Capital: € 20 million
Age: 56
Born: 08/09/1963
Country of origin: USA
Source of wealth: singer
Last updated: 2024

Short introduction

Whitney Houston, born in Newark near New York, is one of the most successful singers of all time in terms of the number of records she sold. In addition, she expanded her already immense popularity by acting in several equally successful feature films. In 2012, Whitney Houston, who was constantly struggling with drug problems, died in the bathtub of a hotel.

Early life

The so successful and extremely popular singer was almost born into the music world. Her mother was a singer with Sweet Inspirations, Elvis Presly’s support group, and also sang background for Jimi Hendrix. She has several half-siblings, and some of her cousins are also well-known singers.

It is therefore not surprising that Whitney Houston was involved in the first recording at the age of 14. This was a solo part for the Michael Zager Band. Further recordings followed as early as 1979.

While still a teenager, she already gained a lot of stage experience. She became part of her mother’s nightclub program. As a key moment in her own career, Whitney Houstin mentions a solo performance in her Newark church and one as part of her mother’s program at the New York Town Hall Theater.

Career

In 1983 she signed her first record deal, and in 1984 her first single “Hold me” was released. It was until 1985 before their first album was released: “Whitney Houston”. This immediately hit like a bomb and sold 13 million copies in the United States alone. It is considered one of the most successful debuts of a singer ever. With three songs from this first album, Whitney Houston also reached the top of the single charts in the USA.

A big tour was followed by her second album “Whitney”. With this new masterpiece of pop music, she went straight to number 1 on the charts, which a singer had never before achieved. This time it was four singles from this album that reached No. 1 on the charts in the USA.

So seven of their singles in a row had each reached the top of the charts – record! In 1988, her song “One Moment in Time” became the anthem of the NBC’s Olympic broadcasts, which gave her another chart success in the United States and the United Kingdom.

In her third album from 1990 she went more towards R&B. The sales figures weren’t quite as good as before, but their works still landed high on the charts. In 1991 she sang the national anthem at the Super Bowl when the United States was in the Gulf War.

Her first role as an actress followed. With Kevin Costner she played the main role in “Bodyguard”, where she also contributed six songs to the soundtrack. Her single “I Will Always Love You” was another huge hit, one of the greatest successes in Whitney Houston’s not-so-poor career.

Further engagements as actress followed as well as further albums. While the fourth of them “My Love Is Your Love” was almost as successful as before, their fifth album “Just Whitney…” flopped in 2002 – at least by their standards.

In 2009, she gave a much-respected interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which she talked about her drug addiction, supposedly overcome at the time. On a subsequent tour, critics were horrified by the condition of their voice, which failed several times.

On February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston was found dead in the bathtub of her hotel room. The cause of death was drowning, but years of drug use and heart failure are said to have contributed. Stevie Wonder and Kevin Costner were guests at their funeral service. She was buried in Westfield next to her father’s grave.

It later turned out that she had spent a large portion of her fortune, which had meanwhile been well over $ 100 million. The remaining $ 20 million was inherited from her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown.

Career highlights

Her nominally most successful album was “Whitney”, which was released in 1987 and reached number 1 on the charts in several countries. With 32 million copies sold, however, their debut album “Whitney Houston” was 4 million more successful than “Whitney”.

Her most successful single came from the latter album. With “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” she reached number 1 on the charts in many countries and was sold over 11 million times. This was topped by the 1992 single “I Will Always Love You”, which was sold 16 million times.

Add to that the great, also artistically recognized achievements in the feature films in which she participated, especially in the film Bodyguard.

Famous quotes

“Learning to love yourself is the greatest form of love of all.”

“At some point I realized that having no friends is not a crime. It means having fewer problems. ”

“Success doesn’t change you, but fame does.”

“It would be career suicide if I got involved with a white man.”

“Age is a wonderful thing. I love being 40. Only now do I really have a life. ”

Amazing facts

Whitney Houston was involved in charitable causes from her first commercial success. In 1989 she founded her own foundation for disadvantaged children.

According to Guinness Book of Records, she is the most awarded singer in history. There are said to be a total of 415 awards, including two Emmys, six Grammys and 30 Billboard Music Awards.

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