Breaking News: Whitney Houston Dead

One of the greatest voices in music has been silenced.

Whitney Houston, 48, was found dead this afternoon in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The singer was to perform tonight at Clive Davis’s annual pre-Grammy party.

Her publicist, Kristen Foster, confirmed Houston’s passing. Beverly Hills Police Lieutenant Mark Rosen told People magazine:

“I can confirm that Whitney Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. We received a call at 3:43 p.m. from hotel security and Beverly Hills Fire and police responded minutes later… It’s unclear who notified hotel staff because she has quite an entourage here at the hotel. We attempted to resuscitate her, to no avail.”

The cause of death has not been determined and is now under investigation. Houston’s body was found by current boyfriend, Ray J.

Houston had just begun a comeback after a 15 year hiatus, a period marked by a tumultuous marriage and drug addiction. She recently completed filming Sparkle with American Idol winner Jordan Sparks. The film is scheduled to be released in August.

According to Guinness World Records, Houston is the most awarded female act of all time . Her list of awards includes 2 Emmy Awards, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among a total of 415 career awards as of 2010. Houston was the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits (“Saving All My Love for You”, “How Will I Know”, “Greatest Love of All”, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)”, “Didn’t We Almost Have It All”, “So Emotional”, and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”).

Houston’s first acting role was as the star of the feature film The Bodyguard(1992). The movie’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. Houston continued to star in movies and contribute to their adjoining soundtracks, including the films Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher’s Wife (1996).

We will, of course, follow this story as more information comes out. Until then, we can just enjoy some of Whitney’s music:


R.I.P. Whitney.