Happy Birthday Whitney Houston6 min read

Music icon Whitney Houston was born today on August 9, 1963 in Newark, New Jersey and died February 11, 2012, in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 48. A pop singer, fashion model, and actress, Houston is one of the best selling recording artists of all time.

Over her career, Houston sold more than 50 million records in the United States alone. Her voice, an ideal blend of power, grace and beauty, made classics out of songs like “Saving All My Love For You,” ‘’I Will Always Love You,” ‘’The Greatest Love of All” and “I’m Every Woman.” Her six Grammys were only a fraction of her many awards. Houston had her first No. 1 hit by the time she was 22, followed by a flurry of No. 1 songs and multiplatinum records.

On the eve of the 54th annual Grammy Awards, music lost one of its greatest voices, just one day before the music industry’s biggest event was set to take place. She was found unconscious, submerged in the bathtub of her suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The Los Angeles County coroner’s report stated accidental drowning as the cause of her sudden death, though heart disease and drug use were later revealed to have been considerable factors.

Here are 5 career defining moments from the great Whitney Houston:

1. Houston released her self-titled debut album in 1985 and saw three singles — “Saving All My Love for You,” “Greatest Love of All” and “How Will I Know” —which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The singer earned four Grammy nominations at the 1986 awards, including album of the year, and won her very first Grammy for best female pop vocal performance for “Saving All My Love for You.”

2. In 1992, Houston took on her first acting role in the Oscar-nominated film The Bodyguard, where she starred as a pop singer who hires a bodyguard (played by Kevin Costner) to protect her from a stalker. For the film’s soundtrack, Houston recorded a rendition of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” which later went on to win Grammys for record of the year and best female pop vocal performance in 1994 (The Bodyguard soundtrack also won album of the year). To this day, the single remains one of her most memorable hits.

3. In the midst of allegations that Houston had fallen victim to excessive drug use, namely cocaine, the singer cleared up a few rumours in a candid interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer. “First of all, let’s get on thing straight: crack is cheap,” she infamously stated. “I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Let’s get that straight. Okay? We don’t do crack. We don’t do that. Crack is whack.”

4. Though controversy surrounding the singer’s drug history and marriage to then-husband Bobby Brown (the two split in 2007) kept Houston out of the spotlight for seven years, she returned from her hiatus with the release of her sixth (and final) studio album I Look to You in 2009. The record debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and that same year, Houston made it into the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records as the most awarded female artist of all time.

5. Two days before she passed, Houston shared the stage with Kelly Price to perform “Jesus Loves Me” at Price’s pre-Grammy concert on Thursday, Feb. 9. The duet performance was the singer’s last public appearance.

6. Happy birthday Whitney ! May her soul R.I.P.