PEOPLE Whitney Houston

It was her effortlessly perfect voice for me. That Effortlessly Perfect Voice. There’s no way to write it to sufficiently capture the full magic of Whitney Houston’s talent, of what she meant to so many people. As a little Black girl raised in the early ’90s singing in the church in Berkeley, Calif., I was always trying to mimic Houston’s heavenly timbre, that sweet and powerful sound that seemed to flow from her like water from a brand-new faucet. A world away, it was the same for Adele, growing up in London. She once told an interviewer, “I always wanted to sound like Whitney Houston. I remember being 17 in front of mirrors, singing along to ‘I Want to Dance With Somebody’ with my hair spray in my hand.” Same…

IT WAS JULY 7, 2000, JUST PAST MIDNIGHT, and Whitney Houston was patiently awaiting the release of husband Bobby Brown outside a medium-security prison. The self-proclaimed King of R&B had just served 65 days of a 75-day sentence in the North Broward Detention Center in Pompano Beach, Fla., following several parole violations stemming from a 1996 DUI conviction in which he lost control of his Porsche and ran into a sign. As Brown exited the facility carrying a plastic bag of clothes and waving a peace sign, the singer was met by a throng of reporters eager to capture the tabloid-ready reunion. “Bobby Brown!” yelled Houston from beside a white limousine. She jumped into the arms of her man, wrapping her legs around his waist. It was just the kind…

WHITNEY HOUSTON WAS “SCARED TO DEATH” OF PERFORMING A MOVIE ROLE, SHE LATER ADMITTED TO DIANE SAWYER. “IT FILLED HER WITH NERVOUSNESS: ‘HOW CAN I DO THIS? DO I TAKE ACTING LESSONS?’ ” RECALLED MICK JACKSON, DIRECTOR OF The Bodyguard, Houston’s 1992 film debut. “In coming to me very humbly, she was showing a vulnerability. This great superstar was actually insecure about some things.” Producer Lawrence Kasdan agreed: “There was not an ounce of arrogance about becoming an actress. She knew this was a brand-new step for her.” Houston’s fears proved largely unfounded. While the critical reception was mixed—between the MTV Awards and the Razzies, she was nominated for both Best Breakthrough Performance and Worst New Star—the film grossed more than $410 million. Over two decades Houston would make four…

IT WAS BILLED AS THE ULTIMATE comeback tour. Whitney Houston was clean and sober after battling cocaine addiction. She’d freed herself from a toxic marriage. “She seemed like she had a new lease on life,” said her friend, songwriter Diane Warren. But when Houston, then 46, hit the road in Australia for her Nothing But Love tour in February 2010, “she struggled,” said Andrew McManus, who managed that leg of her tour. “She wasn’t stage-ready. She just wasn’t good enough to dance and keep up vocally.” Tickets sold, but the reviews were scathing, calling her “croaky and disoriented.” Houston remained undeterred. “She said, ‘I know I’m going out there every night and giving it my all,’ ” McManus recalled. “ ‘If that’s not good enough, that’s not my problem.’ ”…