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Mosaic of the 12 Tribes of Israel. From a synagogue wall in Jerusalem.

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The Israelites (בני ישראל, Standard: Bnai Yisraʾel; Tiberian: Bnai Yiśrāʾēl; ISO 259-3: Bnai Yiśraˀel) were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East, who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the tribal and monarchic periods (15th to 6th centuries BCE), later evolving into Jews and Samaritans of the classic period, inhabiting Judea and Samaria respectively. In Modern Hebrew usage, an Israelite is, broadly speaking, a lay member of the Jewish ethnoreligious community, as opposed to the priestly orders of Kohanim and Levites.

The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew word "Israel". Although most literary references to Israelites are located in the Hebrew Bible, there is also abundant non-biblical archaeological and historical evidence of ancient Israel and Judah. The ethnonym is attested as early as the 13th century BCE in an Egyptian inscription. The Hebrew Bible etymologizes the name as from yisra "to prevail over" or "to struggle/wrestle with", and el, "God, the divine".^[1][2] The eponymous biblical patriarch of the Israelites is Jacob, who wrestled with God who gave him a blessing and renamed him "Israel" because he had "striven with God and with men, and have prevailed." (Genesis 32:24-32) According to the Hebrew Bible, Israelites were the "chosen people" of God. The name Hebrews is sometimes used synonymously with "Israelites". The Qurʾānic term is for Israelites is Banī Israʾīl (children of Israel).

The biblical term "Israelites" (also the "Twelve Tribes" or "Children of Israel") means both the direct descendants of the patriarch Jacob (Israel) as well as the historical populations of the kingdom of Israel.^[3] For the post-exilic period, beginning in the 5th century BCE, the remnants of the Israelite tribes came to be referred to as Jews (tribes of Judah, Simeon and partially Benjamin and Levi), named for the kingdom of Judah. This change is explicit in the Book of Esther (4th century BCE).^[4] On the other hand, Samaritans (tribes of Menasseh, Ephraim and partially Benjamin and Levi) became named for Samaria. It replaced the title Children of Israel.^[5]

Terminology[link]

Prior to a meeting with rival brother, Esau; the biblical patriarch Jacob wrestles an angel on the shores of the Jabbok and is given the name 'Israel'.^[1][2] Throughout the rest of the Torah, Jacob is referred to at times as both Jacob and Israel, depending on which aspect of his character the text means to convey.

In modern Hebrew, B'nei Yisrael ("Children of Israel") can denote the Jewish people at any time in history; it is typically used to emphasize Jewish religious identity. From the period of the Mishna (but probably used before that period) the term Yisrael ("an Israel") acquired an additional narrower meaning of Jews of legitimate birth other than Levites and Aaronite priests (kohanim). In modern Hebrew this contrasts with the term Yisraeli, a citizen of the modern State of Israel, regardless of religion or ethnicity (English "Israeli").

The Greek term Jew historically refers to a member of the tribe of Judah, which formed the nucleus of the kingdom of Judah. The term Hebrew, perhaps related to the name of the Habiru nomads, has Eber as an eponymous biblical patriarch. It is used synonymously with "Israelites", or as an ethnolinguistic term of the historical speakers of the Hebrew language in general.

Ancient times[link]

Biblical Israelites[link]

Tribes of Israel
The Tribes Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Dan Naphtali Gad Asher Issachar Zebulun Joseph Manasseh Ephraim Benjamin
Related topics Israelites Tribal allotments Ten Lost Tribes
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The following is a summary of pages 18-20 of Stephen L. Wylen's "The Jews in the Time of Jesus: An Introduction"^[6]

Pentateuch

The Torah traces the Israelites to the patriarch Jacob, grandson of Abraham, who was renamed Israel after a mysterious incident in which he wrestles all night with God or an angel. Jacob's twelve sons (in order of birth), Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin, become the ancestors of twelve tribes, with the exception of Joseph, whose two sons Mannasseh and Ephraim become tribal eponyms.

The mothers of Jacob's sons are:

• Leah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun
• Rachel: Joseph, Benjamin
• Bilhah (Rachel's maid): Dan, Naphtali
• Zilpah (Leah's maid): Gad, Asher (Gen 35:22-26)

Jacob and his sons are forced by famine to go down into Egypt. When they arrive they and their families are 70 in number, but within four generations they have increased to 600,000 men of fighting age, and the Pharaoh of Egypt, alarmed, first enslaves them and then orders the death of all male Hebrew children. The God of Israel reveals his name to Moses, a Hebrew of the line of Levi; Moses leads the Israelites out of bondage and into the desert, where God gives them their laws and the Israelites agree to become his people. Nevertheless, the Israelites lack complete faith in God, and the generation which left Egypt is not permitted to enter the Promised Land.

Former Prophets

Following the death of the generation of Moses a new generation, led by Joshua, enters Canaan and takes possession of the land in accordance with the curse placed upon Canaan by Noah. Yet even now the Israelites lack strength in God in the face of the peoples of the land, and periods of weakness and backsliding alternate with periods of resilience under a succession of Judges. Eventually the Israelites ask for a king, and God gives them Saul. David, the youngest (divinely favored) son of Jesse of Bethlehem would succeed Saul. Under David the Israelites establish the kingdom of God, and under David's son Solomon they build the Temple where God takes his earthly dwelling among them. Yet Solomon sins by allowing his foreign wives to worship their own gods, and so on his death and reign of his son, Rehoboam, the kingdom is divided in two.

The kings of the northern kingdom of Israel are uniformly bad, permitting the worship of other gods and failing to enforce the worship of God alone, and so God eventually allows them to be conquered and dispersed among the peoples of the earth; in their place strangers settle the northern land. In Judah some kings are good and enforce the worship of God alone, but many are bad and permit other gods, even in the Temple itself, and at length God allows Judah to fall to her enemies, the people taken into captivity in Babylon, the land left empty and desolate, and the Temple itself destroyed.

Ezra-Nehemiah-Chronicles

Yet despite these events God does not forget his people, but sends Cyrus, king of Persia as his messiah to deliver them from bondage. The Israelites are allowed to return to Judah and Benjamin, the Temple is rebuilt, the priestly orders restored, and the service of sacrifice resumed. Through the offices of the sage Ezra, Israel is constituted as a holy community, bound by the Law and holding itself apart from all other peoples.

Historical Israelites[link]

The Merneptah stele (JE 31408), bearing the first record of the name Israel (Cairo Museum)

The name Israel first appears c. 1209 BCE, at the end of the Late Bronze Age and the very beginning of the period archaeologists and historians call Iron Age I, in an inscription of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah. The inscription is very brief and says simply: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not". The hieroglyph accompanying the name "Israel" indicates that it refers to a people, most probably located in the highlands of Samaria.^[7]

Description of Israelite captives from the kingdoms of Israel and Judea, as they were portrayed on the Southern wall of Shoshenq I's Temple of Amun in Karnak (dated 925/6 BCE)

Over the next two hundred years (the period of Iron Age I) the number of highland villages increased from 25 to over 300^[8] and the settled population doubled to 40,000.^[9] There is general agreement that the majority of the population living in these villages was of Canaanite origin.^[8] By the 10th century BCE a rudimentary state had emerged in the north-central highlands,^[10] and in the 9th century this became a kingdom. The kingdom was sometimes called Israel by its neighbours, but more frequently it was known as the "House (or Land) of Omri."^[11] Settlement in the southern highlands was minimal from the 12th through the 10th centuries BCE, but a state began to emerge there in the 9th century,^[12] and from 850 BCE onwards a series of inscriptions are evidence of a kingdom which its neighbours refer to as the "House of David."^[13]

In this carving on the Black Obelisk, possibly Jehu, king of Israel, or Jehu's ambassador, bows before Shalmaneser III of Assyria. Dated 825 BCE.

A reconstructed Israelite house, Monarchy period, 10th–7th BCE. Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel

Map of the twelve tribes of Israel

Transition into modern ethnic groups[link]

Classic period: Jews and Samaritans[link]

Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים‎, Yehudim), also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East.^{[citation needed]} According to the Books of Chronicles chapter 9 line 2, the Israelites, who took part in The Return to Zion, are stated to be from the Tribe of Judah alongside the Tribe of Simeon that was absorbed into it, the Tribe of Benjamin, the Tribe of Levi (Levites and Priests). The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, which the Samaritans themselves and some biblical scholars consider to be the remaining population of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who were not exiled during the ten tribes exile formed the Samaritan community. Some biblical scholars also consider that parts of the Judean population had stayed to live in their homes during the excilic period and later joined the returning Israelites from Babylon and formed the Jews of the classic and Hasmonean era.

After the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 Judah (Hebrew: יְהוּדָה Yehuda) became a province of the Persian empire. This status continued into the following Hellenistic period, when Yehud became a disputed province of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria. In the early part of the 2nd century BCE, a revolt against the Seleucids led to the establishment of an independent Jewish kingdom under the Hasmonean dynasty. The Hasmoneans adopted a deliberate policy of imitating and reconstituting the Davidic kingdom, and as part of this forcibly converted to Judaism their neighbours in the Land of Israel. The conversions included Nabateans (Zabadeans) and Itureans, the peoples of the former Philistine cities, the Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites. Attempts were also made to incorpoarate the Samaritans, following takeover of Samaria. The success of mass-conversions is however questionable, as most groups retained their tribal separations and mostly turned Hellenistic or Christian, with Edomites perhaps being the only exception to merge into the Jewish society under Herodian dinasty and in the following period of Jewish-Roman Wars. While there are some references to maintaining the tribal separation among Israelites during the Hasmonean period, the dominant position of the tribe of Judah as well as nationalistic policies of Hasmoneans to refer to residents of Hasmonean Judea as Jews practically erased the tribal distinction, with the exception of the priestly orders of Levites and Kohanim (tribe of Levi).

The Babylonian Jewish community, though maintaining permanent ties with the Hasmonean and later Herodian kingdoms, evolved into a separate Jewish community, which during the Talmudic period assembled its own practices (the Babylonian Talmud, slightly differing from the Jerusalem Talmud. The Babylonian Jewry is considered to be the predecessor of most Mizrachi Jewish communities.

Post-Israelite groups during the Middle Ages[link]

Ashkenazi Jews[link]

Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew word for "Germany", and is the umbrella term used to describe several Jewish populations, which used to live in Germania during the Middle Ages and until the modern times used to adhere the "Yiddish-culture" and the "Ashkenazi" prayer style. There is evidence that groups of Jews had been settled in Germania since the Roman Era; they were probably merchants, who followed the Roman Legions during their conquests. To larger degree modern Ashkenazi Jews are the descendants of Jews, who migrated into northern France and lower Germany around 800–1000 CE, and later migrated also into Eastern Europe. Many Ashkenazi Jews in fact also have mixed Sephardic origins, as a result of exiles from Spain, first during Islamic persecutions (11th-12th centuries) and later Christian conquests (13th-15th centuries) and Spanish Inquisition (15th-16th centuries). In this sense, modern term "Ashkenazi" refers to a subset of Jewish religious practices, appropriated over time, rather than to a strict ethno-geographic division, which became erased over-time.

Genetic analysis of Ashkenazi Jews[link]

In 2006, a study by Doron Behar and Karl Skorecki of the Technion and Ramban Medical Center in Haifa, Israel demonstrated that the vast majority of Ashkenazi Jews, both men and women, have Middle Eastern ancestry;^[14] Ashkenazi Jews share a common ancestry with other Jewish groups;^[15] only 5%-8% of the Ashkenazi Jews were found to have genes, which possibly originated in non-Jewish European populations.^[16]

According to Hammer, his study suggests that the Ashkenazi population expanded through a series of bottlenecks - events that squeeze a population down to small numbers - perhaps as it migrated from the Middle East after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE to Italy, reaching the Rhine Valley in the 10th century. Dr. David Goldstein, a Duke University geneticist and director of the Duke Center for Human Genome Variation, has noted that the Technion and Ramban team confirmed that genetic drift played a major role in shaping Ashkenazi mitochondrial DNA, therefore mtDNA studies fail to draw a statistically significant linkage between modern Jews and Middle Eastern populations, however, this differs from the patrilineal case, where Dr. Goldstein said there is no question of a Middle Eastern origin.^[14]

Sephardic Jews[link]

Sephardim are Jews whose ancestors lived in Spain or Portugal, where they lived for possibly as much as a millennia before being finally expelled in 1492 by the Catholic Monarchs (the Alhambra decree); the Sephardic communities subsequently migrated to North Africa (Maghreb), Christian Europe (Netherlands, Britain, France and Poland), throughout the Ottoman Empire and even the newly discovered Latin America. In the Ottoman Empire, the Sephardim mostly settled in the European portion of the Empire, and mainly in the major cities such as: Istanbul, Selânik and Bursa. Selânik, which is today known as Thessaloniki and found in modern-day Greece, had a large and flourishing Sephardic community as was the community of Maltese Jews in Malta.

A large population of Sephardic refugees, who fled via the Netherlands as Marranos eventually settled in Hamburg and Altona Germany in the early 16th century, eventually appropriating Ashkenazic Jewish rituals into their religious practice. One famous figure from the Sephardic Ashkenazic population is Glückel of Hameln. Others among those who settled in the Netherlands, were some who would again relocate to the United States, establishing the country's first organized community of Jews and erecting the United States' first synagogue. Other Sephardim remained in Spain and Portugal as Anusim (forced converts to Catholicism), which would also be the fate for those who had migrated to Spanish and Portuguese ruled Latin America.

Sephardic Jews evolved to form most of North African Jewish communities of the modern times, as well as the bulk of the Turkish, Syrian, Galilean and Jerusalemite Jews of the Ottoman period.

Mizrachi Jews[link]

Mizrahim are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucasus, largely originating from the Babylonian Jewry of the classic period. The term Mizrahi is used in Israel in the language of politics, media and some social scientists for Jews from the Arab world and adjacent, primarily Muslim-majority countries. The definition of Mizrachi includes the modern Iraqi Jews, Syrian Jews, Lebanese Jews, Persian Jews, Afghan Jews, Bukharian Jews, Kurdish Jews, Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews. Some also include the North-African Sephardic communities and Yemenite Jews under the definition of Mizrahi, but do that from rather political geeralization than ancestral reasons.

Yemenite Jews[link]

Temanim are Jews, who had been living in Yemen prior their migration to modern Israel. Their geographic and social isolation from the rest of the Jewish community over the course of many centuries allowed them to develop a liturgy and set of practices that are significantly distinct from those of other Oriental Jewish groups; they themselves comprise three distinctly different groups, though the distinction is one of religious law and liturgy rather than of ethnicity. Traditionally the genesis of the Yemenite Jewish community came after the Babylonian excile, though the community most probably emerged in the Roman times, and was significantly reinforced during the reign of Dhu Nuwas in the 6th century CE and later Muslim conquests of the 7th century CE, which drove the Arab Jewish tribes out from central Arabia.

Karaite Jews[link]

Karaim are Jews who during the Middle Ages used to live mostly in Egypt, Iraq, and Crimea. They are distinguished by the form of Judaism they observe. Rabbinic Jews of varying communities have affiliated with the Karaite community throughout the millennia. As such, Karaite Jews are less an ethnic division, than they are members of a particular branch of Judaism. Karaite Judaism recognizes the Tanakh as the single religious authority of the Jewish people. Linguistic principles and contextual exegesis are used in arriving at the correct meaning of the Torah. Karaite Jews strive to adhere to the plain or most obvious understanding of the text when interpreting the Tanakh. By contrast, Rabbinical Judaism regards an Oral Law (codified and recorded in the Mishnah and Talmuds) as being equally binding on Jews, and mandated by God. In Rabbinical Judaism, the Oral Law forms the basis of religion, morality, and Jewish life. Karaite Jews rely on the use of sound reasoning and the application of linguistic tools to determine the correct meaning of the Tanakh; while Rabbinical Judaism looks toward the Oral law codified in the Talmud, to provide the Jewish community with an accurate understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures.

The differences between Karaite and Rabbinic Judaism go back more than a thousand years. Rabbinical Judaism originates from the Pharisees of the Second Temple period. Karaite Judaism may have its origins in the Sadducees of the same era. Sadducees and Karaite Jews hold the entire Hebrew Bible to be a religious authority. As such, the vast majority of Karaites believe in the resurrection of the dead.^[17] Karaite Jews are widely regarded as being halachically Jewish by the Orthodox Rabbinate. Similarly, members of the rabbinic community are considered to be Jews by the Moetzet Hakhamim, if they are patrilineally Jewish.^{[citation needed]}

Modern denominations[link]

Israeli Jews[link]

Jews of Israel comprise an increasingly mixed wide range of Jewish communities originated from the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. While a significant portion of Israeli Jews still retain memories of their Sephardic, Ashkenazi and Mizrahi origins, mixed Jewish marriages among the communities are very common. There are also smaller groups of Yemenite Jews, Indian Jews and others, still retaining a semi-separate communal life. There are also approximately 50,000 adherents of Karaite Judaism, most of whom live in Israel, but exact numbers are not known, as most Karaites have not participated in any religious censuses. The Beta Israel, though somewhat disputed as descendants of ancient Israelites, are widely recognized in Israel as Ethiopian Jews.

American Jews[link]

The ancestry of most American Jews goes back to Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish communities, which migrated to US on the course of 19th and 20th centuries, as well as more recent influxes of Persian, Israeli and other Middle Eastern Jews. The American Jewish community is considered to contain the highest percentage of mixed marriages between Jews and non-Jews, thus both creating assimilation and a significant influx of non-Jews to become self-identified within the definition of Jewry. With most widespread practice in the U.S, becoming the Reform Judaism, it doesn't require or see the Jews as direct descendants of the ethnic Jews or Biblical Israelites, but rather adherents of the Jewish faith in its Reformist version, in contrary to the Orthodox Judaism, the mainstream practice in Israel, which considers the Jews as a closed ethnoreligious community, with very strict procedures of conversion.

French Jews[link]

The Jews of modern France are numbering around 400,000 persons, largely descendants of North African Sephardic communities, which came to Spain, following the Jewish exodus from Arab countries, and to a smaller degree members of the Ashkenazi Jewish communities, who survived the WWII and the Holocaust. Most French Jews are practising Orthodox Judaism and have permanent and close ties with the Israeli Jewish community.

Anusim[link]

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During the Jewish diaspora, Jews who lived in Christian Europe were usually attacked by the local population and were portrayed by many Anti-semites motives, many of them were forced to convert to Christianity by the local population or by the religious leadership, and were called by Jews: "Anusim" ('forced-ones'), they continued practicing Judaism in secret, while living outside as ordinary Christians. The most known case of "Anusim" was the one of the Jews of Spain and Jews of Portugal (although "Anusim" were also in other European countries). In the Muslim countries, many Jews were forced to convert to Islam by force over the years since the rise of the Islamic religion, and the most known case of those conversion was the case of Mashhad Jews, that lived as ordinary Muslims in Persia towards the neighbour population but kept practicing Judaism secretly, and eventually made an Aliyah and returned being Jewish in Israel. Many Anusim's descendants left Judaism over the years. On December 2008, genetic test showed that 19.8% of the Iberian Peninsula population is originated from the Anusim.^{[18][verification needed]}

Modern Samaritans[link]

The Samaritans, who in the classic times comprised a comparatively large group, now count 745 people, who live in two communities in Israel and the West Bank, and still regard themselves as descendants of the tribes of Ephraim (named by them as Aphrime) and Manasseh (named by them as Manatch). Samaritans adhere to a version of the Torah, known as the Samaritan Pentateuch, which differs in some respects from the Masoretic text, sometimes in important ways, and less so from the Septuagint.

The Samaritans consider themselves Bnei Yisrael ("Children of Israel" or "Israelites"), but do not regard themselves to be Yehudim (Jews). They view this term "Jews" as a designation for followers of Judaism, which they assert is a related but altered and amended religion brought back by the exiled Israelite returnees which is not the true religion of the ancient Israelites, which according to them is Samaritanism.

DNA evidence[link]

Modern DNA evidence has proven that most of the world's Jews and Samaritans have a common ancestral lineage in the Levant, which can possibly be traced to Israelites, largely on the paternal lines in both cases. Maternally, both Jews and Samaritans have had very low rates of intermarriage with local host (for Jews, local populations in their host diaspora regions)^[19] or alien (for Samaritans, foreigners resettled in their midst in attempts by ruling foreign elites to obliterate national identities) populations.^[20] Both populations' DNA results indicate the groups having had a high percentage of marriage within their respective communities; in contrast to a low percentage of interfaith marriages (as low as 0.5% per generation).

See also[link]

• Bible
• Gentile
• Half Jewish
• House of Israel (Ghana)
• Israeli Jews
• Israelis
• Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)
• Noahides
• Shavei Israel
• Tribal allotments of Israel
• Kaifeng Jews

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Albertz, Rainer (1994) [Vanderhoek & Ruprecht 1992]. A History of Israelite Religion, Volume I: From the Beginnings to the End of the Monarchy. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22719-7. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=yvZUWbTftSgC&pg=RA1-PA145&lpg=RA1-PA145&dq=History+of+Israelite+Religion,+Volume+1++Albertz#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Albertz, Rainer (1994) [Vanderhoek & Ruprecht 1992]. A History of Israelite Religion, Volume II: From the Exile to the Maccabees. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22720-3. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=exjyhvRy7YUC&dq=Albertz+a+history+of+israelite+religion&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Albertz, Rainer (2003a). Israel in Exile: The History and Literature of the Sixth Century B.C.E.. Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 978-1-58983-055-4. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=Xx9YzJq2B9wC&dq=Rainer+Albertz,+%22Israel+in+exile%22&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Albertz, Rainer; Becking, Bob, eds. (2003b). Yahwism After the Exile: Perspectives on Israelite Religion in the Persian Era. Koninklijke Van Gorcum. ISBN 978-90-232-3880-5. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=hwExATCqwvwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Yahwism+after+the+exile:+perspectives+on+Israelite+religion+in+the+Persian+era#v=onepage&q&f=false.  Becking, Bob. "Law as Expression of Religion (Ezra 7–10)". 
• Amit, Yaira, et al., eds. (2006). Essays on Ancient Israel in its Near Eastern Context: A Tribute to Nadav Na'aman. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-128-3. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=Ku4OKVrEd4MC&pg=PA467&lpg=PA467&dq=Essays+on+Ancient+Israel+in+its+Near+Eastern+Context:+A+Tribute+to+Nadav+Na%27aman#v=onepage&q=Essays%20on%20Ancient%20Israel%20in%20its%20Near%20Eastern%20Context%3A%20A%20Tribute%20to%20Nadav%20Na%27aman&f=false.  Davies, Philip R. "The Origin of Biblical Israel". 
• Avery-Peck, Alan, et al., eds. (2003). The Blackwell Companion to Judaism. Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-57718-059-3. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=asYoIwz9z2UC&pg=PA230&lpg=PA230&dq=The+Blackwell+Companion+to+Judaism++By+Jacob+Neusner,+Alan+Avery-Peck#v=onepage&q=&f=false.  Murphy, Frederick J. R. "Second Temple Judaism". 
• Barstad, Hans M. (2008). History and the Hebrew Bible. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 978-3-16-149809-1. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=zqJxkKy-cMMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Barstad+History+and+the+Hebrew+Bible:+studies+in+ancient+Israelite+and+ancient+Near#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Becking, Bob, ed. (2001). Only One God? Monotheism in Ancient Israel and the Veneration of the Goddess Asherah. Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-84127-199-6. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=z72KmReV-bIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Only+One+God%3F+Monotheism+in+Ancient+Israel+and+the+Veneration+of+the+Goddess+Asherah#v=onepage&q&f=false.  Dijkstra, Meindert. "El the God of Israel, Israel the People of YHWH: On the Origins of Ancient Israelite Yahwism".  Dijkstra, Meindert. "I Have Blessed You by Yahweh of Samaria and His Asherah: Texts with Religious Elements from the Soil Archive of Ancient Israel". 
• Becking, Bob; Korpel, Marjo Christina Annette, eds. (1999). The Crisis of Israelite Religion: Transformation of Religious Tradition in Exilic and Post-Exilic Times. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-11496-8. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=lak_YWjCjDMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+crisis+of+Israelite+religion:+transformation+of+religious+tradition#v=onepage&q&f=false.  Niehr, Herbert. Religio-Historical Aspects of the Early Post-Exilic Period. 
• Bedford, Peter Ross (2001). Temple Restoration in Early Achaemenid Judah. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-11509-5. http://books.google.com/?id=MOd320e710IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Osarsiph#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Ben-Sasson, H.H. (1976). A History of the Jewish People. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-39731-2. 
• Blenkinsopp, Joseph (1988). Ezra-Nehemiah: A Commentary. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-664-22186-7. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=3PvirfZkfvQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ezra-Nehemiah:+A+Commentary++By+Joseph+Blenkinsopp#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Blenkinsopp, Joseph; Lipschits, Oded, eds. (2003). Judah and the Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian Period. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-073-6. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=R65fhpcUFcgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Judah+and+the+Judeans+in+the+neo-Babylonian+period#v=onepage&q&f=false.  Blenkinsopp, Joseph. "Bethel in the Neo-Babylonian Period".  Lemaire, Andre. "Nabonidus in Arabia and Judea During the Neo-Babylonian Period". 
• Blenkinsopp, Joseph (2009). Judaism, the First Phase: The Place of Ezra and Nehemiah in the Origins of Judaism. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-6450-5. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=m1V1DeBS6P0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Judaism,+the+first+phase:+the+place+of+Ezra+and+Nehemiah#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Brett, Mark G. (2002). Ethnicity and the Bible. Brill. ISBN 978-0-391-04126-4. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=RfFRhC4FpZkC&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=Finkelstein+haser-style+layout#v=onepage&q=Finkelstein%20haser-style%20layout&f=false.  Edelman, Diana. "Ethnicity and Early Israel". 
• Bright, John (2000). A History of Israel. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22068-6. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=0VG67yLs-LAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Bright+History+of+Israel#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Coogan, Michael D., ed. (1998). The Oxford History of the Biblical World. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-513937-2. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=zFhvECwNQD0C&dq=The+Oxford+History+of+the+Biblical+World&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false.  Stager, Lawrence E. "Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel". 
• Coogan, Michael D. (2009). A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533272-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=nlb1PQAACAAJ&dq=A+brief+introduction+to+the+old+testament+coogan. 
• Coote, Robert B.; Whitelam, Keith W. (1986). "The Emergence of Israel: Social Transformation and State Formation Following the Decline in Late Bronze Age Trade". Semeia (37): 107–47. 
• Davies, Philip R. (1992). In Search of Ancient Israel. Sheffield. ISBN 978-1-85075-737-5. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=pMcM8GGO_n8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Philip+Davies+In+search+of+Ancient+Israel#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Davies, Philip R. (2009). "The Origin of Biblical Israel". Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 9 (47). http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/Articles/article_47.htm. 
• Day, John (2002). Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan. Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-8264-6830-7. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=y-gfwlltlRwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Yahweh+and+the+gods+and+goddesses+of+Canaan#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Dever, William (2001). What Did the Biblical Writers Know, and When Did They Know It?. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-2126-3. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=6-VxwC5rQtwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=What+did+the+biblical+writers+know,+and+when+did+they+know+it#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Dever, William (2003). Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From?. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-0975-9. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=8WkbUkKeqcoC&dq=Who+were+the+early+Israelites,+and+where+did+they+come+from%3F&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Dever, William (2005). Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-2852-1. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=6AOE9sxg3bMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Did+God+have+a+wife%3F:+archaeology+and+folk+religion+in+ancient+Israel#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Dunn, James D.G; Rogerson, John William, eds. (2003). Eerdmans commentary on the Bible. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-3711-0. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=2Vo-11umIZQC&pg=PA153&lpg=PA153&dq=John+W.+Rogerson+Deuteronomy#v=onepage&q=John%20W.%20Rogerson%20Deuteronomy&f=false.  Rogerson, John William. "Deuteronomy". 
• Edelman, Diana, ed. (1995). The Triumph of Elohim: From Yahwisms to Judaisms. Kok Pharos. ISBN 978-90-390-0124-0. http://books.google.com/?id=bua2dMa9fJ4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+crisis+of+Israelite+religion:+transformation+of+religious+tradition#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Finkelstein, Neil Asher; Silberman (2001). The Bible Unearthed. ISBN 978-0-7432-2338-6. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=lu6ywyJr0CMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Bible+Unearthed:+Archaeology%27s+New+Vision+of+Ancient+Israel#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Finkelstein, Israel; Mazar, Amihay; Schmidt, Brian B. (2007). The Quest for the Historical Israel. Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 978-1-58983-277-0. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=jpbngoKHg8gC&dq=The+quest+for+the+historical+Israel:&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false.  Mazar, Amihay. "The Divided Monarchy: Comments on Some Archaeological Issues". 
• Gnuse, Robert Karl (1997). No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel. Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-85075-657-6. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=0Kf1ZwDifdAC&dq=Robert+Karl+Gnuse,+%22No+Other+Gods:+Emergent+Monotheism+in+Israel%22&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Golden, Jonathan Michael (2004a). Ancient Canaan and Israel: An Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537985-3. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=EResmS5wOnkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ancient+Canaan+and+Israel:+An+Introduction++By+Jonathan+M+Golden#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Golden, Jonathan Michael (2004b). Ancient Canaan and Israel: New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-897-6. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=yTMzJAKowyEC&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=Late+Bronze+collapse+in+Canaan#v=onepage&q=Late%20Bronze%20collapse%20in%20Canaan&f=false. 
• Goodison, Lucy; Morris, Christine (1998). Goddesses in Early Israelite Religion in Ancient Goddesses: The Myths and the Evidence. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-90-04-10410-5. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=VSJWkrXfbLQC&dq=Family+religion+in+Babylonia,+Syria,+and+Israel&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Grabbe, Lester L. (2004). A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period. T&T Clark International. ISBN 978-0-567-04352-8. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=VK2fEzruIn0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+history+of+the+Jews+and+Judaism+in+the+Second+Temple+Period#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Grabbe, Lester L., ed. (2008). Israel in Transition: From Late Bronze II to Iron IIa (c. 1250–850 B.C.E.). T&T Clark International. ISBN 978-0-567-02726-9. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=tR0Qpz2zRogC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Israel+in+transition:+from+late+Bronze+II+to+Iron+IIa+%28c.+1250-850+B.C.E.%29#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Greifenhagen, F.V (2002). Egypt on the Pentateuch's ideological map. Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-8264-6211-4. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=DaVjGgPmmCsC&pg=PA269&dq=Formation+of+the+Pentateuch#v=onepage&q=Formation%20of%20the%20Pentateuch&f=false. 
• Joffe, Alexander H. (2006). The Rise of Secondary States in the Iron Age Levant. University of Arizona Press. http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:yEjgq10p2R8J:faculty.ksu.edu.sa/archaeology/Publications/The%2520Near%2520East/THE%2520RISE%2520OF%2520SECONDARY%2520STATES%2520IN%2520THE%2520IRON%2520AGE%2520LEVANT.pdf+The+rise+of+secondary+states+in+the+iron+age+levant&hl=en&gl=au&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShOFDyR0nZTkKYMxNV_Bx_-ZnxPxtcxPIqYaszJb9MLwTo87ghGRAIm3BVfoyLdnPoGusSIdYcU-Vb4bC0if-u6UVbcXqaH8lLnkpb1YxAlGuGUAbZns30JANGo2a4l8LwU1rGv&sig=AHIEtbSIm7oZkrq-cmEGQ9VcnnvfejrQSQ&pli=1. 
• Killebrew, Ann E. (2005). Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, and Early Israel, 1300–1100 B.C.E.. Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 978-1-58983-097-4. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=VtAmmwapfVAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Biblical+peoples+and+ethnicity:+an+archaeological#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• King, Philip J.; Stager, Lawrence E. (2001). Life in Biblical Israel. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-22148-3. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=OtOhypZz_pEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Life+in+biblical+Israel++By+Philip+J.+King,+Lawrence+E.+Stager#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Kuhrt, Amélie (1995). The Ancient Near East c. 3000–330 BC. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-16763-5. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=V_sfMzRPTgoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Am%C3%A9lie+Kuhrt+The+ancient+Near+East#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Lemche, Niels Peter (1998). The Israelites in History and Tradition. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22727-2. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=JIoY7PagAOAC&dq=lemche+the+israelites+in+history+and+tradition&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Levy, Thomas E. (1998). The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land. Continuum International Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8264-6996-0. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=-etsKv-4V2oC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+archaeology+of+society+in+the+Holy+Land++Thomas+E.+Levy#v=onepage&q&f=false.  LaBianca, Øystein S.; Younker, Randall W. "The Kingdoms of Ammon, Moab and Edom: The Archaeology of Society in Late Bronze/Iron Age Transjordan (c. 1400–500 CE)". 
• Lipschits, Oded (2005). The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-095-8. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=78nRWgb-rp8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Lipschitz,+Oded+fall+and+rise#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Lipschits, Oded, et al., eds. (2006). Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B.C.E.. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-130-6. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=6NsxZRnxE70C&pg=PA75&lpg=PA75&dq=Lipschits+Yehud#v=onepage&q=Lipschits%20Yehud&f=false.  Kottsieper, Ingo. "And They Did Not Care to Speak Yehudit".  Lipschits, Oded; Vanderhooft, David. "Yehud Stamp Impressions in the Fourth Century B.C.E.". 
• Markoe, Glenn (2000). Phoenicians. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-22614-2. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=smPZ-ou74EwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Phoenicians++Glenn+Markoe#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Mays, James Luther, et al., eds. (1995). Old Testament Interpretation. T&T Clarke. ISBN 978-0-567-29289-6. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=SNLN1nEEys0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Old+Testament+Interpretation+James+Luther+Mays,+David+L.+Petersen,+Kent+Harold+Richards#v=onepage&q&f=false.  Miller, J. Maxwell. "The Middle East and Archaeology". 
• McNutt, Paula (1999). Reconstructing the Society of Ancient Israel. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22265-9. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=hd28MdGNyTYC&pg=PA33&lpg=PA33&dq=Reconstructing+the+Society+of+Ancient+Israel++By+Paula+M.+McNutt#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Merrill, Eugene H. (1995). "The Late Bronze/Early Iron Age Transition and the Emergence of Israel". Bibliotheca Sacra 152 (606): 145–62. 
• Middlemas, Jill Anne (2005). The Troubles of Templeless Judah. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-928386-6. http://books.google.com/?id=Jrpx-op_-XkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=lester+grabbe+1995#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Miller, James Maxwell; Hayes, John Haralson (1986). A History of Ancient Israel and Judah. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-21262-X. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=uDijjc_D5P0C&dq=A+history+of+ancient+Israel+and+Judah++By+James+Maxwell+Miller,+John+Haralson+Hayes&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Miller, Robert D. (2005). Chieftains of the Highland Clans: A History of Israel in the 12th and 11th Centuries B.C.. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-0988-9. http://books.google.com.kh/books?id=Gtm7NtK87poC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Chieftains+of+the+highland+clans#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Nodet, Étienne (1999) [Editions du Cerf 1997]. A Search for the Origins of Judaism: From Joshua to the Mishnah. Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-85075-445-9. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=rE49wYHz5YUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+search+for+the+origins+of+Judaism:+from+Joshua+to+the+Mishnah#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Pitkänen, Pekka (2004). "Ethnicity, Assimilation and the Israelite Settlement". Tyndale Bulletin 55 (2): 161–82. http://www.tyndalehouse.com/tynbul/library/TynBull_2004_55_2_01_Pitkanen_EthnicityIsraelSettlement.pdf. 
• Silberman, Neil Asher; Small, David B., eds. (1997). The Archaeology of Israel: Constructing the Past, Interpreting the Present. Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-85075-650-7. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=qX7r2lAQdFkC&pg=PA238&lpg=PA238&dq=hesse+wapnish#v=onepage&q=hesse%20wapnish&f=false.  Hesse, Brian; Wapnish, Paula. "Can Pig Remains Be Used for Ethnic Diagnosis in the Ancient Near East?". 
• Smith, Mark S. (2001). Untold Stories: The Bible and Ugaritic Studies in the Twentieth Century. Hendrickson Publishers. 
• Smith, Mark S.; Miller, Patrick D. (2002) [Harper & Row 1990]. The Early History of God. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-3972-5. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=1yM3AuBh4AsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Smith+Early+History+of+God#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Soggin, Michael J. (1998). An Introduction to the History of Israel and Judah. Paideia. ISBN 978-0-334-02788-1. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=Dzw_H5GhkfYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=An+introduction+to+the+history+of+Israel+and+Judah++By+J.+Alberto+Soggin#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Thompson, Thomas L. (1992). Early History of the Israelite People. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-09483-3. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=XqoMRPJca-wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Early+history+of+the+Israelite+people:+from+the+written+and+archaeological+...++By+Thomas+L.+Thompson#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Van der Toorn, Karel (1996). Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria, and Israel. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-10410-5. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=VSJWkrXfbLQC&dq=Family+religion+in+Babylonia,+Syria,+and+Israel&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Van der Toorn, Karel; Becking, Bob; Van der Horst, Pieter Willem (1999). Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (2d ed.). Koninklijke Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-11119-6. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=yCkRz5pfxz0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Dictionary+of+Deities#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Vaughn, Andrew G.; Killebrew, Ann E., eds. (1992). Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period. Sheffield. ISBN 978-1-58983-066-0. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=yYS4VEu08h4C&dq=Jerusalem+in+Bible+and+archaeology:+the+First+Temple+period++By+Andrew+G.+Vaughn,+Ann+E.+Killebrew&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false.  Cahill, Jane M. "Jerusalem at the Time of the United Monarchy".  Lehman, Gunnar. "The United Monarchy in the Countryside". 
• Wylen, Stephen M. (1996). The Jews in the Time of Jesus: An Introduction. Paulist Press. ISBN 978-0-8091-3610-0. http://books.google.com/?id=SHgiy-k_wsUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=An+introduction+to+early+Judaism++By+James+C.+VanderKam#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Zevit, Ziony (2001). The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches. Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-6339-5. http://books.google.com/?id=db4hr55j0yYC&pg=PA1&dq=The+religion+of+ancient+Israel++By+Patrick+D.+Miller#v=onepage&q&f=false. 

Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston performing at Good Morning America in Central Park on September 1, 2009
Background information
Birth name	Whitney Elizabeth Houston
Born	(1963-08-09)August 9, 1963 Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	February 11, 2012(2012-02-11) (aged 48) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Genres	R&B, soul, pop, dance, gospel
Occupations	Singer, actress, model, film producer, record producer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, piano
Years active	1977–2012
Labels	Arista, RCA
Associated acts	Cissy Houston, Dionne Warwick, Dee Dee Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Jermaine Jackson, Mariah Carey, Enrique Iglesias, Bobby Brown
Website	Official website Whitney Houston's autograph

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American recording artist, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all-time.^[1] Houston was one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide.^[2][3] She released seven studio albums and three movie soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification. Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for "How Will I Know",^[4] influenced several African American female artists to follow in her footsteps.^[5][6]

Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits.^[7] She is the second artist behind Elton John and the only female artist to have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards (formerly "Top Pop Album") on the Billboard magazine year-end charts.^[8] Houston's 1985 debut album Whitney Houston became the best-selling debut album by a female act at the time of its release. The album was named Rolling Stone's best album of 1986, and was ranked at number 254 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.^[9] Her second studio album Whitney (1987) became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart.^[9]

Houston's first acting role was as the star of the feature film The Bodyguard (1992). The film's original soundtrack won the 1994 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Its lead single "I Will Always Love You", became the best-selling single by a female artist in music history. With the album, Houston became the first act (solo or group, male or female) to sell more than a million copies of an album within a single week period under Nielsen SoundScan system.^[9] The album makes her the top female act in the top 10 list of the best-selling albums of all time, at number four. Houston continued to star in movies and contribute to their soundtracks, including the films Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996). The Preacher's Wife soundtrack became the best-selling gospel album in history.^[10]

Life and career[link]

1963–1976: Early life[link]

Whitney Houston was born in what was then a middle-income neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey, the second child of Army serviceman and entertainment executive John Russell Houston, Jr. (September 13, 1920 – February 2, 2003), and gospel singer Cissy Houston (née Emily Drinkard).^[11] She was of African American, Native American and Dutch descent.^[12] Her mother, along with cousins Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick, godmother Darlene Love^[13] and honorary aunt Aretha Franklin^[14] were all notable figures in the gospel, rhythm and blues, pop, and soul genres.^[15] She met her honorary aunt at age 8, or 9, when her mother took her to a recording studio.^[16] Houston was raised a Baptist, but was also exposed to the Pentecostal church. After the 1967 Newark riots, the family moved to a middle-class area in East Orange, New Jersey, when she was four.^[17]

At the age of 11, Houston began to follow in her mother's footsteps and started performing as a soloist in the junior gospel choir at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where she also learned to play the piano.^[18] Her first solo performance in the church was "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah".^[19] When Houston was a teenager, she attended Mount Saint Dominic Academy, a Catholic girls' high school in Caldwell, New Jersey, where she met her best friend Robyn Crawford, whom she described as the "sister she never had".^[20] While Houston was still in school, her mother continued to teach her how to sing.^[5] In addition to her mother, Franklin, and Warwick, Houston was also exposed to the music of Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, and Roberta Flack, most of whom would have an impact on her as a singer and performer.^[21]

1977–1984: Early career[link]

Houston spent some of her teenage years touring nightclubs where her mother Cissy was performing, and she would occasionally get on stage and perform with her. In 1977, at age 14, she became a backup singer on the Michael Zager Band's single "Life's a Party".^[22] In 1978, at age 15, Houston sang background vocals on Chaka Khan's hit single "I'm Every Woman", a song she would later turn into a larger hit for herself on her monster-selling The Bodyguard soundtrack album.^[23][24] She also sang back-up on albums by Lou Rawls and Jermaine Jackson.^[23]

In the early 1980s, Houston started working as a fashion model after a photographer saw her at Carnegie Hall singing with her mother. She appeared in Seventeen^[25] and became one of the first women of color to grace the cover of the magazine.^[26] She was also featured in layouts in the pages of Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Young Miss, and appeared in a Canada Dry soft drink TV commercial.^[27] Her striking looks and girl-next-door charm made her one of the most sought after teen models of that time.^[27] While modeling, she continued her burgeoning recording career by working with producers Michael Beinhorn, Bill Laswell and Martin Bisi on an album they were spearheading called One Down, which was credited to the group Material. For that project, Houston contributed the ballad "Memories", a cover of a song by Hugh Hopper of Soft Machine. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice called her contribution "one of the most gorgeous ballads you've ever heard".^[28] She also appeared as a lead vocalist on one track on a Paul Jabara album, entitled Paul Jabara and Friends, released by Columbia Records in 1983.^[29]

Houston had previously been offered several recording agencies (Michael Zager in 1980, and Elektra Records in 1981), however her mother declined the offers stating her daughter must first complete high school.^[22][30] In 1983, Gerry Griffith, an A&R representative from Arista Records, saw her performing with her mother in a New York City nightclub and was impressed. He convinced Arista's head Clive Davis to make time to see Houston perform. Davis too was impressed and offered a worldwide recording contract which Houston signed. Later that year, she made her national televised debut alongside Davis on The Merv Griffin Show.^[31]

Houston signed with Arista in 1983, but did not begin work on her album immediately.^[1] The label wanted to make sure no other label signed the singer away. Davis wanted to ensure he had the right material and producers for Houston's debut album. Some producers had to pass on the project due to prior commitments.^[32] Houston first recorded a duet with Teddy Pendergrass entitled "Hold Me" which appeared on his album, Love Language.^[33] The single was released in 1984 and gave Houston her first taste of success, becoming a Top 5 R&B hit.^[34] It would also appear on her debut album in 1985.

1985–1986: Rise to international prominence[link]

With production from Michael Masser, Kashif, Jermaine Jackson, and Narada Michael Walden, Houston's debut album Whitney Houston was released in February 1985. Rolling Stone magazine praised Houston, calling her "one of the most exciting new voices in years" while The New York Times called the album "an impressive, musically conservative showcase for an exceptional vocal talent".^[35][36] Arista Records promoted Houston's album with three different singles from the album in the US, UK and other European countries. In the UK, the dance-funk "Someone for Me", which failed to chart in the country, was the first single while "All at Once" was in such European countries as the Netherlands and Belgium, where the song reached the top 5 on the singles charts, respectively.^[37]

In the US, the soulful ballad "You Give Good Love" was chosen as the lead single from Houston's debut to establish her in the black marketplace first.^[38] Outside the US, the song failed to get enough attention to become a hit, but in the US, it gave the album its first major hit as it peaked at No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and No. 1 on the Hot R&B chart.^[32] As a result, the album began to sell strongly, and Houston continued promotion by touring nightclubs in the US. She also began performing on late-night television talk shows, which were not usually accessible to unestablished black acts. The jazzy ballad "Saving All My Love for You" was released next and it would become Houston's first No. 1 single in both the US and the UK. She was then an opening act for singer Jeffrey Osborne on his nationwide tour. "Thinking About You" was released as the promo single only to R&B-oriented radio stations, which peaked at number ten on the US R&B Chart. At the time, MTV had received harsh criticism for not playing enough videos by black, Latino, and other racial minorities while favoring white acts.^[39] The third US single, "How Will I Know", peaked at No. 1 and introduced Houston to the MTV audience thanks to its video. Houston's subsequent singles from this, and future albums, would make her the first African-American female artist to receive consistent heavy rotation on MTV.^[26]

By 1986, a year after its initial release, Whitney Houston topped the Billboard 200 albums chart and stayed there for 14 non-consecutive weeks.^[40] The final single, "Greatest Love of All", became Houston's biggest hit at the time after peaking No. 1 and remaining there for three weeks on the Hot 100 chart, which made her debut the first album by a female artist to yield three No. 1 hits. Houston was No. 1 artist of the year and Whitney Houston was the No. 1 album of the year on the 1986 Billboard year-end charts, making her the first female artist to earn that distinction.^[40] At the time, Houston released the best-selling debut album by a solo artist.^[41] Houston then embarked on her world tour, Greatest Love Tour. The album had become an international success, and was certified 13× platinum (diamond) in the United States alone, and has sold a total of 25 million copies worldwide.^[42]

At the 1986 Grammy Awards, Houston was nominated for three awards including Album of the Year.^[43] She was not eligible for the Best New Artist category due to her previous hit R&B duet recording with Teddy Pendergrass in 1984.^[44] She won her first Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for "Saving All My Love for You".^[45] Houston's performance of the song during the Grammy telecast later earned her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.^[46]

Houston won seven American Music Awards in total in 1986 and 1987, and an MTV Video Music Award.^[47][48] The album's popularity would also carry over to the 1987 Grammy Awards when "Greatest Love of All" would receive a Record of the Year nomination. Houston's debut album is listed as one of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and on The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's Definitive 200 list.^[49][50] Houston's grand entrance into the music industry is considered one of the 25 musical milestones of the last 25 years, according to USA Today.^[51] Following Houston's breakthrough, doors were opened for other African-American female artists such as Janet Jackson and Anita Baker to find notable success in popular music and on MTV.^[52][53]

[edit] 1987–1991: Whitney, I'm Your Baby Tonight and "The Star Spangled Banner"

With many expectations, Houston's second album, Whitney, was released in June 1987. The album again featured production from Masser, Kashif and Walden as well as Jellybean Benitez. Many critics complained that the material was too similar to her previous album. Rolling Stone said, "the narrow channel through which this talent has been directed is frustrating".^[54] Still, the album enjoyed commercial success. Houston became the first female artist in music history to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and the first artist to enter the albums chart at number one in both the US and UK, while also hitting number one or top ten in dozens of other countries around the world. The album's first single, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)", was also a massive hit worldwide, peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and topping the singles chart in many countries such as Australia, Germany and the UK. The next three singles, "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "So Emotional", and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" all peaked at number one on the US Hot 100 chart, which gave her a total of seven consecutive number one hits, breaking the record of six previously shared by The Beatles and The Bee Gees.^[55][56] Houston became the first female artist to generate four number-one singles from one album. Whitney has been certified 9× Platinum in the US for shipments of over 9 million copies, and has sold a total of 20 million copies worldwide.^[57]

At the 30th Grammy Awards in 1988, Houston was nominated for three awards, including Album of the Year, winning her second Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)".^[58][59] Houston also won two American Music Awards in 1988 and 1989, respectively, and a Soul Train Music Award.^[60][61][62] Following the release of the album, Houston embarked on the Moment of Truth World Tour, which was one of the ten highest grossing concert tours of 1987.^[63] The success of the tours during 1986–87 and her two studio albums ranked Houston No. 8 for the highest earning entertainers list according to Forbes magazine.^[64] She was the highest earning African-American woman overall and the third highest entertainer after Bill Cosby and Eddie Murphy.^[64]

Houston was a supporter of Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement. During her modeling days, the singer refused to work with any agencies who did business with the then-apartheid South Africa.^[65][66] On June 11, 1988, during the European leg of her tour, Houston joined other musicians to perform a set at Wembley Stadium in London to celebrate a then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday.^[65] Over 72,000 people attended Wembley Stadium, and over a billion people tuned in worldwide as the rock concert raised over $1 million for charities while bringing awareness to apartheid.^[67] Houston then flew back to the US for a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City in August. The show was a benefit concert that raised a quarter of a million dollars for the United Negro College Fund.^[68] In the same year, she recorded a song for NBC's coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics, "One Moment in Time", which became a Top 5 hit in the US, while reaching number one in the UK and Germany.^[69][70][71] With her world tour continuing overseas, Houston was still one of the top 20 highest earning entertainers for 1987–88 according to Forbes magazine.^[72][73]

Houston performing "Saving All My Love for You" on the Welcome Home Heroes concert in 1991

In 1989, Houston formed The Whitney Houston Foundation For Children, a non-profit organization that has raised funds for the needs of children around the world. The organization cares for homelessness, children with cancer or AIDS, and other issues of self-empowerment.^[74] With the success of her first two albums, Houston was undoubtedly an international crossover superstar, the most prominent since Michael Jackson, appealing to all demographics. However, some black critics believed she was "selling out".^[6] They felt her singing on record lacked the soul that was present during her live concerts.^[25]

At the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards, when Houston's name was called out for a nomination, a few in the audience jeered.^[75][76] Houston defended herself against the criticism, stating, "If you're gonna have a long career, there's a certain way to do it, and I did it that way. I'm not ashamed of it".^[25] Houston took a more urban direction with her third studio album, I'm Your Baby Tonight, released in November 1990. She produced and chose producers for this album and as a result, it featured production and collaborations with L.A. Reid and Babyface, Luther Vandross, and Stevie Wonder. The album showed Houston's versatility on a new batch of tough rhythmic grooves, soulful ballads and up-tempo dance tracks. Reviews were mixed. Rolling Stone felt it was her "best and most integrated album".^[77] while Entertainment Weekly, at the time thought Houston's shift towards an urban direction was "superficial".^[78]

The album contained several hits: the first two singles, "I'm Your Baby Tonight" and "All the Man That I Need" peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; "Miracle" peaked at number nine; "My Name Is Not Susan" peaked in the top twenty; "I Belong to You" reached the top ten of the US R&B chart and garnered Houston a Grammy nomination; and the sixth single, the Stevie Wonder duet "We Didn't Know", reached the R&B top twenty. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and went on to be certified 4× platinum in the US while selling twelve million total worldwide.

In 1990, Houston was the spokesperson for a youth leadership conference hosted in Washington, D.C. She had a private audience with President George H. W. Bush in the Oval Office to discuss the associated challenges.

With America entangled in the Persian Gulf War, Houston performed "The Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium on January 27, 1991.^[79] Due to overwhelming response to her rendition, it was released as a commercial single and video of her performance, and reached the Top 20 on the US Hot 100, making her the only act to turn the national anthem into a pop hit of that magnitude (Jose Feliciano's version reached No. 50 in November 1968).^[80][81] Houston donated all her share of the proceeds to the American Red Cross Gulf Crisis Fund. As a result, the singer was named to the Red Cross Board of Governors.^[79][82][83]

Her rendition was considered the benchmark for singers and critically acclaimed.^[84] Rolling Stone commented that "her singing stirs such strong patriotism. Unforgettable", and the performance ranked No. 1 on the 25 most memorable music moments in NFL history list. VH1 listed the performance as one of the greatest moments that rocked TV.^[85][86] Following the attacks on 9/11, it was released again by Arista Records, all profits going towards the firefighters and victims of the attacks. This time it peaked at No. 6 in the Hot 100 and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.^[87]

Later in 1991, Houston put together her Welcome Home Heroes concert with HBO for the soldiers fighting in the Persian Gulf War and their families. The free concert took place at Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia in front of 3,500 servicemen and women. HBO descrambled the concert so that it was free for everyone to watch.^[88] Houston's concert gave HBO its highest ratings ever.^[89] She then embarked on the I'm Your Baby Tonight World Tour.

[edit] 1992–1994: Marriage to Bobby Brown and The Bodyguard

Throughout the 1980s, Houston was romantically linked to American football star Randall Cunningham and actor Eddie Murphy, whom she dated.^[90] She then met R&B singer Bobby Brown at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards. After a three-year courtship, the two were married on July 18, 1992.^[91] On March 4, 1993, Houston gave birth to their daughter Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, her only child, and his fourth. Brown would go on to have several run-ins with the law, including some jail time.^[91]

With the commercial success of her albums, movie offers poured in, including offers to work with Robert De Niro, Quincy Jones, and Spike Lee; but Houston felt the time wasn't right.^[90] Houston's first film role was in The Bodyguard, released in 1992 and co-starring Kevin Costner. Houston played Rachel Marron, a star who is stalked by a crazed fan and hires a bodyguard to protect her. USA Today listed it as one of the 25 most memorable movie moments of the last 25 years in 2007.^[92] Houston's mainstream appeal allowed people to look at the movie color-blind.^[93]

Still, controversy arose as some felt the film's advertising intentionally hid Houston's face to hide the film's interracial relationship. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 1993, the singer commented that "people know who Whitney Houston is – I'm black. You can't hide that fact."^[21] Houston received a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress. The Washington Post said Houston is "doing nothing more than playing Houston, comes out largely unscathed if that is possible in so cockamamie an undertaking",^[94] and The New York Times commented that she lacked passion with her co-star.^[95] Despite the film's mixed reviews, it was hugely successful at the box office, grossing more than $121 million in the U.S. and $410 million worldwide, making it one of the top 100 grossing films in film history at its time of release, though it is no longer in the top 100 due to rising ticket prices since the time the film was released.^[96]

The film's soundtrack also enjoyed big success. Houston executive produced and contributed six songs for the motion picture's adjoining soundtrack album. Rolling Stone said it is "nothing more than pleasant, tasteful and urbane".^[97] The soundtrack's lead single was "I Will Always Love You", written and originally recorded by Dolly Parton in 1974. Houston's version of the song was acclaimed by many critics, regarding it as her "signature song" or "iconic performance". Rolling Stone and USA Today called her rendition "the tour-de-force".^[98][99] The single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for a then-record-breaking 14 weeks, number one on the R&B chart for a then-record-breaking 11 weeks, and number one on the Adult Contemporary charts for five weeks, thus becoming the first single to top those three charts simultaneously for five weeks.^[100]

The single was certified 4× platinum by the RIAA, making Houston the first female artist with a single to reach that level in the RIAA history and becoming the best-selling single by a female artist in the US.^{[101][102][103]} The song also became a global success, hitting number-one in almost all countries, and one of the best-selling singles of all time with 12 million copies sold.^[104] The soundtrack topped the Billboard 200 chart and remained there for 20 non-consecutive weeks, the longest tenure by any album on the chart in the Nielsen SoundScan era, and became one of the fastest selling albums ever.^[105] During Christmas week of 1992, the soundtrack sold over a million copies within a week, becoming the first album to achieve that feat under Nielsen SoundScan system.^[106][107] With the follow-up singles "I'm Every Woman", a Chaka Khan cover, and "I Have Nothing" both reaching the top five, Houston became the first female artist to ever have three singles in the Top 11 simultaneously.^{[108][109][110]} The album was certified 17× platinum in the US alone,^[111] with worldwide sales of 44 million,^[112] making The Bodyguard the biggest-selling album by a female act on the list of the world's Top 10 best-selling albums, topping Shania Twain's 40 million sold for Come On Over.^[113]

Houston won three Grammys for the album in 1994, including two of the Academy's highest honors, Album of the Year and Record of the Year. In addition, she won a record 8 American Music Awards at that year's ceremony including the Award of Merit,^[114] 11 Billboard Music Awards, 3 Soul Train Music Awards in 1993–94 including Sammy Davis, Jr. Award as Entertainer of the Year,^[115] 5 NAACP Image Awards including Entertainer of the Year,^{[116][117][118]} a record 5 World Music Awards,^[119] and a BRIT award.^[120] Following the success of the project, Houston embarked on another expansive global tour, The Bodyguard World Tour, in 1993–94. Her concerts, movie, and recording grosses made her the third highest earning female entertainer of 1993–94, just behind Oprah Winfrey and Barbra Streisand according to Forbes magazine.^[121] Houston placed in the top five of Entertainment Weekly's annual "Entertainer of the Year" ranking^[122] and was labeled by Premiere magazine as one of the 100 most powerful people in Hollywood.^[123]

In October 1994, Houston attended and performed at a state dinner in the White House honoring newly elected South African president Nelson Mandela.^[124][125] At the end of her world tour, Houston performed three concerts in South Africa to honor President Mandela, playing to over 200,000 people. This would make the singer the first major musician to visit the newly unified and apartheid free nation following Mandela's winning election.^[126] The concert was broadcast live on HBO with funds of the concerts being donated to various charities in South Africa. The event was considered the nation's "biggest media event since the inauguration of Nelson Mandela".^[127]

[edit] 1995–1997: Waiting to Exhale, The Preacher's Wife, and Cinderella

In 1995, Houston starred alongside Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, and Lela Rochon in her second film Waiting to Exhale, a motion picture about four African-American women struggling with relationships. Houston played the lead character Savannah Jackson, a TV producer in love with a married man. She chose the role because she saw the film as "a breakthrough for the image of black women because it presents them both as professionals and as caring mothers".^[128] After opening at number one and grossing $67 million in the US at the box office and $81 million worldwide,^[129] it proved that a movie primarily targeting a black audience can cross over to success, while paving the way for other all-black movies such as How Stella Got Her Groove Back and the Tyler Perry movies that have become popular in the 2000s.^{[130][131][132]} The film is also notable for its portrayal of black women as strong middle class citizens as opposed to stereotypes.^[133] The reviews were mainly positive for the ensemble cast. The New York Times said "Ms. Houston has shed the defensive hauteur that made her portrayal of a pop star in 'The Bodyguard' seem so distant."^[134] Houston was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for "Outstanding Actress In A Motion Picture", but lost to her co-star Bassett.

The film's accompanying soundtrack, Waiting to Exhale: Original Soundtrack Album, was produced by Houston and Babyface. Though Babyface originally wanted Houston to record the entire album, she declined. Instead, she "wanted it to be an album of women with vocal distinction", and thus gathered several African-American female artists for the soundtrack, to go along with the film's strong women message.^[128] As a result, the album featured a range of contemporary R&B female recording artists along with Houston, such as Mary J Blige, Aretha Franklin, Toni Braxton, Patti Labelle, and Brandy. Houston's "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" peaked at No. 1, and then spent a record eleven weeks at the No. 2 spot and eight weeks on top of the R&B Charts. "Count On Me", a duet with CeCe Winans, hit the US Top 10; and Houston's third contribution, "Why Does It Hurt So Bad", made the Top 30. The album debuted at No. 1, and was certified 7× Platinum in the United States, denoting shipments of seven million copies.^[57] The soundtrack received strong reviews as Entertainment Weekly said "the album goes down easy, just as you'd expect from a package framed by Whitney Houston tracks.... the soundtrack waits to exhale, hovering in sensuous suspense"^[135] and has since ranked it as one of the 100 Best Movie Soundtracks.^[136] Later that year, Houston's children's charity organization was awarded a VH1 Honor for all the charitable work.^[137]

In 1996, Houston starred in the holiday comedy The Preacher's Wife, with Denzel Washington. She plays a gospel-singing wife of a pastor (Courtney B. Vance). It was largely an updated remake of the 1948 film "The Bishop's Wife" which starred Loretta Young, David Niven and Cary Grant. Houston earned $10 million for the role, making her one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood at the time and the highest earning African American actress in Hollywood.^[138] The movie, with its all African-American cast, was a moderate success, earning approximately $50 million at the U.S. box offices.^[139] The movie gave Houston her strongest reviews so far. The San Francisco Chronicle said Houston "is rather angelic herself, displaying a divine talent for being virtuous and flirtatious at the same time" and that she "exudes gentle yet spirited warmth, especially when praising the Lord in her gorgeous singing voice".^[140] Houston was again nominated for an NAACP Image Award and won for Outstanding Actress In A Motion Picture.

Houston recorded and co-produced, with Mervyn Warren, the film's accompanying gospel soundtrack. The Preacher's Wife: Original Soundtrack Album included six gospel songs with Georgia Mass Choir that were recorded at the Great Star Rising Baptist Church in Atlanta. Houston also duetted with gospel legend Shirley Caesar. The album sold six million copies worldwide and scored hit singles with "I Believe in You and Me" and "Step by Step", becoming the largest selling gospel album of all time. The album received mainly positive reviews. Some critics, such as that of USA Today, noted the presence of her emotional depth,^[141] while The Times said "To hear Houston going at full throttle with the 35 piece Georgia Mass Choir struggling to keep up is to realise what her phenomenal voice was made for".^[142]

In 1997, Houston's production company changed its name to BrownHouse Productions and was joined by Debra Martin Chase. Their goal was "to show aspects of the lives of African-Americans that have not been brought to the screen before" while improving how African-Americans are portrayed in film and television.^[143] Their first project was a made-for-television remake of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella. In addition to co-producing, Houston starred in the movie as the Fairy Godmother along with Brandy, Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, and Bernadette Peters. Houston was initially offered the role of Cinderella in 1993, but other projects intervened.^[144] The film is notable for its multi-racial cast and nonstereotypical message.^[145] An estimated 60 million viewers tuned into the special giving ABC its highest TV ratings in 16 years.^[146] The movie received seven Emmy nominations including Outstanding Variety, Musical or Comedy, while winning Outstanding Art Direction in a Variety, Musical or Comedy Special.^[147]

Houston and Chase then obtained the rights to the story of Dorothy Dandridge. Houston was to play Dandridge, who was the first African American actress to be nominated for an Oscar. She wanted the story told with dignity and honor.^[143] However, Halle Berry also had rights to the project and she got her version going first.^[148] Later that year, Houston paid tribute to her idols such as Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, and Dionne Warwick by performing their hits during the three-night HBO Concert Classic Whitney, live from Washington, D.C. The special raised over $300,000 for the Children's Defense Fund.^[149] Houston received The Quincy Jones Award for outstanding career achievements in the field of entertainment at the 12th Soul Train Music Awards.^[150][151]

[edit] 1998–2000: My Love Is Your Love and Whitney: The Greatest Hits

After spending much of the early and mid 1990s working on motion pictures and their soundtrack albums, Houston's first studio album in eight years, the critically acclaimed My Love Is Your Love, was released in November 1998. Though originally slated to be a greatest hits album with a handful of new songs, recording sessions were so fruitful that a new full-length studio album was released. Recorded and mixed in only six weeks, it featured production from Rodney Jerkins, Wyclef Jean and Missy Elliott. The album debuted at number thirteen, its peak position, on the Billboard 200 chart.^[152] It had a funkier and edgier sound than past releases and saw Houston handling urban dance, hip hop, mid-tempo R&B, reggae, torch songs, and ballads all with great dexterity.^[153]

From late 1998 to early 2000, the album spawned several hit singles: "When You Believe" (US No. 15, UK No. 4), a duet with Mariah Carey for 1998's The Prince of Egypt soundtrack, which also became an international hit as it peaked in the Top 10 in several countries and won an Academy Award for Best Original Song;^[154] "Heartbreak Hotel" (US No. 2, UK No. 25) featured Faith Evans and Kelly Price, received a 1999 MTV VMA nomination for Best R&B Video,^[155] and number one on the US R&B chart for seven weeks; "It's Not Right But It's Okay" (US No. 4, UK No. 3) won Houston her sixth Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance;^[156] "My Love Is Your Love" (US No. 4, UK No. 2) with 3 million copies sold worldwide;^[157] and "I Learned from the Best" (US No. 27, UK No. 19).^[158][159] These singles became international hits as well, and all the singles, except "When You Believe", became number one hits on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play chart. The album sold four million copies in America, making it certified 4× platinum, and a total of eleven million copies worldwide.^[42]

The album gave Houston some of her strongest reviews ever. Rolling Stone said Houston was singing "with a bite in her voice"^[160] and The Village Voice called it "Whitney's sharpest and most satisfying so far".^[161] In 1999, Houston participated in VH-1's Divas Live '99, alongside Brandy, Mary J. Blige, Tina Turner, and Cher. The same year, Houston hit the road with her 70 date My Love Is Your Love World Tour. The European leg of the tour was Europe's highest grossing arena tour of the year.^[162] In November 1999, Houston was named Top-selling R&B Female Artist of the Century with certified US sales of 51 million copies at the time and The Bodyguard Soundtrack was named the Top-selling Soundtrack Album of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).^[163] She also won The Artist of the Decade, Female award for extraordinary artistic contributions during the 1990s at the 14th Soul Train Music Awards, and an MTV Europe Music Award for Best R&B.^{[164][165][166][167][168]}

In May 2000, Whitney: The Greatest Hits was released worldwide. The double disc set peaked at number five in the United States, reaching number one in the United Kingdom.^[159][169] In addition, the album reached the Top 10 in many other countries.^[170] While ballad songs were left unchanged, the album features house/club remixes of many of Houston's up-tempo hits. Included on the album were four new songs: "Could I Have This Kiss Forever" (a duet with Enrique Iglesias), "Same Script, Different Cast" (a duet with Deborah Cox), "If I Told You That" (a duet with George Michael), and "Fine", and three hits that had never appeared on a Houston album: "One Moment in Time", "The Star Spangled Banner", and "If You Say My Eyes Are Beautiful", a duet with Jermaine Jackson from his 1986 Precious Moments album.^[171] Along with the album, an accompanying VHS and DVD was released featuring the music videos to Houston's greatest hits, as well as several hard-to-find live performances including her 1983 debut on The Merv Griffin Show, and interviews.^[172] The greatest hits album was certified 3× platinum in the US, with worldwide sales of 10 million.^[173][174]

[edit] 2000–2005: Just Whitney, and personal struggles

Though Houston was seen as a "good girl" with a perfect image in the 1980s and early 1990s, by the late 1990s, her behavior changed. She was often hours late for interviews, photo shoots and rehearsals, and canceling concerts and talk-show appearances.^[175][176] With the missed performances and weight loss, rumors about Houston using drugs with her husband circulated. On January 11, 2000, airport security guards discovered marijuana in both Houston's and husband Bobby Brown's luggage at a Hawaii airport, but the two boarded the plane and departed before authorities could arrive. Charges were later dropped against them,^[177] but rumors of drug usage between the couple would continue to surface. Two months later, Clive Davis was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Houston had been scheduled to perform at the event, but failed to show up.^[178]

Shortly thereafter, Houston was scheduled to perform at the Academy Awards but was fired from the event by musical director and longtime friend Burt Bacharach. Her publicist cited throat problems as the reason for the cancellation. In his book The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards, author Steve Pond revealed that "Houston's voice was shaky, she seemed distracted and jittery, and her attitude was casual, almost defiant", and that while Houston was to sing "Over the Rainbow", she would start singing a different song.^[179] Houston later admitted to having been fired.^[180] Later that year, Houston's long-time executive assistant and friend, Robyn Crawford, resigned from Houston's management company.^[178]

In August 2001, Houston signed the biggest record deal in music history with Arista/BMG. She renewed her contract for $100 million to deliver six new albums, on which she would also earn royalties.^{[181][182][183]} She later made an appearance on Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special. Her extremely thin frame further spurred rumors of drug use. Houston's publicist said, "Whitney has been under stress due to family matters, and when she is under stress she doesn't eat."^[184] The singer was scheduled for a second performance the following night but canceled.^[185] Within weeks, Houston's rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" would be re-released after the September 11 attacks, with the proceeds donated to the New York Firefighters 9/11 Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Fraternal Order of Police.^[186] The song peaked at No. 6 this time on the US Hot 100, topping its previous position.^[158]

In 2002, Houston became involved in a legal dispute with John Houston Enterprise. Although the company was started by her father to manage her career, it was actually run by company president Kevin Skinner. Skinner filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit and sued for $100 million (but lost), stating that Houston owed the company previously unpaid compensation for helping to negotiate her $100 million contract with Arista Records and for sorting out legal matters.^[187] Houston stated that her 81-year-old father had nothing to do with the lawsuit. Although Skinner tried to claim otherwise, John Houston never appeared in court.^[188] Houston's father later died in February 2003.^[189] The lawsuit was dismissed on April 5, 2004, and Skinner was awarded nothing.^[190]

Also in 2002, Houston did an interview with Diane Sawyer to promote her then-upcoming album. The interview was the highest-rated television interview in history.^{[citation needed]} During the prime-time special, Houston spoke on topics including rumored drug use and marriage. She was asked about the ongoing drug rumors and replied, "First of all, let's get one thing straight. Crack is cheap. 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 wack."^[180] The line was from Keith Haring's mural which was painted in 1986 on the handball court at 128th Street and 2nd Avenue.^[191] Houston did, however, admit to using other substances at times, including cocaine.^[180]

In December 2002, Houston released her fifth studio album, Just Whitney.... The album included productions from then-husband Bobby Brown, as well as Missy Elliott and Babyface, and marked the first time that Houston did not produce with Clive Davis as Davis had been released by top management at BMG. Upon its release, Just Whitney... received mixed reviews.^[192] The album debuted at number 9 on the Billboard 200 chart and it had the highest first week sales of any album Houston had ever released.^[193] The four singles released from the album, didn't fare well on the Billboard Hot 100, but became Hot Dance Club Play hits. Just Whitney... was certified platinum in the United States, and sold approximately three million worldwide.^[194]

On a June 2003 trip to Israel, Houston said of her visit, "I've never felt like this in any other country. I feel at home, I feel wonderful."^[195]

In late 2003, Houston released her first Christmas album One Wish: The Holiday Album, with a collection of traditional holiday songs. Houston produced the album with Mervyn Warren and Gordon Chambers. A single titled "One Wish (for Christmas)" reached the Top 20 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and the album was certified gold in the US. Having always been a touring artist, Houston spent most of 2004 touring and performing in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Russia. In September 2004, she gave a surprise performance at the World Music Awards in a tribute to long time friend Clive Davis. After the show, Davis and Houston announced plans to go into studio to work on her new album.^[196]

In early 2004, husband Bobby Brown starred in his own reality TV program, Being Bobby Brown (on the Bravo network), which provided a view into the domestic goings-on in the Brown household. Though it was Brown's vehicle, Houston was a prominent figure throughout the show, receiving as much screen time as Brown. The series aired in 2005 and featured Houston in, what some would say, not her most flattering moments. The Hollywood Reporter said it was "undoubtedly the most disgusting and execrable series ever to ooze its way onto television."^[197] Despite the perceived train-wreck nature of the show, the series gave Bravo its highest ratings in its time slot and continued Houston's successful forays into film and television.^[198] The show was not renewed for a second season after Houston stated that she would no longer appear in it, and Brown and Bravo could not come to an agreement for another season.^[199]

[edit] 2006–2012: Return to music, I Look to You, tour and film comeback

After years of controversy and turmoil, Houston separated from Bobby Brown in September 2006, filing for divorce the following month.^[200] On February 1, 2007, Houston asked the court to fast track their divorce.^[201] The divorce was finalized on April 24, 2007, with Houston granted custody of the couple's daughter.^[202] On May 4, Houston sold the suburban Atlanta home featured in Being Bobby Brown for $1.19 million.^[203] A few days later, Brown sued Houston in Orange County, California court in an attempt to change the terms of their custody agreement. Brown also sought child and spousal support from Houston. In the lawsuit, Brown claimed that financial and emotional problems prevented him from properly responding to Houston's divorce petition.^[204] Brown lost at his court hearing as the judge dismissed his appeal to overrule the custody terms, leaving Houston with full custody and Brown with no spousal support.^[205] In March 2007, Clive Davis of Arista Records announced that Houston would begin recording a new album.^[206] In October 2007, Arista released another compilation The Ultimate Collection outside the United States.^[207]

Houston performing "My Love Is Your Love" with her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown on Good Morning America, September 1, 2009

Houston gave her first interview in seven years in September 2009, appearing on Oprah Winfrey's season premiere. The interview was billed as "the most anticipated music interview of the decade".^[208] Whitney admitted on the show to using drugs with former husband Bobby Brown, who "laced marijuana with rock cocaine".^[209] By 1996, she told Oprah, "[doing drugs] was an everyday thing... I wasn't happy by that point in time. I was losing myself."^[210]

Houston released her new album, I Look to You, in August 2009.^[211] The album's first two singles are "I Look to You" and "Million Dollar Bill". The album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1, with Houston's best opening-week sales of 305,000 copies, marking Houston's first number one album since The Bodyguard, and Houston's first studio album to reach number one since 1987's Whitney. Houston also appeared on European television programs to promote the album. She performed the song "I Look to You" on the German television show Wetten, dass..?. Three days later, she performed the worldwide first single from I Look To You, Million Dollar Bill, on the French television show Le Grand Journal. Houston appeared as guest mentor on The X Factor in the United Kingdom. She performed "Million Dollar Bill" on the following day's results show, completing the song even as a strap in the back of her dress popped open two minutes into the performance. She later commented that she "sang [herself] out of [her] clothes".

The performance was poorly received by the British media, and was variously described as "weird" and "ungracious",^[212] "shambolic"^[213] and a "flop". Despite this reception, "Million Dollar Bill" jumped to its peak from 14 to number 5 (her first UK top 5 for over a decade), and three weeks after release "I Look to You" went gold. Houston appeared on the Italian version of The X Factor, performing the same song "Million Dollar Bill" to excellent reviews.^[214] She was awarded the Gold Certificate for achieving over 50,000 CD sales of "I Look To You" in Italy.^[215] In November, Houston performed "I Didn't Know My Own Strength" at the 2009 American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California. Two days later, Houston performed both songs on the Dancing With The Stars season 9 finale. As of December 2009, "I Look to You" has been certified platinum by the RIAA for sales of more than one million copies in the United States.^[216] On January 26, 2010, her debut album was re-released in a special edition entitled Whitney Houston – The Deluxe Anniversary Edition.^[217]

Whitney Houston at the O2 Arena, April 28, 2010, as part of her Nothing but Love World Tour

Houston later embarked on a world tour, entitled the Nothing but Love World Tour. It was her first world tour in over ten years and was announced as a triumphant comeback. However, some poor reviews and rescheduled concerts brought some negative media attention.^[218][219] Houston canceled some concerts due to illness and received widespread negative reviews from fans who were disappointed in the quality of her voice and performance. Some fans reportedly walked out of her concerts.^[220]

In January 2010, Houston was nominated for two NAACP Image Awards, one for Best Female Artist and one for Best Music Video. She won the award for Best Music Video for her single "I Look to You". On January 16, she received The BET Honors Award for Entertainer citing her lifetime achievements spanning over 25 years in the industry. The 2010 BET Honors award was held at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. and aired on February 1, 2010. Jennifer Hudson and Kim Burrell performed in honor of her, garnering positive reviews. Houston also received a nomination from the Echo Awards, Germany's version of the Grammys, for Best International Artist. In April 2010, the UK newspaper The Mirror reported that Houston was thinking about recording her eighth studio album and wanted to collaborate with will.i.am (of The Black Eyed Peas), her first choice for a collaboration.^[221]

Houston also performed the song "I Look to You" on the 2011 BET Celebration of Gospel, with gospel–jazz singer Kim Burrell, held at the Staples Center, Los Angeles. The performance aired on January 30, 2011. Early in 2011, she gave an uneven performance in tribute to cousin Dionne Warwick at music mogul Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy gala. In May 2011, Houston enrolled in a rehabilitation center again, as an out-patient, citing drug and alcohol problems. A representative for Houston said that it was a part of Houston's "longstanding recovery process".^[222]

In September 2011, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Houston would produce and star alongside Jordin Sparks and Mike Epps in the remake of the 1976 film Sparkle. In the film, Houston portrays Sparks' "not-so encouraging mother". Houston would have executive producer credits on top of acting credits according to Debra Martin Chase, producer of Sparkle. She stated that Houston deserved the title considering she had been there from the beginning in 2001, when Houston obtained Sparkle production rights. R&B singer Aaliyah – originally tapped to star as Sparkle – died in a 2001 plane crash. Her death derailed production, which would have begun in 2002.^{[223][224][225]} Houston's remake of Sparkle was filmed in the fall of 2011,^[226] and is set for release by TriStar Pictures in August 2012.^[227]

Death[link]

The Beverly Hilton Hotel, where Houston's body was found

Wikinews has related news: American pop star Whitney Houston dies at 48

On February 9, 2012, Houston visited singers Brandy and Monica, together with Clive Davis, at their rehearsals for Davis' pre-Grammy Awards party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.^[228][229] That same day, she made her last public performance, when she joined Kelly Price on stage in Hollywood, California, and sang "Jesus Loves Me".^[230][231]

On February 11, 2012, Houston was found dead in suite 434 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, submerged in the bathtub.^[232][233] The cause of death was not immediately known.^[234][235] It was later ruled by the coroner to have been an "accidental drowning".^[236] Beverly Hills paramedics arrived at approximately 3:30 p.m. and found the singer unresponsive and performed CPR. Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. PST.^[234][237] Local police said there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent."^[238] On March 22, 2012, the Los Angeles County coroner's office reported the cause of Houston's death was drowning and the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use".^[239] The office stated the amount of cocaine found in Houston's body indicated that she used the substance shortly before her death.^[240] Toxicology results revealed additional drugs in her system: Benadryl, Xanax, marijuana and Flexiril.^[241] The manner of death was listed as an "accident".^[242]

Houston had an invitation-only memorial on Saturday, February 18, 2012, at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. The service was scheduled for two hours, but lasted for four hours.^[243] Among those who performed at the funeral were Stevie Wonder (rewritten version of "Ribbon in the Sky," and "Love's in Need of Love Today"), CeCe Winans ("Don't Cry" and "Jesus Loves Me"), Alicia Keys ("Send Me an Angel"), Kim Burrell (rewritten version of "A Change Is Gonna Come") and R. Kelly ("I Look to You"), interspersed with hymns by the church choir and remarks by Clive Davis, Houston’s record producer; Kevin Costner; Ricky Minor her music director; her cousin Dionne Warwick and Ray Watson, her security guard for the past 11 years. Aretha Franklin was listed on the program and was expected to sing, but was unable to attend the service.^[244][245] Bobby Brown, Houston's ex-husband, was also invited to the funeral but he left before the service began.^[246] Houston was buried on Sunday, February 19, 2012, in Fairview Cemetery, in Westfield, New Jersey next to her father, John Russell Houston, who died in 2003.^[247]

Reaction[link]

The Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party that Houston was expected to attend, and that featured many of the biggest names in music and movies, went on as scheduled although it was quickly turned into a tribute to Houston. Davis spoke about Houston's death at the evening's start: "By now you have all learned of the unspeakably tragic news of our beloved Whitney's passing. I don't have to mask my emotion in front of a room full of so many dear friends. I am personally devastated by the loss of someone who has meant so much to me for so many years. Whitney was so full of life. She was so looking forward to tonight even though she wasn't scheduled to perform. Whitney was a beautiful person and a talent beyond compare. She graced this stage with her regal presence and gave so many memorable performances here over the years. Simply put, Whitney would have wanted the music to go on and her family asked that we carry on."^[248]

Tony Bennett spoke of Houston's death before performing at Davis' party. He said, "First, it was Michael Jackson, then Amy Winehouse, now, the magnificent Whitney Houston". Bennett sang "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" and said of Houston, "When I first heard her, I called Clive Davis and said, 'You finally found the greatest singer I've ever heard in my life.'"^[249]

Some celebrities opposed Davis' decision to continue on the party while a police investigation was being conducted in Houston's hotel room and her body was still in the building. Chaka Khan, in an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan on February 13, 2012, shared that she felt the party should have been canceled, saying "I thought that was complete insanity. And knowing Whitney I don't believe that she would have said 'the show must go on.' She's the kind of woman that would've said 'Stop everything! Un-unh. I'm not going to be there.' [...] I don't know what could motivate a person to have a party in a building where the person whose life he had influenced so enormously and whose life had been affected by hers. They were like... I don't understand how that party went on."^[250] Sharon Osbourne condemned the Davis party, declaring "I think it was disgraceful that the party went on. I don't want to be in a hotel room when there's someone you admire who's tragically lost their life four floors up. I'm not interested in being in that environment and I think when you grieve someone, you do it privately, you do it with people who understand you. I thought it was so wrong."^[251]

Several other celebrities released statements responding to Houston's death. Dolly Parton, whose song "I Will Always Love You" was covered by Houston, said, "I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, 'Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed'." Aretha Franklin said, "It's so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen."^[252] Mariah Carey said, "Heartbroken and in tears over the shocking death of my friend ... She will never be forgotten as one of the greatest voices to ever grace the earth."^[253] Oprah Winfrey, who did an in-depth interview with Houston in 2009, wrote on Twitter "To me 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."^[254] Quincy Jones said, "I am absolutely heartbroken at the news of Whitney’s passing. Ashford & Simpson first made me aware of Whitney when she was just sixteen, and I always regretted not having had the opportunity to work with her. She was a true original and a talent beyond compare. I will miss her terribly."^[253]

Moments after news of her death emerged, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News all broke from their regularly scheduled programming to dedicate time to non-stop coverage of Houston's death. All three featured live interviews with people who knew Houston including those that have worked with her, interviewed her along with some of her peers in the music industry. Saturday Night Live displayed a photo of a smiling Houston, alongside Molly Shannon, from her 1996 appearance.^[255][256] MTV and VH-1 interrupted their regularly scheduled programming on Sunday February 12 to air many of Houston's classic videos with MTV often airing news segments in between and featuring various reactions from fans and celebrities.

Houston's former husband, Bobby Brown, was reported to be "in and out of crying fits" since receiving the news. He did not cancel a scheduled performance and within hours of his ex-wife's sudden death, an audience in Mississippi observed as Brown blew kisses skyward, tearfully saying: "I love you, Whitney".^[257]

Ken Ehrlich, executive producer of the 54th Grammy Awards, announced that Jennifer Hudson would perform a tribute to Houston at the February 12, 2012, awards. He said "event organizers believed Hudson – an Academy Award-winning actress and Grammy Award-winning artist – could perform a respectful musical tribute to Houston". Ehrlich went on to say: "It's too fresh in everyone's memory to do more at this time, but we would be remiss if we didn't recognize Whitney's remarkable contribution to music fans in general, and in particular her close ties with the Grammy telecast and her Grammy wins and nominations over the years".^[258] At the start of the awards ceremony, a footage of Houston performing "I Will Always Love You" from 1994 Grammys was shown following a prayer read by host, LL Cool J. Later in the program following a montage of photos of musicians who died in 2011 with Houston singing "Saving All My Love for You" at the 1986 Grammys, Hudson paid tribute to Houston and the other artists by performing "I Will Always Love You".^[259][260]

Houston was honored in the form of various tributes at the 43rd NAACP Image Awards, held on February 17. A image montage of Houston and important black figures who died in 2011 was followed by video footage from the 1994 ceremony, which depicted her accepting two Image Awards for outstanding female artist and entertainer of the year. Following the video tribute, Yolanda Adams delivered a rendition of "I Love the Lord" from The Preacher's Wife Soundtrack. In the finale of the ceremony, Kirk Franklin and The Family started their performance with "Greatest Love of All."^[261] The 2012 BRIT Awards, which took place at London's O2 Arena on February 21, also paid tribute to Houston by playing a 30-second-video montage of her music videos with a snippet of "One Moment in Time" as the background music in the ceremony's first segment.^[262] New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said that all New Jersey state flags would be flown at half-staff on Tuesday, February 21 to honor Houston.^[263] Accompanied by Esperanza Spalding belting out "What a Wonderful World" along with the Southern California Children's Choir, Houston was featured in the In Memoriam montage alongside other cinema greats at the 84th Academy Awards, held at the Hollywood and Highland Center on February 26, 2012.^[264][265]

Artistry and legacy[link]

Voice[link]

	"I Will Always Love You" (1992) noicon One of Houston's best selling singles worldwide and recognized songs, "I Will Always Love You" prominently uses melismas.
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Houston was a mezzo-soprano,^[266][267] and was commonly referred to as "The Voice" in reference to her exceptional vocal talent.^[268] Her vocal range extended from G below middle C (G₃) to high B-flat (B♭₅); she could belt out to treble F (F₅).^[269] She was third in MTV's list of 22 Greatest Voices,^[270] and sixth on Online Magazine COVE's list of the 100 Best Pop Vocalists with a score of 48.5/50.^[271] In 2008, Rolling Stone listed Houston as the thirty-fourth of the 100 greatest singers of all time, stating, "Her voice is a mammoth, coruscating cry: Few vocalists could get away with opening a song with 45 unaccompanied seconds of singing, but Houston's powerhouse version of Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You' is a tour de force."^[98] Matthew Perpetua from Rolling Stone also eulogized Houston's vocal, enumerating ten performances, including "How Will I Know" from the 1986 MTV VMAs and "The Star Spangled Banner" at the 1991 Super Bowl. "Whitney Houston was blessed with an astonishing vocal range and extraordinary technical skill, but what truly made her a great singer was her ability to connect with a song and drive home its drama and emotion with incredible precision," he stated. "She was a brilliant performer, and her live shows often eclipsed her studio recordings."^[272]

Jon Caramanica of The New York Times commented, "Her voice was clean and strong, with barely any grit, well suited to the songs of love and aspiration. [...] Hers was a voice of triumph and achievement, and it made for any number of stunning, time-stopping vocal performances."^[273] Mariah Carey stated, "She [Whitney] has a really rich, strong mid-belt that very few people have. She sounds really good, really strong."^[274] While in her review of I Look to You, music critic Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times writes, "[Houston's voice] stands like monuments upon the landscape of 20th century pop, defining the architecture of their times, sheltering the dreams of millions and inspiring the climbing careers of countless imitators", adding "When she was at her best, nothing could match her huge, clean, cool mezzo-soprano".^[267]

Lauren Everitt from BBC News Magazine commented on melisma used in Houston's recording and its influence. "An early 'I' in Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' takes nearly six seconds to sing. In those seconds the former gospel singer-turned-pop star packs a series of different notes into the single syllable," stated Everitt. "The technique is repeated throughout the song, most pronouncedly on every 'I' and 'you'. The vocal technique is called melisma, and it has inspired a host of imitators. Other artists may have used it before Houston, but it was her rendition of Dolly Parton's love song that pushed the technique into the mainstream in the 90s. [...] But perhaps what Houston nailed best was moderation." Everitt said that "[i]n a climate of reality shows ripe with 'oversinging', it's easy to appreciate Houston's ability to save melisma for just the right moment".^[275]

Houston's vocal stylings have had a significant impact on the music industry. She has been called the "Queen of Pop" for her influence during the 1990s, commercially rivaling Mariah Carey and Celine Dion.^[276] Stephen Holden from The New York Times, in his review of Houston's Radio City Music Hall concert on July 20, 1993, praised her attitude as a singer, writing, "Whitney Houston is one of the few contemporary pop stars of whom it might be said: the voice suffices. While almost every performer whose albums sell in the millions calls upon an entertainer's bag of tricks, from telling jokes to dancing to circus pyrotechnics, Ms. Houston would rather just stand there and sing." With regard to her singing style, he added: "Her [Houston's] stylistic trademarks – shivery melismas that ripple up in the middle of a song, twirling embellishments at the ends of phrases that suggest an almost breathless exhilaration – infuse her interpretations with flashes of musical and emotional lightning."^[277]

Elysa Gardner of the Los Angeles Times in her review for The Preacher's Wife Soundtrack praised Houston's vocal ability highly, commenting, "She is first and foremost a pop diva – at that, the best one we have. No other female pop star – not Mariah Carey, not Celine Dion, not Barbra Streisand – quite rivals Houston in her exquisite vocal fluidity and purity of tone, and her ability to infuse a lyric with mesmerizing melodrama."^[278]

Influence[link]

A Barbie doll inspired by Houston's appearance in the music video for "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" (1987).

During the 1980s, MTV was coming into its own and received criticism for not playing enough videos by black artists. With Michael Jackson breaking down the color barrier for black male artists, Houston did the same for black female artists. She became the first black female artist to receive heavy rotation on the network following the success of the "How Will I Know" video.^[279] Following Houston's breakthrough, other African-American female artists, such as Janet Jackson and Anita Baker, were successful in popular music.^[52][53] Baker commented that "Because of what Whitney and Sade did, there was an opening for me... For radio stations, black women singers aren't taboo anymore."^[280]

Allmusic noted her contribution to the success of black artists on the pop scene, commenting, "Houston was able to handle big adult contemporary ballads, effervescent, stylish dance-pop, and slick urban contemporary soul with equal dexterity" and that "the result was an across-the-board appeal that was matched by scant few artists of her era, and helped her become one of the first black artists to find success on MTV in Michael Jackson's wake".^[281] The New York Times stated that "Houston was a major catalyst for a movement within black music that recognized the continuity of soul, pop, jazz and gospel vocal traditions".^[282] Richard Corliss of Time magazine commented on her initial success breaking various barriers:

Of her first album's ten cuts, six were ballads. This chanteuse [Houston] had to fight for air play with hard rockers. The young lady had to stand uncowed in the locker room of macho rock. The soul strutter had to seduce a music audience that anointed few black artists with superstardom. [...] She was a phenomenon waiting to happen, a canny tapping of the listener's yen for a return to the musical middle. And because every new star creates her own genre, her success has helped other blacks, other women, other smooth singers find an avid reception in the pop marketplace.^[283]

Stephen Holden of The New York Times said that Houston "revitalized the tradition of strong gospel-oriented pop-soul singing".^[284] Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times referred to the singer as a "national treasure".^[267] Jon Caramanica, other music critic of The New York Times, called Houston "R&B's great modernizer," adding "slowly but surely reconciling the ambition and praise of the church with the movements and needs of the body and the glow of the mainstream".^[273] He also drew comparisons between Houston's influence and other big names' on 1980s pop:

She was, alongside Michael Jackson and Madonna, one of the crucial figures to hybridize pop in the 1980s, though her strategy was far less radical than that of her peers. Jackson and Madonna were by turns lascivious and brutish and, crucially, willing to let their production speak more loudly than their voices, an option Ms. Houston never went for. Also, she was less prolific than either of them, achieving most of her renown on the strength of her first three solo albums and one soundtrack, released from 1985 to 1992. If she was less influential than they were in the years since, it was only because her gift was so rare, so impossible to mimic. Jackson and Madonna built worldviews around their voices; Ms. Houston’s voice was the worldview. She was someone more to be admired, like a museum piece, than to be emulated.^[273]

The Independent's music critic Andy Gill also wrote about Houston's influence on modern R&B and singing competitions, comparing it to Michael Jackson's. "Because Whitney, more than any other single artist ― Michael Jackson included ― effectively mapped out the course of modern R&B, setting the bar for standards of soul vocalese, and creating the original template for what we now routinely refer to as the 'soul diva'," stated Gill. "Jackson was a hugely talented icon, certainly, but he will be as well remembered (probably more so) for his presentational skills, his dazzling dance moves, as for his musical innovations. Whitney, on the other hand, just sang, and the ripples from her voice continue to dominate the pop landscape." Gill said that there "are few, if any, Jackson imitators on today's TV talent shows, but every other contestant is a Whitney wannabe, desperately attempting to emulate that wondrous combination of vocal effects – the flowing melisma, the soaring mezzo-soprano confidence, the tremulous fluttering that carried the ends of lines into realms of higher yearning".^[285]

Houston was considered by many to be a "singer's singer", who had an influence on countless other vocalists, both female and male.^[98][286] Similarly, Steve Huey from Allmusic wrote that the shadow of Houston's prodigious technique still looms large over nearly every pop diva and smooth urban soul singer – male or female – in her wake, and spawned a legion of imitators.^[281] Rolling Stone, on her biography, stated that Houston "redefined the image of a female soul icon and inspired singers ranging from Mariah Carey to Rihanna".^[287] Essence ranked Houston the fifth on their list of 50 Most Influential R&B Stars of all time, calling her "the diva to end all divas".^[288]

A number of artists have acknowledged Houston as an influence, including Celine Dion,^[289] Mariah Carey,^[98] Toni Braxton,^[290] Christina Aguilera,^[291] LeAnn Rimes,^[292] Jessica Simpson,^[293] Nelly Furtado,^[294][295] Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears,^[296] Ciara,^[297] P!nk,^[296] Ashanti,^[298] Robin Thicke,^[299] Jennifer Hudson, Stacie Orrico, Amerie,^[300] and Destiny's Child.^[296][301] Mariah Carey, who was often compared to Houston, said, "She [Houston] has been a big influence on me."^[302] She later told USA Today that "none of us would sound the same if Aretha Franklin hadn't ever put out a record, or Whitney Houston hadn't."^[303] Celine Dion who was the third member of the troika that dominated female pop singing in the 1990s, did a telephone interview with Good Morning America on February 13, 2012, telling "Whitney's been an amazing inspiration for me. I've been singing with her my whole career, actually. I wanted to have a career like hers, sing like her, look beautiful like her."^[304] Beyoncé told the Globe and Mail that Houston "inspired [her] to get up there and do what [she] did".^[305] She also wrote on her website on the day after Houston's death, "I, like every singer, always wanted to be just like [Houston]. Her voice was perfect. Strong but soothing. Soulful and classic. Her vibrato, her cadence, her control. So many of my life's memories are attached to a Whitney Houston song. She is our queen and she opened doors and provided a blueprint for all of us."^[306]

Mary J. Blige said that Houston inviting her onstage during VH1's Divas Live show in 1999 "opened doors for [her] all over the world".^[307] Brandy stated, "The first Whitney Houston CD was genius. That CD introduced the world to her angelic yet powerful voice. Without Whitney, half of this generation of singers wouldn't be singing."^[308] Kelly Rowland, in an Ebony's feature article celebrating black music in June 2006, recalled that "[I] wanted to be a singer after I saw Whitney Houston on TV singing 'Greatest Love of All'. I wanted to sing like Whitney Houston in that red dress." She added that "And I have never, ever forgotten that song [Greatest Love of All]. I learned it backward, forward, sideways. The video still brings chills to me. When you wish and pray for something as a kid, you never know what blessings God will give you."^[309]

Alicia Keys said "Whitney is an artist who inspired me from [the time I was] a little girl".^[310] Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson cites Houston as her biggest musical influence. She told Newsday that she learned from Houston the "difference between being able to sing and knowing how to sing".^[311] Leona Lewis, who has been called "the new Whitney Houston", also cites her as an influence. Lewis stated that she idolized her as a little girl.^[312][313]

Awards and achievements[link]

Houston was the most awarded female artist of all time, according to Guinness World Records,^[1] with two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among a total of 415 career awards as of 2010. She held the all-time record for the most American Music Awards of any female solo artist and shared the record with Michael Jackson for the most AMAs ever won in a single year with eight wins in 1994.^[314] Houston won a record 11 Billboard Music Awards at its fourth ceremony in 1993.^[315] She also had the record for the most WMAs won in a single year, winning five awards at the 6th World Music Awards in 1994.^[316]

In May 2003, Houston placed at number three on VH1's list of "50 Greatest Women of the Video Era", behind Madonna and Janet Jackson.^[317] She was also ranked at number 116 on their list of the "200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons of All Time".^[318] In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary, ranking Houston at number nine.^[319][320] Similarly, she was ranked as one of the "Top 100 Greatest Artists of All Time" by VH1 in September 2010.^[321] In November 2010, Billboard released its "Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years" list and ranked Houston at number three whom not only went on to earn eight number one singles on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but also landed five number ones on R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.^[322]