Whitney Houston

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer, actress, film producer, and record producer. Commonly referred to as “the Voice”, Houston is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales of more than 220 million records worldwide. She is among the most awarded artists of all time. A cultural icon, Houston broke down gender and racial barriers through her artistic achievements, Hollywood crossover, and music videos. Known for her vocal delivery, gospel singing style, crossover appeal, and live performances, she 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, 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), Cinderella (1997) and Sparkle (2012), 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 for $100 million in 2001, one of the largest recording deals of all time. However, her drug use and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown tarnished her “America's Sweetheart” image, overshadowing her next albums, Just Whitney (2002) and One Wish: The Holiday Album (2003). After divorcing Brown, Houston returned to the top of the Billboard 200 with her final album, I Look to You (2009). On February 11, 2012, Houston accidentally drowned in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, with heart disease and cocaine use as contributing factors. News of her death coincided with the 54th Annual Grammy Awards and broke Internet and television records. Houston's death was covered internationally along with her memorial service.

Houston's first two albums, along with The Bodyguard soundtrack, rank among the best-selling albums of all time and made her the first black artist to score three RIAA diamond-certified albums. “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” and “I Will Always Love You” are among the best-selling singles ever; the latter remains the best-selling single by a woman and has been certified diamond by the RIAA. Houston scored eleven number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains the only artist to have seven consecutive singles top the chart. She has been inducted into multiple halls and walks of fame, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, and the Grammy Hall of Fame (twice). Guinness World Records named Houston the highest-earning posthumous female celebrity. Her assets amounted to $250 million, earned over a 25-year career. Her life and career have been the subject of multiple documentaries and television specials.

Death

On February 11, 2012, Houston was found unconscious in Suite 434 at the Beverly Hilton, submerged in the bathtub. Houston reportedly appeared “disheveled” and “erratic” in the days before her death. Beverly Hills paramedics arrived about 3:30 pm, found Houston unresponsive, and performed CPR. Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 pm 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 manner of death was listed as “accident”.

A few minutes after the Associated Press sent out a breaking news alert on Twitter (X) with the news confirmed by Houston's publicist at 4:57 p.m. PT, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, BBC News, and Sky News all interrupted their programming to cover Houston's death, featuring interviews with those who knew her. The first hour after the news of her death saw 2,481,652 X (Twitter) posts (18% of all tweets) and all of the trending topics mentioned Houston. Within 24 hours it had reached 35 million tweets, making it the most-tweeted breaking-news event in the history of X (Twitter). Her death also brought 1,532,302 hits per hour to her Wikipedia article, the highest peak traffic on any article since at least January 2010.