Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston was an American singer and actress whose two-decade career produced one of the most-iconic American R&B-and-pop voices of the late 20th century — including the 1985 self-titled debut album Whitney Houston (the bestselling solo-debut album in history) and the 1992 song "I Will Always Love You" (one of the American singles of the 1990s). She was born Whitney Elizabeth Houston on August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey, into an American gospel-music family. Her mother Cissy Houston was a gospel-and-soul singer, her cousin was Dionne Warwick, and her godmother was Aretha Franklin.

She started singing in her mother's New Hope Baptist Church choir at age 11 and pursued professional modeling work and backup-vocal recording sessions through her mid-teens. She was signed to Arista Records by Clive Davis in 1983 at age 19. Her 1985 self-titled debut album Whitney Houston sold over 25 million copies worldwide and produced three Billboard Hot 100 #1 singles — "Saving All My Love for You," "How Will I Know," and "Greatest Love of All." The album made her one of the American R&B-and-pop debut artists of the 1980s.

Her 1987 second album Whitney made her the first artist in history to debut an album at #1 on the Billboard 200. The 1990s commercial peak produced her film career — including Mick Jackson's The Bodyguard (1992, opposite Kevin Costner). The Bodyguard soundtrack — featuring her cover of Dolly Parton's 1973 song "I Will Always Love You" — sold over 45 million copies worldwide and became the bestselling soundtrack album of all time. The single "I Will Always Love You" spent 14 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the longest #1 run in Hot 100 history at that time.

Her career was shaped by her 1992 marriage to R&B singer Bobby Brown (which produced their only daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown in 1993, and which lasted until 2007), her continuous substance-abuse struggles, and her 2000s career decline. She died on February 11, 2012, at age 48, in Beverly Hills, California, of accidental drowning in a hotel bathtub combined with acute cocaine intoxication. Her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown died in 2015 at age 22 in similar circumstances.

Her name Whitney is from the Old English place-name meaning "white island" or "Witta's island." Whitney has been continuously among the most-popular American girls' names since the 1990s.