Been To The Bottom Now She's Back On Top...

Telegraph: Whitney Houston has had a rough fall but she's making a glorious comeback.
By Helen Brown
Published: 6:25PM BST 07 Oct 2009



Although she was born, in 1963, in a rough area of Newark, New Jersey, Whitney Houston seemed destined for a glittering future.

Soul music and showbiz ran in the family. Her mother, Cissy Houston, had enjoyed an award-winning career in which she'd sung back-up for Elvis Presley. Her cousin was Dionne Warwick, and her godmother was Aretha Franklin.

Aged 15, she sang backing vocals on Chaka Khan's I'm Every Woman, and by 21 she had her own record deal, releasing an eponymous, Grammy-winning debut album in 1985 and a follow-up, Whitney (featuring the infectiously bright, girlish I Wanna Dance With Somebody), in 1987. It became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the US Billboard chart.

Her appeal was so universal it was rumoured she sang notes so high only dogs could hear her - and they loved her, too. But with the universality came the criticism - she was bland, shallow. Critics dismissed her vocal pyrotechnics as soulless.

In 1992 she made her first movie, The Bodyguard, which grossed $410million worldwide despite receiving a critical drubbing.

Having previously dated Eddie Murphy, she married bad-boy R&B singer Bobbie Brown the same year. They had a daughter, but, in a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, Houston said that Brown's jealousy over her success brought tension into the marriage that led to him drinking and emotionally abusing her and she became addicted to marijuana and cocaine. She said Brown was "my drug" but finally divorced him in 2007.

Although many claim her voice has been ruined by her years of drug abuse, some argue that although the pyrotechnics are gone, her voice has gained the maturity and soul it once lacked.
 

NEWSFILE: 7 OCTOBER 2009