Pop queen Whitney Houston dies at age 48

Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she starred in hits like "The Bodyguard" and "Waiting to Exhale."

She had the perfect voice and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.

She influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey, who when she first came out sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was Houston.

But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy," Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.

It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.

She seemed to be born into greatness. In addition to being Franklin's goddaughter, she was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston and the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick.

Houston first started singing in the church as a child. In her teens, she sang backup for Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson and others, in addition to modeling. It was around that time when music mogul Clive Davis first heard Houston perform.

"The time that I first saw her singing in her mother's act in a club ... it was such a stunning impact," Davis told "Good Morning America."

"To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine," he added.

Before long, the rest of the country would feel it, too. Houston made her album debut in 1985 with "Whitney Houston," which sold millions and spawned hit after hit. "Saving All My Love for You" brought her her first Grammy, for best female pop vocal. "How Will I Know," "You Give Good Love" and "The Greatest Love of All" also became hit singles.

Another multiplatinum album, "Whitney," came out in 1987 and included hits like "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody."

The New York Times wrote that Houston "possesses one of her generation's most powerful gospel-trained voices, but she eschews many of the churchier mannerisms of her forerunners. She uses ornamental gospel phrasing only sparingly, and instead of projecting an earthy, tearful vulnerability, communicates cool self-assurance and strength, building pop ballads to majestic, sustained peaks of intensity."

Her decision not to follow the more soulful inflections of singers like Franklin drew criticism by some who saw her as playing down her black roots to go pop and reach white audiences. The criticism would become a constant refrain through much of her career. She was even booed during the "Soul Train Awards" in 1989.

"Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?" she told Katie Couric in 1996. "You're not black enough for them. I don't know. You're not R&B enough. You're very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them."

Some saw her 1992 marriage to former New Edition member and soul crooner Bobby Brown as an attempt to respond to those critics. It seemed to be an odd union; she was seen as pop's pure princess while he had a bad-boy image and already had children of his own. (The couple had one daughter, Bobbi Kristina, born in 1993.) Over the years, he would be arrested several times, on charges including DUI and failure to pay child support.

But Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.

"When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place," she told Rolling Stone in 1993. "You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that's their image. It's part of them, it's not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody's angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy."

Brown was getting ready to perform at a New Edition reunion tour in Southaven, Miss., as news spread about Houston's death. The group went ahead with its performance, though Brown appeared overcome with emotion when his voice cracked at the beginning of a ballad and he left the stage.

Before his departure, he told the sell-out crowd: "First of all, I want to tell you that I love you all. Second, I would like to say, I love you, Whitney. The hardest thing for me to do is to come on this stage."

Brown said he decided to perform because fans had shown their loyalty to the group for more than 25 years. During an intermission, one of Houston's early hits, "You Give Good Love," played over the speakers. Fans stood up and began singing along.

It would take several years for the public to see the "down and dirty" side of Houston. Her moving 1991 rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl, amid the first Gulf War, set a new standard and once again reaffirmed her as America's sweetheart.

In 1992, she became a star in the acting world with "The Bodyguard." Despite mixed reviews, the story of a singer (Houston) guarded by a former Secret Service agent (Kevin Costner) was an international success.

It also gave her perhaps her most memorable hit: a searing, stunning rendition of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," which sat atop the charts for weeks. It was Grammy's record of the year and best female pop vocal, and the "Bodyguard" soundtrack was named album of the year.

She returned to the big screen in 1995-96 with "Waiting to Exhale" and "The Preacher's Wife." Both spawned soundtrack albums, and another hit studio album, "My Love Is Your Love," in 1998, brought her a Grammy for best female R&B vocal for the cut "It's Not Right But It's Okay."

But during these career and personal highs, Houston was using drugs. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2009, she said by the time "The Preacher's Wife" was released, "(doing drugs) was an everyday thing. ... I would do my work, but after I did my work, for a whole year or two, it was every day. ... I wasn't happy by that point in time. I was losing myself."

In the interview, Houston blamed her rocky marriage to Brown, which included a charge of domestic abuse against Brown in 1993. They divorced in 2007.

Houston would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Winfrey in 2009. But in the interim, there were missed concert dates, a stop at an airport due to drugs, and public meltdowns.

She was so startlingly thin during a 2001 Michael Jackson tribute concert that rumors spread she had died the next day. Her crude behavior and jittery appearance on Brown's reality show, "Being Bobby Brown," was an example of her sad decline. Her Sawyer interview, where she declared "crack is whack," was often parodied. She dropped out of the spotlight for a few years.

Houston staged what seemed to be a successful comeback with the 2009 album "I Look To You." The album debuted on the top of the charts, and would eventually go platinum.

Things soon fell apart. A concert to promote the album on "Good Morning America" went awry as Houston's voice sounded ragged and off-key. She blamed an interview with Winfrey for straining her voice.

A world tour launched overseas, however, only confirmed suspicions that Houston had lost her treasured gift, as she failed to hit notes and left many fans unimpressed; some walked out. Canceled concert dates raised speculation that she may have been abusing drugs, but she denied those claims and said she was in great shape, blaming illness for cancellations.

Houston was to make her return to film in the remake of the classic movie "Sparkle." Filming on the movie, which stars former "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks, recently wrapped.

Simon Cowell told CNN's Piers Morgan on Saturday night that he had been considering Houston as a possible judge on the U.S. version of his talent competition, "The X Factor."

"She would have been the ultimate, ultimate mentor to any contestant coming on the show," Cowell said.

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[RealiteBites]

Whitney had the most incredible voice - and so beautiful to boot!

So, so, sad that she's gone ... although truth be told, her voice got ravaged by all those drugs and the voice that she had has been long gone for a while.

Still I was rooting for her to get clean - it was just painful to watch somebody struggle to conquer their addiction, year over year. I never lost hope!

RIP Whitney ...

[jaykay3141]

RIP Whitney. I hope you're at peace now and will be able to make better choices in the next life than you did in this one.

Such a sad waste of talent. I'd like to think your tragedy might be a caution to others, but I'm afraid the twin lures of money and drugs will be too much for many to resist.

[Swansong12]

I have watched all these singers die of overdoses, everyone knowing about it, no one doing anything about it, how many more have to die before these stars start saying enough?? Whitney was once a beautiful women and singer, but drugs started this downward spiral, now is the time for someone to stand up and say enough .. get off the drugs ... enough pain and senseless lost to pills and booze ..

[train99]

When she first got famous, I didn't like her - her image, attitude or something, thought she was a snob and maybe I was right. But she won me over with her sheer talent as a singer. I really liked her doing "I'm Every Woman". And then when I heard her version of "I Loves You Porgy" in the mid-90s, I thought this singer is beyond anybody. Beyond Billie Holiday, Jennifer Hudson, Aretha, Mariah - anybody. At her best, this thin lady could take a song, interpret it, belt it out and leave me weak in the knees.
I think, besides herself, there are a lot of people who brought her down, but not her fans. Her marriage to that azzhole Brown, especially. But then why did she put up with him? I hate it when women put up with men like that. I totally lose respect for them.
Anyway, she's gone. Not a big surprise, but a tragic loss of a once super talent.

[REDBEAR57]

I hope you have found peace now Whitney. Thank you for the wonderful music. RIP.

[norcalruss]

Knowing what we do about her past substance abuse problems I wouldn't be surprised if she Oded. It's sad, I remember seeing all of those videos of her performing ten or fifteen years ago when she had it all: looks voice talent etc. and she threw it all away on drugs.

RIP Whitney

[samXXkiley]

coucou,
I am saddened, my condolences to her family, rest in peace "Whitney"
"au revoir"

[tmittelstaed]

I don't have much sympathy, she made more money in 1 year than 99% of the posters on here will make in their lifetime, and she could have easily retired years ago and turned her back on the pop scene if she couldn't handle it. And obviously she couldn't handle it.

[royalstar05]

Going off of the pictures on here she was definitley on something. And what is up with the liquid (looked like blood to me) running down her leg? Looked as if someone was always trying to help her hold herself up also. She looked hammered. But hey she's gone now,RIP.

[Jaylah54]

I[m sorry she's dead. I'm sorry anybody gets so messed up in life that they turn to drugs that kill them.

However I never thought she was all that great a singer. She sounded more like a cat in heat to me. All that yowling and screeching.