Whitney Houston has passed away, her publicist has said.

 

The AP reports that Kristen Foster has confirmed that the singer died on Saturday (February 11). No further details have been announced.

 

The hugely successful recording artist had been expected to make an appearance at Clive Davis' pre-Grammy gala in Los Angeles tonight.

 

A source close to Davis, who launched Houston's career at Arista Records, told The Hollywoo Reporter: "This is a sad day and it will be a sad Grammys weekend."

Shocking.

 

Not really a fan of her but it's still sad to see one of the legends go so suddenly. :(

Omg , I'm soooooo shocked.

 

I just omg :( Such a legend , can't believe she's gone. Incredible voice

Oh my, that's a shock.

I think was a woman alone and depressed, was losing its identity because is a icon and forgot himself with drugs and alcohol and more beaten by her husband in the past . I understand Whitney Houston was an unhappy woman . So sad :(

I think was a woman alone and depressed, was losing its identity because is a icon and forgot himself with drugs and alcohol and more beaten by her husband in the past . I understand Whitney Houston was an unhappy woman . So sad :(

 

Well , She was at a moment.

 

She had started taking drougs and doing cocaine when the Bodyguard era began . 1992-1993 . So at her peak she was doing crack. She released some of her best work between those years but then lost it.

 

She was able to make a succesful "Comback" in 2009 with 'I look to you' that was really good in my opinion.

 

We'll have to wait to what was her cause of death.

RIP

What a shocker. :/

 

RIP, Whitney.

RIP :(

Drug is the worst thing in the world :(

Whitney Houston dead at 48.

Whitney Houston, the golden girl of the music industry of the 80s and 90s has died.

 

Whitney Houston dies:

Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behaviour and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48.

 

Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen told KABC-TV that Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 pm in her room on the fourth floor of the Beverly Hilton. Her body remained in the hotel and Beverly Hills detectives were investigating.

 

"There were no obvious signs of any criminal intent,'' Rosen said.

 

Houston's publicist, Kristen Foster, said Saturday that the cause of her death was unknown.

 

Houston's death came on the eve of music's biggest night - the Grammy Awards. It's a showcase where she once reigned, and her death was sure to cast a heavy pall on Sunday's ceremony.

 

Her longtime mentor Clive Davis was to hold his annual concert and dinner Saturday, and a representative of the show said it would proceed.

 

Houston was supposed to appear at the gala, and Davis had told The Associated Press that she would perhaps perform: ''It's her favourite night of the year ... (so) who knows by the end of the evening,'' he said.

 

Houston had been at rehearsals for the show on Thursday, coaching singers Brandy and Monica, according to a person who was at the event but was not authorised to speak publicly about it. The person said Houston looked disheveled, was sweating profusely and liquor and cigarettes could be smelled on her breath.

 

Two days ago, she performed at a pre-Grammy party with singer Kelly Price.

 

Rosen said police received an emergency call from hotel security about Houston at 3:43 pm Saturday, and paramedics were already at the hotel because of a Grammy party. Paramedics unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate the singer, the lieutenant said.

 

The Reverend Al Sharpton said he would call for a national prayer Sunday morning during a service at Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

 

''The morning of the Grammys, the world should pause and pray for the memory of a gifted songbird,'' Sharpton said in a written statement.

 

At her peak, Houston was the golden girl of the music industry. From the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world's best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.

 

Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she starred in hits like The Bodyguard and Waiting to Exhale.

 

She had the perfect voice, and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.

 

She influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey, who when she first came out sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was Houston.

 

But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use.

 

Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances.

 

She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.

 

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy," Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.

 

It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.

 

She seemed to be born into greatness. She was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Aretha Franklin.

 

Houston first started singing in the church as a child. In her teens, she sang backup for Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson and others, in addition to modeling. 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," Davis told Good Morning America.

 

"To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine," he added.

 

It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.

 

She seemed to be born into greatness. She was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Aretha Franklin.

 

Houston first started singing in the church as a child. In her teens, she sang backup for Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson and others, in addition to modeling. 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," Davis told Good Morning America.

 

"To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine," he added.

 

Her decision not to follow the more soulful inflections of singers like Franklin drew criticism by some who saw her as playing down her black roots to go pop and reach white audiences. The criticism would become a constant refrain through much of her career. She was even booed during the Soul Train Awards in 1989.

 

"Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?" she told Katie Couric in 1996. "You're not black enough for them. I don't know. You're not R&B enough. You're very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them."

 

Some saw her 1992 marriage to former New Edition member and soul crooner Bobby Brown as an attempt to refute those critics. It seemed to be an odd union; she was seen as pop's pure princess while he had a bad-boy image, and already had children of his own. (The couple had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, in 1993.) Over the years, he would be arrested several times, on charges ranging from DUI to failure to pay child support.

 

But Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.

 

"When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place," she told Rolling Stone in 1993. "You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that's their image. It's part of them, it's not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody's angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy."

 

It would take several years, however, for the public to see that side of Houston. Her moving 1991 rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl, amid the first Gulf War, set a new standard and once again reaffirmed her as America's sweetheart.

 

In 1992, she became a star in the acting world with The Bodyguard. Despite mixed reviews, the story of a singer (Houston) guarded by a former Secret Service agent (Kevin Costner) was an international success.

 

It also gave her perhaps her most memorable hit: a searing, stunning rendition of Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You, which sat atop the charts for weeks. It was Grammy's record of the year and best female pop vocal, and the Bodyguard soundtrack was named album of the year.

 

She returned to the big screen in 1995-96 with Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher's Wife. Both spawned soundtrack albums, and another hit studio album, My Love Is Your Love, in 1998, brought her a Grammy for best female R&B vocal for the cut It's Not Right But It's Okay.

 

But during these career and personal highs, Houston was using drugs. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2010, she said by the time The Preacher's Wife was released, "(doing drugs) was an everyday thing. ... I would do my work, but after I did my work, for a whole year or two, it was every day. ... I wasn't happy by that point in time. I was losing myself."

 

In the interview, Houston blamed her rocky marriage to Brown, which included a charge of domestic abuse against Brown in 1993. They divorced in 2007.

 

Houston would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Winfrey in 2010. But in the interim, there were missed concert dates, a stop at an airport due to drugs, and public meltdowns.

 

She returned to the big screen in 1995-96 with Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher's Wife. Both spawned soundtrack albums, and another hit studio album, My Love Is Your Love, in 1998, brought her a Grammy for best female R&B vocal for the cut It's Not Right But It's Okay.

 

But during these career and personal highs, Houston was using drugs. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2010, she said by the time The Preacher's Wife was released, "(doing drugs) was an everyday thing. ... I would do my work, but after I did my work, for a whole year or two, it was every day. ... I wasn't happy by that point in time. I was losing myself."

 

In the interview, Houston blamed her rocky marriage to Brown, which included a charge of domestic abuse against Brown in 1993. They divorced in 2007.

 

Houston would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Winfrey in 2010. But in the interim, there were missed concert dates, a stop at an airport due to drugs, and public meltdowns.

 

Whitney Houston bows after performing I Didn't Know My Own Strength at the 2009 American Music Awards:

 

DEATH AT 48: Pop music Whitney Houston has died.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/6405126/Whitney-Houston-dies

Such a shame.. RIP Whitney

http://jakefogelnest.com/post/17460767716

amazing isolate performance of 'how will I know'......Crazy....RIP Whitney!

R.I.P :(

So sad. A legend, indeed. And way too young to die :(

 

I didn't see that coming! :freak:

I am very sad at this news.

 

She was one of my all-time favourites - a true legend.

 

My thoughts go to her family, not least her daughter Bobby Christina.

 

Thank you for the music and R.I.P. Whitney. :bigcry:

Whitney Houston 1963-2012

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/

 

12 February 2012 Last updated at 10:08 GMT

 

Singer Whitney Houston dies at 48

 

Singer and actress Whitney Houston, one of the most celebrated acts of all time, is found dead in Los Angeles at the age of 48.

 

 

12 February 2012 Last updated at 10:41 GMT

 

US singer and actress Whitney Houston dies aged 48

 

American singer and actress Whitney Houston has died in Los Angeles at the age of 48.

 

Police said she died in her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where she had been staying as a guest.

 

Houston was one of the most celebrated female singers of all time, with hits including I Will Always Love You and Saving All My Love For You.

 

But her later career was overshadowed by substance abuse and her turbulent marriage to singer Bobby Brown.

 

Ms Houston died on the eve of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. She had been due to attend a pre-awards party in the Beverly Hilton Hotel organised by her long-time mentor and record industry executive Clive Davis on Saturday evening.

 

He went ahead with the party, holding a minute's silence and telling the audience he was "personally devastated by the loss of someone who has meant so much to me for so many years".

 

The hotel was already teeming with reporters and celebrities when police received an emergency call from hotel security at 15.43 local time (23:43 GMT), Beverly Hills police spokesman Mark Rosen told the BBC.

 

Police were despatched, but paramedics who were already at the hotel because of the party attempted to resuscitate her, without success. She was pronounced dead at 15:55.

 

Mr Rosen said Ms Houston's entourage - comprising family members, friends and co-workers - had taken over much of the fourth floor of the hotel.

 

"There were a number of people on scene who were able to positively identify Ms Houston for us," he said, adding that her next of kin have been informed of her death.

 

Police investigators inspected the scene before Ms Houston's body was moved from the hotel to the coroner's office for an autopsy.

 

While the cause of death is unclear, Mr Rosen said there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent".

 

The US celebrity website TMZ.com reported that Ms Houston had been partying heavily on both Thursday and Friday nights.

 

She briefly took the microphone and performed a song while out in Hollywood on Thursday, and was seen drinking and chatting loudly with friends in the hotel bar on Friday, according to TMZ.

 

'Finest voice'

 

Houston's background was steeped in soul and gospel music.

 

Her mother was gospel singer Cissy Houston, she was cousin to singer Dionne Warwick and goddaughter to Aretha Franklin.

 

"I just can't talk about it now," Ms Franklin said in a short statement. "It's so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen."

 

Having grown up in New Jersey, Houston began singing in church and then in the night clubs of New York, and was a model before being signed by Arista Records.

 

At the height of her career in the 1980s and 90s she won many awards and enjoyed several number one singles and albums.

 

Artists from Mariah Carey to Christina Aguilera have tried to emulate her bravura performances, but none of them were as good as the original, music critic Paul Gambaccini told the BBC.

 

Houston also enjoyed success acting in blockbuster films such as The Bodyguard and Waiting to Exhale.

 

In recent years drug use took its toll on the star and her voice - once acknowledged as one of the finest in pop music - was badly damaged.

 

"She did have it all, but the record is there of the decline into drug use and the damage done from drug use," said Gambaccini.

 

Her marriage to Brown, with whom she had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, ended in divorce in 2007. The marriage had been a tempestuous one, with allegations of domestic abuse as well as drug addiction.

 

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy,'' Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in a 2002 interview.

 

Ms Houston was strongly linked to the Grammys - having won six awards herself over the years. Organisers of Sunday's ceremony said she would be remembered in a special tribute by singer Jennifer Hudson.

 

Civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton said that on the morning of the Grammys, "the world should pause and pray for the memory of a gifted songbird".

 

Country singer Dolly Parton - who wrote one one of her most memorable hits, I Will Always Love You - said in a statement: "Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston."

 

"I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song, and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, 'Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed'."

 

 

Houston's career highlights

 

170m records sold worldwide

 

11 US number one hits

 

Won six Grammys, including three for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance

 

Won 30 Billboard Awards and 22 American Music Awards

 

I Will Always Love You is the best selling single by a female artist of all timeAlastair Leithead

 

BBC News, Los Angeles

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whitney Houston had a perfect voice that inspired a whole generation of female singers.

 

It was a voice that made her one of the world's best selling artists; but it was also a voice, which as it deteriorated, betrayed her drug and alcohol addition.

 

It is not known how Whitney Houston died, but police say it was not suspicious.

 

There is speculation that she was found in the bath, while references are made to her very public drug addiction, but as yet it is not known how she died.

RIP :sad:

That really sucks

 

Looks like iTunes shoppers are mourning too.

 

A tragedy. Her voice was incredible.

So she was found dead at 3.55pm American time. This was 12.55pm New Zealand time.

 

Apparently her ex husband Bobby Brown was at the funeral despite rumours he had been asked not to attend.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17072564

 

17 February 2012 Last updated at 12:23 GMT

 

Whitney Houston funeral guests confirmed

 

Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder will sing at Whitney Houston's funeral, to be held in New Jersey on Saturday.

 

Clive Davis, her musical mentor, will speak at the ceremony, which will include contributions from her cousin Dionne Warwick and singer Alicia Keys.

 

Houston's ex-husband Bobby Brown and Kevin Costner, with whom she starred in The Bodyguard, are among those who have been invited to the private service.

 

Police plan to block off streets around the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark.

 

No one without an invitation will be allowed near the building and fans have been urged to stay home.

 

The funeral will be shown live on US television after the Houston family agreed to have a single video camera inside the church.

 

The ceremony will also be streamed on the BBC News website at 12:00 EST (17:00 GMT).

 

Various media crews are already in place outside the church, hoping to capture footage of the guests arriving and leaving.

 

Songwriter Valerie Simpson, whose I'm Every Woman was covered by Houston in 1992, will also be attending the funeral.

 

She told CNN she hoped the day would be a celebration of the singer's talent.

 

"Her personal trials and tribulations have nothing to do with her artistry," she told Piers Morgan. "Her record is her music. That incredible voice."

 

"It had everything - it was elastic, it had meaning, it had range, it had soul, it had pop sensibility and an ability to interpret a lyric in a way that made you feel it."

 

'No signs of stress'

 

The funeral comes one week after Houston was found in her hotel bathroom in Los Angeles.

 

Officials are waiting for the results of toxicology tests that will help them ascertain how the 48-year-old died.

 

Reginald Dowdley, the late singer's make-up artist, spent three hours with her on the day before her death and said he saw "no signs of stress".

 

"She was warm and inviting and welcoming," he said. "She didn't seem erratic. I didn't get any of that from her at all."

 

Houston was one of the world's best-selling artists from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, selling 170 million records worldwide.

 

Sales of her records have soared since her death was announced last Saturday.

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17056801

 

16 February 2012 Last updated at 10:00 GMT

 

Whitney Houston funeral service to be streamed online

 

The family of the late singer Whitney Houston have agreed to let her funeral be broadcast online this weekend. (LATEST: SEE ARTICLE ABOVE: Broadcast on US TV and BBC News website - and in Denmark it will be broadcast at least on DR Update).

 

A single video camera will be placed inside the church on Saturday to record the service at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey.

 

Footage will be made available to media outlets via the Associated Press.

 

Meanwhile, officials investigating Houston's death have issued subpoenas for her medical records after finding prescription drugs in her hotel room.

 

The inquiries are routine in most death investigations, said Los Angeles assistant chief coroner Ed Winter.

 

It is not yet known what medication has been recovered from Houston's room, or which doctors and pharmacies dispensed them.

 

The 48-year-old was found underwater and unconscious last Saturday night, in a bath at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

 

Houston's funeral begins at 12:00 EST (17:00 GMT) on 18 February and is expected to last 90 minutes.

 

Marvin Winans, the gospel singer and pastor who married Houston and Bobby Brown in 1992, will give the eulogy.

 

Afterwards Houston will be buried in Fair View Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey. Her father, John Russell Houston Jr, was buried there in 2003.

http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2012/03/whitney-houston-casket-photo-leaker-rumored-to-be-bobby-browns-sister-tina/#top

 

I was recently looking up Whitney images on Google when I came across the above leaked photo of her in her casket.

 

The photo upset me because it is disrespectful not only to her, but also to her family, daughter, friends and fans. I am feeling more and more certain Tina Brown is responsible because she's leaked photos of Whitney once before and it has to her this time.

Were you so offended by it that you had to post it, despite the fact it happened ages ago anyway?

It was ages ago since the first time there were photos leaked of her, but the leaked casket photo was recent.

 

And I posted about the leaked casket photo as I thought people here hadn't known about it. However I am sorry for putting up the link to it. I promise not to post up anymore links like that one.

I'm pretty sure I saw the leaked casket photos within a few days of her death, and within a week maximum it was on the National Enquirer.

 

I wasn't really looking for an apology, it just seems a bit odd that you'd post something that you're disgusted by some magazine printing doesn't it? I think we get a pretty clear idea of what Whitney Houston looks like in a coffin without needing the picture. But whatever.