Whitney Houston (Whitney Elizabeth Houston) was born on August 9, 1963 is an American Pop and R&B singer, actress, film producer, and former model.

The multi Grammy award winning superstar is best known for her powerful vocals, melismatic style, range and coloratura soprano voice.

Houston is one of a few African-American artists to receive heavy rotation on MTV in the mid-1980s. She is the only artist to have a record seven consecutive Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit singles.

Having sold over 170 million records, Houston is the best selling female R&B artist ever, according to the Guinness Book of World Records[citation needed], and the fourth best-selling female artist in America.

Rumors of spousal abuse, and drug abuse stifled her album sales during the early 2000s. She entered into drug rehabilitation twice. After a successful second program in 2006, Houston divorced her husband Bobby Brown and gained custody of their daughter. She has since been working on her 7th studio album with music mogul and close friend Clive Davis.

In December 2002, Arista Records released Houston’s fifth studio album, Just Whitney. The album featured collaborations with then-husband Bobby Brown, as well as Missy Elliott, and received mixed reviews upon its release.

Despite debuting at number nine on the Billboard 200 albums chart (with the highest opening week sales of any album she had ever released prior), all of the singles: “Whatchulookinat,” “One of Those Days,” and “Try It on My Own” failed to reach the top forty on the Hot 100. Though certified platinum in the US, Just Whitney ultimately became Houston’s lowest selling studio album.

Whitney Houston attended the Carousel of Hope Ball in October 2006, where Katharine McPhee dedicated a performance of Houston’s “I Have Nothing” to her. There, Clive Davis confirmed that he and Houston were again collaborating on the singers next album.

In 2007, Houston recorded “Family First,” a song for the soundtrack of the film Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls. The song also featured Houston’s mother Cissy, her cousin Dionne Warwick, and daughter Bobbi Kristina. 
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