We Will Always Love Her

Two Emmy Awards. Six Grammy Awards. 16 Billboard Awards. 22 American Music Awards. A debut album that was the best-selling album by a female and a new artists in the 1980s, certified 9x platinum. The greatest rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” ever.

Today's Throwback Thursday is a sad one. Whitney Houston was a star – Everything she did was incredible. However, on February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston was found dead in her bathtub at the Beverly Hilton hotel. She was just 48 years old.

There’s no need to rehash what happened that night or the events leading up to it. It’s tragic and it’s painful. I want to focus more on the performer. The artist. The singer.

Born into a music family in Newark, New Jersey in 1963 (Houston’s mom is gospel singer Cissy Houston, her brother Michael is a songwriter, first cousin was Dionne Warwick and her godmother was Darlene Love), Houston started performing as a soloist at age 11. At 15, Whitney sang background vocals for Chaka Khan and Lou Rawls.

In 1983, at the urging of an A&R representative from Arista Records, Clive Davis saw Whitney and her mom perform at a New York nightclub and offered her a recording contract. By 1985, her debut album, Whitney Houston, was released to huge sales and praise. 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". It spent 14 weeks at number one.

With her second album, Whitney, she scored four number one singles – combine that with the three number one singles from her debut you and you’ve got an unprecedented seven consecutive No.1 hits by a performer.

Houston is the top selling R&B female artist of the 20th century.

I could go on for pages about her career, but it’s best to let her music take us out. What’s your favorite Whitney song? Something off her debut? Her cover of Dolly’s “I Will Always Love You”? The songs will always be with us and the memories of how great a voice and performer.

We will always love her…