Whitney Elizabeth Houston (born August 9, 1963 in East Orange, New Jersey) is an American pop, R&B, Soprano soul/ gospel singer, songwriter, record producer, film producer and actress. She is one of the most successful and popular singers of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.Her style of singing has influenced artists such as Kelly Price, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, and Deborah Cox among others. She is a touring singer, having conducted numerous worldwide tours in her career and sings live in concert as well as in televised events. She is one of the few musical acts in history to have sold over 100 million albums, not counting singles as most acts do to boost their sales figure. This 100 million milestone is especially notable in that she achieved it on relatively few releases. She is also one of a handful of Black artists to receive heavy rotation on early MTV in the 1980's and her success, along with that of Michael Jackson, Prince (artist), and Janet Jackson, undoubtly opened the door for the network to air more videos by Black artists in the 1990's. Whitney has won twenty-one American Music Awards, a record for a solo artist, and six Grammys.
Houston was born in in East Orange, New Jersey. Whitney's mother ( Cissy Houston), first cousin ( Dionne Warwick) and godmother ( Aretha Franklin) were all established Gospel/R&B/Soul singers, which resulted in Whitney always being in the presence of music while she was growing up. At the age of 11, she started performing as a soloist in the junior gospel choir at the New Hope Baptist church in Newark, New Jersey, and would later go on to accompanying her mother in concert. Although a Baptist, she attended a Catholic high school. After singing background on her mother's 1978 album Think It Over, she started as a back up singer for many other established acts, such as Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson, and Lou Rawls. In 1980 at the age of 17, she was featured as the lead vocalist on the Michael Zager Band's single "Life's A Party", who previously scored a hit with the single "Let's All Chant". Zager was so impressed that he offered to obtain her a record deal but she declined. Also in the early-1980s, she started appearing as a model in various magazines (and even appeared on the cover of Seventeen magazine.) She worked with producers Michael Bienhorn, Bill Lasswell and Martin Bisi on an album they were spearheading called "One Down". It was projected to contain eight songs, each one featuring a different lead vocalist. Whitney contributed the ballad "Memories" and she received favorable reviews from the Village Voice after the album debuted.
