Houston made her acting debut with the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard (1992), which despite its mixed reviews became the tenth highest-grossing film to that date. Its soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and remains the bestselling soundtrack album of all time. It generated multiple hit singles, including "I Have Nothing", "I'm Every Woman" and "I Will Always Love You"; the latter won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, spent a then-record 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and became the best-selling physical single by a woman in music history.[5] Subsequently, she went on to star in the films Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996), and she recorded their respective soundtracks; the former scored her last Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)", while the latter, produced by Houston herself, became the bestselling gospel album of all time. As a film producer, she produced multicultural movies and series such as Cinderella (1997) and The Princess Diaries and The Cheetah Girls.

The family later relocated to a suburban area of East Orange three years following the Newark race riots of 1967. Houston attended Franklin Elementary School (now Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts) before transferring to Mount Saint Dominic Academy by sixth grade. Houston was raised in the Baptist faith by her parents and joined the church choir of the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark at age five where she also learned to play piano.[23][24] Houston later recalled being exposed to the Pentecostal church nearby as well. Houston made her solo performance debut at New Hope singing the hymn "Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah" at age 12.[25] When Houston became a teenager, she told her mother that she wanted to pursue a career in music. Throughout her teenage years, Houston would be taught how to sing by Cissy.[26] Along with her mother, cousins Dionne and Dee Dee and Franklin, Houston was also influenced by other singers such as Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight and Roberta Flack.[27]


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After placing second place at a statewide talent showcase in 1977, Houston began singing background for her mother's band on the cabaret club circuit in New York City. On February 18, 1978, a fourteen-year-old Houston made her non-church performance debut at Manhattan's Town Hall singing the Broadway standard "Tomorrow" from the musical Annie, receiving her first standing ovation.[28] Later that year, Houston sang background on mother Cissy's solo album, Think It Over, with the title track later reaching the top 5 of the Billboard disco chart. The album's producer Michael Zager recorded her lead vocal on his disco song, "Life's a Party", with the album of the same name released later in 1978.[29] Houston's session vocal career took off when she sang background for Chaka Khan and Lou Rawls on their respective albums, Naughty and Shades of Blue, both released in 1980.[30]

Houston became a fashion model after she was discovered by a photographer who filmed her and her mother during a performance for the United Negro College Fund at Carnegie Hall. She became one of the first black women to appear on the cover of a fashion magazine when she appeared on the cover of Seventeen.[31] She would also appear inside other magazines such as Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Young Miss. Her looks and girl-next-door charm made her one of the most sought-after teen models.[30] In February 1981, Houston recorded three demo recordings of gospel music with producer and music executive Steven Abdul Khan Brown in hopes of Houston getting signed to a recording deal.[32] Khan Brown later would claim the demos helped Houston secure her deal with Arista Records in early 1983.[32] During this period, Houston was sought after for record deals between 1979 and 1981 by the likes of Michael Zager and Luther Vandross.[29][33] The offers, however, were turned down by her mother because she wanted Houston to finish school.[29] Weeks after graduation, Houston signed with Tara Productions, under the advice of her cousin Dionne, and hired Gene Harvey as her manager, with co-managers Daniel Gittelman and Seymour Flics, also working closely with the singer.[34][35][36]

Houston would see her profile raised after being hired to sing on the song "Memories" by the band Material, later released on their 1982 album, One Down. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice called her contribution "one of the most gorgeous ballads you've ever heard".[37] Later in 1982, she recorded the soul ballad, "Eternal Love", by producer and songwriter Paul Jabara, which was later featured on Jabara's 1983 album, Paul Jabara & Friends, with its original title including Houston's name on the cover.[38] The song was later covered by R&B singer Stephanie Mills for her album, Merciless that same year. During this time, she was sought after by Elektra president Bruce Lundvall, who offered her a contract at the end of 1982. In March 1983, Gerry Griffith, an A&R representative for Arista Records, saw Houston performing with her mother at the Seventh Avenue South nightclub in Manhattan. He convinced Arista head Clive Davis to make time to see her perform at another nightclub called Sweetwaters the following week. Davis was impressed and immediately offered a worldwide record deal, which Houston eventually signed on April 10, 1983; since she was only nineteen, her parents also signed for her. Two weeks later, on April 29, Houston performed on The Merv Griffin Show, after an introduction from Davis.[39] Her performance later aired on June 23.[40] She performed "Home", a song from the musical The Wiz.[41]

After nearly two years of sessions, Whitney Houston was released on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1985.[47] Co-produced by Kashif, Jermaine Jackson, Michael Masser and Narada Michael Walden, the album will spend more than three years on the Billboard 200 and shot up to No. 1 on the chart in March 1986, over a year after its release, where it would stay for fourteen weeks.[48][49] The album would hit number one or hit the top five in more than ten other countries. Certified Diamond in the United States for sales of 14 million copies,[50] the album has reportedly sold 25 million copies worldwide.[51][52][53][b] Rolling Stone magazine praised Houston, calling her "one of the most exciting new voices in years" while The New York Times called the album "an impressive, musically conservative showcase for an exceptional vocal talent".[55][56]

The album would receive four Grammy Award nominations, including three at the 1986 ceremony, including Album of the Year, winning one in the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance category for "Saving All My Love for You".[59][60] A controversy arose after Houston was deemed ineligible for entry for a nomination for Best New Artist. Despite an angry letter from Clive Davis, the committee defended the decision, noting Houston's previous chart duet with Teddy Pendergrass.[61] Houston received more awards from her work on the album including 14 Billboard Awards, including "Top Pop Artist" and "Top Pop Album", the first album by a female artist to receive that distinction,[48] and a NAACP Image Award. Houston's music video for "How Will I Know" won her an MTV Video Music Award. Houston's performance of "Saving All My Love for You" at the 1986 Grammys later resulted in Houston winning an Emmy Award.[62] Houston would also receive seven American Music Awards, including five alone in 1987.[63][64]

Houston first supported the album by being an opening act for singer Jeffrey Osborne before moving on to open for Luther Vandross.[65] By October 1985, Houston had become a solo headliner, later opening at Carnegie Hall.[66] Houston embarked on her first world tour, The Greatest Love World Tour, in July 1986. Houston toured for 50 dates up until the end of the year. The album's success was attributed to Houston's performances on late night talk shows, something that was usually not accessible to emerging black acts.[48] Though Houston's early music video clips for "You Give Good Love" and "Saving All My Love for You" found heavy airplay on stations such as BET and VH1, the singer and Arista struggled to submit these videos to MTV. At that time, the channel received harsh criticism for not playing enough videos by artists of color while favoring predominantly white acts.[67] In 2001, Houston explained in an interview with the channel how it rejected "You Give Good Love" because it was a "very kind of R&B song".[68] Following the release of "Saving All My Love for You", MTV agreed to play its video clip on light rotation because, Houston said, the song "hit so hard and exploded so heavy" that they "had no choice but to play it."[68]

In December 1985, Arista submitted the video to "How Will I Know", which immediately gained heavy rotation and introduced Houston to the young MTV audience.[69][70] Though other artists such as Donna Summer and Tina Turner had enjoyed heavy rotation on the channel prior to Houston's entrance, black female artists were still "woefully underrepresented on MTV's playlist".[69] According to author Ann Kaplan, in her book, Rocking Around the Clock: Television, Postmodernism and Consumer Culture, "until the recent advent of Whitney Houston, Tina Turner was the only female Black singer featured regularly, and even so, her videos are far and few between."[69] Houston was credited for breaking barriers for black female artists on the channel resulting in videos by Janet Jackson, Jody Watley and Tracy Chapman to be immediately accepted to the channel's playlist.[69] Houston's success also made it possible for other African American female artists to break through on pop radio following the fallout of disco, opening doors for Jackson and Anita Baker among others.[71][72] Houston's debut album is listed as one of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Definitive 200 list.[73][74] Houston's grand entrance into the music industry is considered one of the 25 musical milestones of the last 25 years, according to USA Today.[75] 2351a5e196

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