Whitney Houston

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (born on August 9, 1963), is a Grammy Award winning American R&B/Pop Diva, actress, film producer, and former fashion model. Houston is one of the most successful and influential singers of all time. Her body of work includes ballads, dance-pop, urban contemporary soul, and gospel. She is well known for her vocal power, control, range and coloratura soprano voice. . She is also one of the top selling artists of all time. Houston was one of a handful of black artists to receive heavy rotation on MTV in the 1980s. She became the first artist to have seven consecutive U.S. number-one singles, holding the record for having seven consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number one hits. Houston has branched out into acting and eventually became a businesswoman, setting up production and recording studios while continuing to record music.
In the 2000s, Houston’s personal life became the subject of controversy because of her marriage to R&B recording artist Bobby Brown, allegations of drug abuse (especially after repeated cancellations of public appearances), and erratic behaviour. Her record sales during this period were modest. Houston has since undergone a successful intense rehabilitation process and is currently recording an album that will be released in Autumn of 2007.

Just Whitney/One Wish (2001–2005)
In August 2001, Houston signed the biggest record deal in history with Arista/BMG: She renewed her contract (worth $100 million) to deliver six new albums on which she would also earn royalties. Two months later, Houston re-released her version of "The Star Spangled Banner" after the September 11th attacks. It reached the U.S. top ten, achieving platinum status, and its proceeds were donated to a relief fund.

Just Whitney (2002), Houston’s fifth studio album, featured collaborations with then-husband Bobby Brown, as well as Missy Elliott, and the ten song collection saw Houston incorporate pop, hip-hop, R&B, rock, and dance. The album received mixed reviews on release and landed in the U.S. top ten, but it failed to reach the top seventy-five in the UK. The singles "Whatchulookinat" (co-written by Houston), "One of Those Days" and "Try It on My Own" were not top forty hits on the U.S. Hot 100, but remixes of "Whatchulookinat", "Try It on My Own" and "Love That Man" became hits on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play Chart. Current sales of the album are at 731,000 in the U.S.and around 2 million worldwide.

One Wish: The Holiday Album (2003) was a specialty album and her sixth studio album, and it consisted of covers of Christmas songs such as "Noel" (The First Noel), "Deck the Halls/Silent Night" and "Little Drummer Boy" featuring daughter Bobbi Kristina. The single "One Wish (for Christmas)" (a cover of the Freddie Jackson song) reached the top twenty on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart, but the album itself failed to achieve gold status in the U.S., Houston’s first studio album not to do so, and it sold just 348,000 copies.

In 2004, Houston embarked on an international tour, the Soul Divas tour with Natalie Cole and cousin Dionne Warwick in Europe, before embarking on solo dates in the Middle East, Russia, and Asia. In September 2004 she made a surprise performance at the World Music Awards, in tribute to long time friend Clive Davis. Whitney received a thunderous standing ovation for her performance.

Current career activity
Whitney Houston attended the Carousel of Hope Ball in October 2006, where Katharine McPhee dedicated a performance of Houston’s "I Have Nothing" to her. Clive Davis said at the ball that he and Houston "are getting our things together, and we are going to make a killer, killer album".
Houston was featured on the song "Family First" from the soundtrack of the 2007 film Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls. The song also featured Houston’s mother Cissy Houston, Houston’s cousin Dionne Warwick, Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina, and most of her other relatives.
Houston started recording with Johnta Austin. Clive Davis said in an interview that he would like Houston to record the song "I Look to You", written by R. Kelly, and predicted that song would make the comeback. Davis has made it clear that this will be a Whitney Houston album, focusing on her, and less on "flavor of the moment" sounds.

Film and television career
The Bodyguard Soundtrack (1992)
During the 1980s, as Houston was working on launching a music career, she auditioned for acting roles, including the part of Sondra Huxtable on The Cosby Show, which was won by Sabrina Le Beauf. Houston acted on episodes of Gimme a Break with Nell Carter and Silver Spoons with Rick Schroder before her debut album was released.

Houston’s first film role was in The Bodyguard released in 1992 and co-starring Kevin Costner. The film was successful at the box office, grossing more than $121 million in the U.S. and $410 million worldwide. Reviews, however, were mixed, and Houston received two Razzie Award nominations.
In 1995, Houston starred alongside Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, and Lela Rochon in the film Waiting to Exhale, about four African-American women struggling with relationships. The film grossed $67 million in the U.S. and $82 million worldwide. In the 1996 film The Preacher’s Wife, Houston starred with Denzel Washington.
In 1997, she co-produced and starred in (along with Brandy, Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, and Bernadette Peters) a made-for-television remake of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
Houston has served as a producer or executive producer on other films, including the Disney comedy The Princess Diaries, starring Anne Hathaway and Dame Julie Andrews. The film grossed more than $100 million at the U.S. box office, and her production company Brownhouse received a percentage of the profits.. Houston served as one of the producers on three other projects for Disney: the 2003 television film The Cheetah Girls (starring Raven-Symone) and the sequel The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which grossed more than $90 million at the U.S. box office. In May 2006, Houston also was an executive producer for The Cheetah Girls sequel The Cheetah Girls 2: When in Spain.In 2005, Houston co-starred in her then-husband’s reality TV program Being Bobby Brown, which provided a view into the domestic goings-on in the Brown household.