Whitney Houston: A Life of Love and Music

“When beggars die, no comets are seen. But the heavens themselves blaze forth at the death of kings…” (I paraphrase this quote from one of Williams Shakespeare’s classics). Although this is not about the death of a king, it is, nonetheless, about the death of a queen – the Queen of Pop – Whitney Elizabeth Houston. Since Saturday, February 11, 2012 when the news of her death broke, encomiums, reviews and commentaries have been pouring in torrents on the radio, TV stations, internet, and in the newspapers and magazines.

From millions of her fans all over the world to her colleagues in the entertainment industry, media conglomerates to individuals who knew little or nothing about her, not because she was not popular but perhaps because they do not know much of her even when they unwittingly sing her songs, the eulogies came.

R & B act, Akon, wrote on Twitter: “We’ve lost another Legend. RIP WHITNEY HOUSTON. I’m honoured to have had the chance to work with such an amazing human being.”

Usher Raymond said she was a star and “a true icon of our time. Gone too soon.”

The Chief Executive of Facebook, Mark Zukerberg, in his tribute to Houston on his Twitter page, wrote “R.I.P, Whitney Houston. Thank you for the amazing music you brought into the world.”

Celebrated act, Dolly Parton, said: “Mine is only one of the millions of heartbroken over the death of Whitney Houston. I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performances she did on my song and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, Whitney, I will always love you!”

Yet another of her colleagues, Mariah Carey, noted: “She will never be forgotten as one of the greatest voices to ever grace the earth. My heartfelt condolences to Whitney’s family and all her millions of fans throughout the world.”

Back home, Nigerian entertainment practitioners have also added their voices to the deluge of praises for Whitney.

While popular DJ, Jimmy Jatt, described her voice as “unmatched”, Oko mi ye singer, Stella Monye, said the death has left her heartbroken.

For ‘Elegant Stallion’, Onyeka Onwenu, the singer’s long time battle with drug addiction was a major issue.

She was quoted as saying “I am very sad indeed, especially as I suspect it has something to do with drug addiction, and she had tried so hard to shake it off…May be she has. I hope she is at peace now. May her talented soul rest in peace.”

Beyond the encomiums and all, the death of the pop diva on the eve of the 54^th edition of the Grammys – the world’s biggest music event – and three days to the 2012 edition of St. Valentine’s Day underscores the essence of her 48-year-old sojourn on the terrestrial plane.

It is more than a mere coincidence. Rather, her departure in this month of love – and at a time the finest and the brightest in her chosen career were gathered to celebrate musical excellence – reinforced her life of love and music.

On the one hand, in spite of her turbulent marriage to R &B singer, Bobby Brown, which reportedly drove her into drugs addiction,  most of her songs, if not all, centre on love. On the other hand, in spite of her failing health in the days and hours leading to the Grammys, she strove hard to make it to the event, albeit she never made it. Like the title of one her songs “I Look to You”, she had looked up to the event but she never made it.  For, the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles, where she was found dead in bathtub, was the venue for the pre-Grammys party.

Perhaps more intriguing is the exact spot she was found dead – a bathtub. Are we not often regaled with tales of what lovers do in the bathtub? Thus, Houston’s career, life and death could safely be said to have been all about music and love. What is more, she was born into music by two loving parents!

Born to a middle-class family in Newark, New Jersey in1963, Houston was the third and youngest child of an Army serviceman and entertainment executive, John Russell Houston Jr., who passed on in 2003, and gospel singer Cissy Houston.

The Mail Online reported that she first became interested in being in the music industry after frequently accompanying her mother, Cissy, who often performed in night clubs.

“Sometimes the teen would even take to the stage herself and perform,” the newspaper added.

Houston was offered her very first recording contract at the age 14 by Michael Zanger, after she wowed him with her back-up singing on a record for his group, Michael Zanger band. But she was forced to turn it down as her mother determined that she should instead finish school.

However, in the years that followed, she lent her voice to albums of both American soul, jazz and blues singer Lou Rawls and Michael Jackson’s father, Jermaine Jackson.

Naturally stunningly beautiful, Houston began dabbling into modelling after being spotted by a fashion photographer whilst she was performing with her mother. She went on to become the first ever woman of colour to appear in a fashion magazine after gracing the pages of 17 magazines in the early Eighties.

Subsequently, she appeared in Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Young Miss magazines, and also in a TV advertisement for Canada Dry soft drink. 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…To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine,” the American record producer told Good Moorning America.

Houston, who also featured some films, especially The Bodyguard, made her debut album in 1985 with the self-titled record Whitney Houston.

It sold millions and spawned hit after hit, including Saving All My Love For You, which won her her first Grammy Award for the Best Female Pop Vocal.

Other tracks such as How Will I know, You Give Good Love and The Greatest Love of All also went on to become giant hits.

Another multi-platinum album of Houston came out in 1987, and it included hits like Where Do Broken Hearts Go and I Wanna Dance With Somebody.

Houston would blame her rocky marriage, which included a charge of domestic abuse on Brown.They divorced in 2007.

She would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Oprah Winfrey in 2010. But in-between, their 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 rumours 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.