Los Angeles Times publica história pessoal e profissional de Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston, troubled pop titan, found dead at 48

By Geoff Boucher

The singer is found unresponsive at the Beverly Hilton hours before Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party. She once ruled the pop charts, but addiction took a toll on her success. | Full coverage

Timeline: High and low points

Photos: Whitney Houston, 1963-2012 | Stars react

Videos: 6 famous performances

A voice for the ages tarnished by addiction

By Randall Roberts

Appreciation: Whitney's voice, mere hours after her death, has already proved it can outlive her body. You could hear both the church and the playground in her.

• Clive Davis: Whitney would want the music to go on | 5 a.m.
• Body moved to morgue for autopsy | 4:26 a.m.
• Entourage found Houston unresponsive, police say

"Não havia drogas no quarto do hotel em que Whitney Houston morreu"....revela a publicação TMZ

http://g1.globo.com/pop-arte/noticia/2012/02/nao-havia-drogas-no-quarto-em-que-whitney-houston-morreu-diz-site.html
http://g1.globo.com/pop-arte/fotos/2012/02/veja-fotos-da-carreira-de-whitney-houston.html

Veja fotos da carreira de Whitney Houston

Cantora morreu neste sábado (11) aos 48 anos, em Los Angeles.

Whitney Elizabeth Houston nasceu em Newark, em 9 de agosto de 1963. Além de se destacar como cantora de r&b e soul, ela também atuou no cinema e fez carreira como modelo. Mas foi na música que a artista ganhou fama e bateu recordes - ela venceu 415 prêmios ao longo da vida.

Em 1987, Whitney Houston recebeu um Grammy por
melhor performance vocal pop feminina
(Foto: Arquivo/Mark Lennihan/Arquivo/AP)

Whitney era prima de Dionne Warwick e tinha Aretha Franklin como madrinha. Aos 11 anos, quando começou a atuar ao lado de sua mãe Cissy em casas noturnas na cidade de Nova York, ela foi descoberta por Clive Davis, empresário da Arista Records.

Seu álbum de estreia, "Whitney", foi lançado em 1985 e se tornou o álbum de estreia mais vendido por uma artista feminina, com 25 milhões de cópias ao redor do mundo graças aos sucessos "Saving all my love for you" e "How will I know".

Nos cinemas, seu primeiro papel foi no filme "O Guarda-costas" (1992), em que dividia cena com Kevin Costner e cantava na trilha sonora. É do longa a música "I will always love you", seu maior sucesso e cover de Dolly Parton.

Com seu estilo inspirado no canto gospel, a cantora inspirou uma geração de cantoras, de Mariah Carey a Christina Aguilera. Porém, no auge do sucesso, ela se tornou notícia por suas polêmicas fora do palco, o que incluia comportamentos estranhos em público. Por diversas vezes ela confessou ser viciada em cocaína, maconha e medicamentos controlados. Segundo a cantora, com o passar dos anos isso a fez perder seu timbre de voz, que não alcançava mais as altas notas de outrora.

O corpo da cantora deixa
o hotel na maca

O jornal "The New York Times" descreveu Whitney Houston como "uma das melhores vozes gospel de sua geração". Segundo a publicação, "ela evitava os maneirismos típicos do gênero e usava frases evangélicas com moderação. Em vez de projetar vulnerabilidade e compaixão, comunicava força e auto-confiança, criando baladas pop majestosas".

Whitney Houston morre aos 48 anos....

(CNN) -- Legendary pop singer Whitney Houston has died at age 48, representative Kristen Foster said Saturday night.

The cause and location of her death was not immediately known.

According to her official website, Houston, who struggled with addiction problems over the years, sold more than 170 million albums, singles and videos over her career.

Houston was set to appear in this year's "Sparkle," a remake of the 1976 hit, which was loosely based on the story of The Supremes. It was her first movie role since 1996's "The Preacher's Wife."

Her body of work includes seven straight Billboard No. 1 hits in the 1980s, including "Saving All My Love for You," "Greatest Love of All" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go." Billboard puts her soundtrack to the movie "The Bodyguard" as one of the top 10 biggest-selling albums of all time. She also starred in the film.

The daughter of singer Cissy Houston, Whitney was born on August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey. Famed music producer Clive Davis reportedly spotted Houston 20 years later in a New York nightclub, signing her on the spot, according to her website.

The singer's rendition of the national anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl, days into the first Persian Gulf War, earned raves and cemented her place in the American musical landscape.

After "The Bodyguard," Houston went on to appear in several more films in the 1990s, including "Waiting to Exhale."

In 2000, Houston earned her sixth Grammy for best female R&B performance and, a month later, she was named female artist of the decade at the "Soul Train" Music Awards.

Her career stalled, however, in subsequent years as she entered rehab for addiction problems.

In May 2011, Houston got help for her much-publicized struggle with drugs and alcohol, her representative said at the time.

In a 2009 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Houston recalled how her mother arrived one day at her doorstep at her daughter's house with sheriff's officers and a court order in a drug intervention. She talked about doing cocaine and smoking marijuana.

"(My mother) says, 'I have a court (injunction) here," Houston said. "Either you do it my way, or we're just not going to do this at all. We are both going to go on TV, and you're going to retire.'"

Houston had a high-profile and tumultuous marriage to Bobby Brown, a former "New Edition" star who has had multiple brushes with the law. The couple appeared together in the mid-2000s on the reality show "Being Bobby Brown."