Whitney Houston was born on the 9th of August 1963 into a musical dynasty of a family. Her mother Cassy was a singer and had started her career in a gospel group called 'The Drinkhard Singers'. Another member of this group was a certain Dionne Warwick, Whitney's aunt.

Whitney started her own career at the tender age of 14, singing gospels at her local church. At 16 she became a backing singer for Chaka Khan. Although her mother was trying to keep her daughter's lifestyle at a normal level, all the constant attention made it virtually impossible and she eventually had to change school. Early on she worked as a model and appeared in television shows. Her music career however didn't take off until she joined Arista Records in 1983. She was partnered with the best songwriters and producers, and in 1984 her debut album 'Whitney Houston' was released. The album finally topped the charts the following year. Famous songs from this album included 'How Will I Know', 'Saving All My Love For You' and 'Greatest Love Of All'.

After receiving various awards for the first album she performed the song 'I wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)' which opened the door for the release of her second album 'Whitney'. With this album she became the first female artist with a debut album to go straight into the American and British charts at number 1. She beat both the Beatles and the Bee Gees with 'Where Do Broken Hearts Go' and 'So Emotional' in 1987 and took the record of becoming the first artist to have 7 consecutive number 1 hit singles in the American charts. Though her next release didn't become number 1, she still continued to be successful with 'One Moment In Time' and 'I'm Your Baby Tonight'.

Her popularity and patriotism has also been a strong point in her career, as she sang the 'Star Spangled Banner' in Houston to welcome home the troops from the Gulf War.

Over the past 7 years she has also branched out into film business. In 1992 she starred alongside Kevin Costner in the film 'Bodyguard' in the lead role and wrote the music for the film too. The same year she married fellow singer Bobby Brown. She duetted with him in 1994 on the song 'Something In Common'. Speculation or fact, through the years she has endured intensive scrutiny from the media over her apparently miserable marriage to Bobby. However, in recent interviews she has denied all bad rumours and said that she could give as much as she gets, if not more.

Since then she has released 2 more soundtracks called 'Exhale (shoop shoop)' 1995 and 'The Preacher's Wife' in 1996.

At present she's on tour and, after previously having cancelled a few dates for health reasons, she's back on track and has given a concert here in Vienna on the 23. 10. 99.
 

  Back to "Profiles"
 

last updated: 19. 10. 99