Long-time popular recording artist Whitney Houston is dead at the age of 48. On the eve of the 54th annual Grammy Awards, the news of the multi-Grammy-award-winning artist's death at such a young age comes as a shock to many, despite common knowledge of the singer's struggle with a drug addiction. A publicist for Whitney Houston confirmed the singer's death on Saturday, February 11, 2012. Cause of death has not yet been reported.
Whitney Houston was known for her beautiful, powerful voice. Though many up and coming artists on American Idol and other reality singing shows have attempted to cover Whitney Houston's songs, many have been told that it was difficult to do justice to any song that was first sung by Whitney Houston because of the strength of her voice. Once such ballad often covered was Whitney Houston's well-known hit, I Will Always Love You.
I Will Always Love You was actually written by country superstar Dolly Parton in 1973, who recorded the song herself, four separate times. Despite the song going to #1 on the country charts, Dolly Parton's version never had much success on the pop charts. However, when Whitney Houston recorded the song for the 1992 soundtrack for The Bodyguard, I Will Always Love You became such a huge success that it catapulted the song into classic love song status. Whitney Houston's version rose to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Chart just two weeks after its release and stayed at the top of for fourteen weeks, becoming a new record for the singer herself. I Will Always Love You graced the top of several other Billboard Charts as well and became a signature song for Whitney Houston.
Over the course of her career, Whitney Houston also found success with such songs as Saving All My Love for You, Didn't We Almost Have It All and I Wanna Dance With Somebody. Whitney Houston was also an accomplished actress, having starred in Waiting to Exhale, The Bodyguard and The Preacher's Wife. Whitney Houston was slated to star in a fourth film, Sparkle, later this year.
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