whitney starred in Waiting For Exhale with Angela Bassett, a film about successful black women looking for good men. Again, the film and the soundtrack album was a massive hit. The soundtrack was co-produced by Houston and featured three new tracks from her: Exhale (Shoop Shoop), Count On Me and Why Does It Hurt So Bad. The album was a US No.1 and has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide to date. 1996 flick The Preacher's Wife didn't fare as spectacularly at the box office but the soundtrack gave Whitney a chance to get back in touch with her gospel roots. Performing on the album with her mother Cissy and Dionne Warwick, the album became the biggest selling gospel LP in Billboard's US chart history.

Whitney made a return to the studio for 1998's My Love Is Your Love album. With the songwriting help of Missy Elliott and Wyclef Jean on slick tracks such as It's Not Right (But It's OK) and the title track, the album was a confident attempt by Houston to update her R&B sound and to reclaim ground lost to the new diva superstars Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez. That same year news of a potentially catastrophic duet with Mariah Carey was announced. The strong-lunged, octave-jumping singers recorded When You Believe, the theme song from the animated flick The Prince of Egypt. Despite images of the divas out-doing eachother with outraeous requests - 14 puppies, 16 oiled midgets, etc, the recording process was comparatively smooth-running and the song was a transatlantic hit.

Houston returned to the headlines in early 2000 with a series of incidents that indicated her personal life was under strain. She was arrested at Hawaii airport after a large quantity of cannabis was found in her bag and there were more "domestics" with hubby Bobby Brown. There were also rumours, after Whitney's late arrivals and no-shows at various industry awards bashes and concerts that she was perhaps 'refuelling' with something stronger than orange juice and a vitamin tablet.

Nevertheless the rumours didn't deter Arista records from re-signing Whitney to a lucrative £70m contract in 2000. But two lukewarm albums, Love, Whitney (2001) and Just Whitney (2002) have done little to repay the label's faith in their superstar. And with the news that Whitney has just admitted herself to a drugs rehabilitation clinic, there may be some wait for the next repayament installment...

Discography