People PEOPLE Whitney Houston

“WHITNEY WAS THE VOICE. WE GOT TO HEAR A PART OF GOD EVERY TIME SHE SANG. HEART IS HEAVY, SPIRIT GRATEFUL FOR THE GIFT OF HER”—OPRAH WINFREY, 2012 INSIDE • FAMILY & FRIENDS’ MEMORIES OF THE WHITNEY HOUSTON ONLY THEY KNEW • HER LIFE & UNPARALLELED CAREER IN PICTURES • THE STORY OF MAKING ‘I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU’…

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…

THAT VOICE. WHITNEY HOUSTON, at just 12 years old, steps out of the church choir for her first solo and blows the roof off the place. At 15, called onstage by her mom, gospel singer Cissy Houston, she does the same thing—at Carnegie Hall. Months later Luther Vandross hears The Voice and offers to be her producer. At 19, as she prepares her first album, her mentor, record exec Clive Davis, is already talking about her as one for the ages. “There was Lena Horne,” he says. “There is Dionne Warwick. But if the mantle is to pass to somebody . . . who’s elegant, who’s sensuous, who’s innocent, who’s got an incredible range of talent . . . it will be Whitney Houston.” And, of course, he’s right. The…

NO ONE KNEW WHAT TO EXPECT from the skinny little girl they called Nippy. It was 1975, and all eyes were on Whitney Houston, 12, at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where she was set to make her gospel solo debut. What happened next was a gift from God. Under the wooden arches that fanned across the ceiling of the beautiful, small place of worship, Whitney, draped in choir robes, opened her mouth to sing. The fortunate few who were in attendance would never forget that day. “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,” she sang. “Pilgrim through this barren land, I am weak, but thou art mighty. Hold me with thy powerful hand.” The congregation, transfixed, stared in wonder. Whitney’s father was as amazed as the others. John Houston (who…

IN A MERE SEVEN YEARS, from 1985 to 1992, Whitney Houston sold a remarkable 26 million albums in the United States alone, racked up 10 no. 1 Hot 100 singles and anchored a film that grossed more than $400 million worldwide. She would then soar beyond the safe, commercial confines that built her early career, elevating herself artistically above her pop-chart peers. “Her unprecedented success brought Black women into the absolute highest reaches of the music industry’s pantheon,” said Alicia Keys when she inducted Houston into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. Yet when Houston was first introduced to the world by Arista Records chief Clive Davis on The Merv Griffin Show in 1983, she looked like anything but a transformative pop culture force. She appeared nervous, clasping…

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 of…