Uppsats om Whitney Houston

"Didn't she almost have it all?"

 - A biography of the life and career of Whitney Houston

Ebba Fransson                                                                                         English C-course

Njudungsgymnasiet                                                                                Spring term 2013

Vetlanda

Introduction

On February 11, 2012, an 18 year old girl found her mother unconscious at a fancy hotel room at Beverly Hilton Hotel, in Beverly Hills, America. The girl, who was terrified and deeply shocked, called the ambulance right away. A big theme of healthcare-personal came to the place, but tragically, it was too late. The girl's mother was already dead. The autopsy, which where made a few days later, showed that she had drowned in the bathtub after a cocaine overdose.  She had been abused drugs for decades so the death was unfortunately not so unexpected for the young girl and the rest of the woman's family.

So who was this woman, who died this tragically death a sunny Saturday afternoon in February? She had a crystal clear, strong and high voice which was called one of the most beautiful ones ever. She was a big idol and role model for people from different cultures and standards of living all over the world. She was the most awarded female artist of all time; nominated for twenty-six Grammy's, winner of six of them, and winner of a lot of other music prices. She was a woman who broke record after record in the music industry, and she still has many of these records today. She was one of the greatest female artists of all time, with nicknames as "The prom queen of soul" and "The voice. Her name was Whitney Houston.

As I sing a lot myself, I have always seen Whitney Houston as a great idol and role model. After her death last year, I started to listen at her music even more, and I really discovered the really beautiful voice of hers. I also got touched of her life story, which was an amazing success story and a tremendously sad life destiny at the same time.

When I was going to write an essay in my English C-course, I thought it would be interesting to do a reflection of Whitney Houston's life. I am going to write about Houston's music and huge success all over the world, and also about her private life that was very rewritten, and marked by scandals. I will reflect about questions like "What did Whitney Houston's way to success looked like?", "What made Whitney Houston's greatness?" and finally, "How could a small town girl who had, seemingly, good childhood conditions and were deeply dedicated in church, become one of the world's biggest artists ever, and then, get stuck in a hard drug abuse which became her death at age forty-eight?"

The early years

Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born in August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey, as the third child of John Russell Houston Jr. and Cissy Houston.  She had two older brothers, named Michael and Jerry. The family had many musically talents, the singer Dianne Warwick was Whitney's cousin and the soul legend Aretha Franklin was her godmother. Even Whitney's mother, Cissy, was a famous gospel and blues singer who for example performed with Elvis Presley once upon a time.

The family was also religious and faithfully visitors of the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark. Whitney sang a lot already as a little child, and when she was eleven years old, she became a member of the gospel choir of the church. She also performed as a solo singer in church.

In her youth, Whitney participated at her mother's album "Think it Over" in 1978.  She was a background singer for Chaka Khan, Material and Lou Rawls, and vocalist at Michael Zager Band's song "Life's a Party". She had also a career as a fashion model, and participated at the cover of the magazines "Seventeen" and "Glamour". She had small acting jobs in the TV-shows "Give Me a Break" and "Silver Spoons".

Breakthrough

In the early 1980's, Whitney used to sang at different nightclubs in New York with her mother. One day, she got discovered of Clive Davis, who was the owner of Arista Records. He got impressed of Whitney's strong and beautiful voice and wanted to give her a record deal. Davis became personally dedicated in Whitney's debut album and hired the greatest song writers and producers he could find. Whitney came to stay at Arista Records for her whole career, and Davis became her producer, mentor and friend for the rest of her life.

Whitney Houston's debut album, "Whitney Houston", was released in March 1985. The album featured songs like "Saving All My Love for You", "How Will I Know" and "Greatest Love of All", and it quickly became the best selling album of a female artist that year. Today, it has 25 millions of copies sold. The album has still the record of the best selling debut album ever.

Two years later, in 1987, Whitney released her second album, called "Whitney", featuring songs like "I Wanna Dance with Somebody", "Where did Broken Hearts Go" and "Didn't We Almost Have it All". It became her international breakthrough, and sold platinum at almost every international territory. Seven singles became number one at the American singles chart. During 1987 and 1988, Whitney made her biggest tour ever, called "The Moment of Truth World Tour". Her brother Michael participated in the choir.

Whitney Houston foundation for Children Inc.

Whitney Houston was a person who cared much about the vulnerable people, which maybe depends on the church's big role in her childhood. In 1989, she started the nonprofit organization "Whitney Houston foundation for Children Inc", which cares for such problems as homelessness and children with cancer and AIDS. The organization won 1995 a prize, of the TV Company VH1, for charitable work.

The 1990's

In July 18, 1992, Whitney married the musician Bobby Brown. The wedding became one of the most publicized celebrity weddings in history. Many people were surprised over the marriage, because Brown was famous for living a messy life with heavy drinking and drug abuse. At the age of 20, he had already become a father of three children. Whitney was considered as his totally opposite, she was at this time considered as a "good girl", only known for her voice, and the dedication in church and charity.

The same year, the movie "Bodyguard" was released, in which Whitney Houston played the main role as Rachel Marron, a stalked singer. The soundtrack of the movie, including songs as "I Have Nothing", "Run to You", and the most famous one, "I Will Always Love You", became extremely successful. It became the best selling album with a movie soundtrack of all time, with 37 million sold copies. The album is the fourth highest selling music album in music history, and "I Will Always Love You" is today the best selling song of a female artist. It is Whitney Houston's absolutely biggest hit song and most well-known song.

One year later, in 1993, Whitney's and Bobby Brown's only daughter Bobbi Kristina was born. It was a big happiness for Whitney, who had got miscarriages both before and after the daughter's birth.

Whitney continued her career as an actress in 1995, when the movie "Waiting to Exhale" was released. She also sang three songs at the soundtrack; "Count on me", "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" and "Why Does It Hurts So Bad". The next year, she participated in the movie "The preacher's wife". Both movies were economically successful. The soundtrack to "The preacher's wife" is the most selling gospel album of all time. Whitney also made career as a movie producer in "Cinderella", 1998, in which she also acted.

Stormy personal life

In the beginning of the 2000's, media started report that Whitney Houston's private life was very stormy. The marriage with Bobby Brown was marked by rumors, about both drug abuse and assault. Whitney started to look very unhealthy and loosed many pounds in weight. In a TV-interview 2002, Whitney recognized that she had been using drugs, but she claimed that she had quitted, which showed up to be untrue. She denied to the rumors of that she would be abused by her husband.

Rumors were also started about how difficult Whitney had become to work with. Often, she did not show up at all to scheduled reputations and recordings, and if she did, she was uncooperative and easily irritated. For example, she was planned to sing at the Oscar's award in 2000, but when she sang the wrong lyrics to the orchestra's music, she was disqualified. The next year, 2001, she participated at a concert tribute to Michael Jackson. She got big attention for looking sickly skinny.

These rumors had affect on Whitney's music sale. Her album's "Just Whitney" from 2002 and the Christmas album "One Wish: The Holiday Album" were only selling in three respectively one half million copies, which was a big decline compared to her earlier successes.

In 2005, Whitney's family showed up their private life in the reality show "Being Bobby Brown", which was showed at the American TV station Bravo. In the show, you could see the Brown/Houston family in everyday situations. The language was pretty ugly; it was not uncommon to hear profanity and sexual words. Arguments between the spouses were also accorded. The show got very criticized from receivers, who meant that Whitney appeared as an unstable person and absent mother. For example, the receiver Barry Garron wrote in the magazine TODAY that "'Being Bobby Brown' is undoubtedly the most disgusting and execrable series ever to ooze its way onto television". He also opined that the show robbed Whitney Houston "of any last shreds of dignity." The show was shut down after only one season.

In 2006, Whitney tried to sort out her life. She got divorced from her husband Bobby Brown, and underwent an extensive rehabilitation and drug treatment. She was back in a healthy physical shape, and tried to do career as a fashion model again.

The comeback

In 2007, Whitney reveled that she planned a comeback during a charity event. Two years later, the album "I look to you" was released, featuring songs like "Million Dollar Bill", "For the Lovers" and "I look to you". The album got positive reactions from both fans and receivers. In 2010, Whitney made her last international tour, "The Nothing but Love Tour". Unfortunately, it got very bad reviews, and many expectant fans was disappointed. In fact, the audience leaved the concerts in protest at some places. Whitney had at this time put on much weight, and got blamed for looking fat and out of shape. But the most serious critic was about Whitney's famous voice, which was not intact after many years of drug use and an unhealthy lifestyle.  

Death

On February 11, 2012 Whitney Houston died in her hotel room at Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, only a few hours before the Grammy Awards, which she would been participating at. The cause of death was a drowning accident caused by heart disease and a cocaine overdose.

To honour Whitney, the Grammy Awards host, LL Cool J, opened the show with a tribute and a prayer for her. The funeral was held on February 18, in Whitney's old childhood church in the home town Newark. She is berried beside her father Russell in Westfield, New Jersey.

My own reflections

What did Whitney Houston's way to the success look like? I think that the fact that she was born in a musical family, and often visited a church with much music, played a huge role. Both heredity and environment is important. The family environment and the church environment made her interested of music very early, probably by both encouragement from the parent's, big brothers and friends, and an own interest from Whitney's side. She also had an important heredity; both her mother and cousin were very talented singers with great voices that Whitney both got influenced by and inherited biological. When she got older, and started singing in church and at nightclub's with her mother, she was getting a good stage experience that became important. She also made her self a name because she was seen a lot; both as singer, actress and model when she was a teenager. People started to recognize her name; they could tell each other about her, which leaded up to that Whitney got discovered by a label manager. 

Whitney Houston's greatness was caused by a lot of things. Her voice was phenomenal. She could reach really high notes without sounding strained. The voice was strong and powerful, but could be soft and tender sometimes as well. She could also sing all kinds of songs. She is mostly famous for singing ballads, but I think that she performed disco-, r'n'b- and soul-songs in an amazing way too. She sang mainstream pop that sold a lot and broked records, but also the narrower genre gospel. I like that she was so multilateral. Whitney made career as singer, actress, producer and fashion model - and succeeded in the most things. She was also a good role model in many ways, she cared about people with difficulties and donated a lot of money to charity.

So how could it end up this way? Whitney Houston seemed to be a woman who almost had it all; talent, success, money and prosperity. She was one of the biggest music artists of all time, with record break after record break. What makes a successful person like Whitney; start a drug abuse which costs the life? She is not the first one. Big stars like Janis Joplin, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland and Elvis Presley died young because of drug abuse. There is also a huge part of today's celebrities who has said that they are using drugs; for example Lady Gaga, Julia Roberts, Kate Moss and Johnny Depp.

It is common to believe that drugs are something that mostly the society's outcast people are using, but that is a big myth. There is many reasons to why celebrities are using drugs in a very big extent. When you are famous and successful, you got many demands placed on you. If you have done a successful ...