The music world, and all of Hollywood for that matter, is mourning the passing of singer-actress-model Whitney Houston, who passed away last night, six months shy of her 49th birthday, on the eve of the Grammy Awards.
Whitney exploded onto the scene in the mid-80's, with hits like "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", "How Will I Know", "The Greatest Love of All", and "One Moment In Time", the latter a theme for the 1988 Summer Olympics. She made her film debut in 1992's "The Bodyguard", opposite Kevin Costner, and scored a #1 hit with her cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You", which has since become more closely associated with Whitney than with Parton, who also wrote the tune.
Whitney came from a musical family. Her mother, Cissy, is a gospel singer. Her cousin was 60's pop star Dionne Warwick. The legendary "Queen of Soul", Aretha Franklin, who later became a label-mate of Houston's at Arista, was her godmother. Her ex-husband, Bobby Brown, recorded a duet with her for his 1992 CD, but their union fell apart years later due to her issues with substance abuse, among other things. Tonight, at the Grammys, they will no doubt honor the memory of Whitney, and remember when she was atop the charts, and a role model for so many young performers.
Rest in peace, Whitney.
2 comments:
I'm sorry she's gone but it seems like the rocky road Whitney's lived for the past 20+ years finally caught up with her. Poor girl had been a punch line for years.
I remember when I first heard of her - her first single to turn up on MTV was "You Give Good Love". I thought it was a cool R&B track. Afterwards there seemed a flood of hits that made Whitney the First Lady of pop. When "The Bodyguard" came out, there seemed no stopping her.
RIP at last.
One price of fame is the temptations that come with it. Booze & drugs seem to be everywhere when you don't really need them. It's safe to say peer pressure got the better of Whitney, moreso than the lifestyle, and the temptations were doubled via her union with Bobby Brown.
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