Today music lost a troubled icon. Whitney Houston was the voice that blazed a trail for artists like Mariah Carey, Beyonce & Jennifer Hudson. Selling millions of albums, she only trails Elton John for the highest selling album artist of all time.

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THE BEGINNING| Music Birthright

Whitney Houston, daughter of gospel icon Cissy Houston, cousin to the legendary Dionne Warwick, and the blessed God-daughter to Aretha Franklin. With that, Whitney started her professional career early, as backup to Chaka Khan’s 1978 hit “I’m Every Woman” (Whitney would cover the song later) at the age of 15. Her beauty and all-round goodness also resulted in her becoming an teen model. However, she continued on with her music career, eventually making a powerful friend in Gerry Griffith who worked at A&R, who introduced Whitney to the man who would take her career to the next level. Clive Davis.

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SUPERSTAR | The 80’s

Davis loved Houston from the start and in 1983 a deal was struck. It took two years , but after the right material and producers were found, her self-titled debut album was released. It was a commercial flop, debuting on #166 on the charts.  The lead single ‘You give Good Love’ slowly rose to the top 40, then “Saving All My Love For You,” a sweetly-sung ballad with the subtly scandalous subject matter of declaring one’s love for a married family man, became Whitney’s first chart topper in October in 1985. The hits rolled on.

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THE DIVA HAS ARRIVED | The 90’s

Her zenith only got bigger. After dazzling audiences with her rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” at Super Bowl 9, she moved over to acting with her film debut in ‘The Bodyguard’ starring Kevin Costner. It made over $100 million in the US but it was nothing compared to the movie’s soundtrack, which sold over 44 million copies worldwide, spawning the signature tune ‘I will always love you’, penned originally by Dolly Parton.

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TROUBLE AHEAD |The marriage to Bobby Brown

Whitney had met singer Bobby Brown at the Soul Train awards in 1989, after dating Eddie Murphy. at she married Brown in 1992. Concerns were raised immediately, as Brown and Houston made for something of an odd match. Whitney was the all American good girl, while Bobby was notoriously volatile and provocative, with rumored drug problems. Nonetheless, they persisted and Houston gave birth to her first and only child, daughter Bobbi Kirstina, in ’93

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THE FINAL LIGHT | The beginning of the end

Throughout the rest of the ’90s, Whitney would focus mostly on her acting career, starring in Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher’s Wife, as well as the huge TV movie production of Cinderella. She released just one actual studio album during this period, 1998′s My Love is Your Love, selling four million copies. Whitney ended the century as the official top-selling R&B female artist, with over 50 million albums sold in the US over the course of her then-15-year career

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‘CRACK IS WHACK’ | Drugs take hold

Unfortunately, it was around this time that Whitney’s personal life, at least from a public relations standpoint, began to crumble. She became notorious for showing up late to interviews and cancelling personal appearances. In 2002, Whitney had her infamous “Crack is Wack” interview with Diane Sawyer, in which an clearly drunk Houston proclaimed that “crack is cheap..I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Crack is Whack”

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FROM BIZARRE TO SCANDOULOUS | Bobby & Whitney

Whitney and Bobby made a trip to Israel in 2003, with Houston memorably claiming “My land!,” then refusing to shake the hand of prime minister Ariel Sharon. The duo would later star in Bravo’s perplexing 2004 reality series Being Bobby Brown, which generally made both of them seem like stupid and insane and kept the public sentiment that Whitney had gone completely mad. The couple were divorced two years later and after a legal battle with Brown, Houston was awarded full custody of their daughter, with no spousal support

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GOODBYE WHITNEY | The end of a diva

Whitney would only release one more studio album, 2009′s I Look to You, featuring the fine throwback disco jam “Million Dollar Bill.” The album was a modest success, though the accompanying world tour was met with some negative reviews and featured a couple cancelled performances due to illness. In May 2011, Whitney checked into rehab as an out-patient for alcohol and drug problems, and most recently, she starred in an upcoming remake of the ’70s movie Sparkle, about a fictional musical family, starring Houston as the family matriarch. She died Feb 11, aged just 48 alone in a hotel room in Beverly Hills.

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Whitney Houston | 1963 - 2012