It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since Whitney Houston‘s shocking and tragic death on February 11, 2012. But we will always love her: Her life story, and her music, are still captivating and entertaining fans around the world.
Ironically, Whitney died on the weekend of the Grammy Awards — a show which had honored her six times in her career — and on the exact day of her mentor Clive Davis‘ legendary pre-Grammy party. Unbelievably, the party went on as scheduled — at the Beverly Hilton, just downstairs from the hotel suite where Whitney was found dead in her bathtub.
That night, Davis told guests that Whitney would have wanted the party to go on, and that her family told him not to cancel, but he faced harsh criticism from others, including Sharon Osbourne and Chaka Khan.
At the Grammy Awards the following night, host LL Cool J opened the ceremony with a moving prayer, while Jennifer Hudson brought the audience to tears with a rendition of “I Will Always Love You.”
Three years later, Whitney’s family was once again touched by grief: In 2015, her only child, Bobbi Kristina Brown, was found unconscious in a bathtub, and after spending six months in a coma, she died at the age of 22.
Whitney’s and her daughter’s lives have since inspired a number of movies and documentaries, both authorized and unauthorized. including Whitney: Can I Be Me, Whitney and Whitney Houston & Bobbi Kristina: Didn’t We Almost Have It All.
An authorized biopic, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, co-produced by Clive Davis and Whitney Houston Estate president Pat Houston, is expected to hit theaters on December 23, 2022. Meanwhile, an authorized concert production starring a hologram of Whitney is currently running at Harrah’s Las Vegas.
And Whitney’s music is still being discovered by new generations through a series of remixes, such as Kygo‘s 2019 chart-topping reworking of Whitney’s “Higher Love,” Clean Bandit‘s 2021 remix of “How Will I Know,” and the 2019 “duet” “Do You Hear What I Hear,” featuring Whitney and Pentatonix.
Whitney was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 by Alicia Keys, who said, “Whitney Houston is one of one. There is no one like her, and there never will be.”
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