Image via WikipediaWhitney Houston died in a Beverly Hills hotel the night before the Grammy Awards at the age of 48. Police haven't figured out the cause just yet, but anyone who's followed her life and career in the past few years could have told you it would end the way it did.Houston had a great career as a singer with a powerful voice in the 1980s and 90s with hit records like "I Will Always Love You", which topped Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart for a then-record 14 weeks at the end of 1992.
She performed the "Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl in Tampa in 1991, not long after the United States entered the first Gulf War. A recording of it made the pop charts soon after, and was released again following the 9/11 attacks.
Houston became an actress, appearing in such films as "The Bodyguard" with Kevin Costner and "Waiting to Exhale".
She had initially benefited from great musical bloodlines. Her mother was gospel singer Cissy Houston. Her cousin was Dionne Warwick. And her godmother was Aretha Franklin.
Houston became a major influence to future stars Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, and others who now grace TV singing competitions--for better or worse.
But that was 20 years ago. In recent years, Houston was much better known to a tabloid-saturated public as a former diva with drug problems, and whose bizarre marriage to R&B star Bobby Brown was chronicled on reality TV for one season. She did attempt a comeback with an album and a worldwide concert tour in 2009, but that fizzled.
Whitney Houston's life wasn't a train wreck. It was a plane crash. All the bright promise of her early career disintegrated into just another Hollywood cautionary tale of substance abuse and bad relationships, and all the help that she reportedly was offered didn't take. But the music remains, and that will last much longer than one moment in time.
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