Saturday, February 11, 2012

From Stardom and Glamor to Her Downfall: Singer Whitney Houston Dies at 48

By Gilbert M. Forbes

Just seem to be after some time that the king of pop, Michael Jackson passed away, here is another sad news about the passing of the record superstar Whitney Houston.

Photo from ABCnews.com
One may now predict and estimate how old I am for songs of Whitney Houston were part of my childhood life.  For music lovers, regardless of generation, who will not forget some of her popular songs in the late eighties like "The Greatest Love of All," "All at Once," "Didn't We Almost Have It All," "Where Do Broken Hearts Go," "One Moment In Time," " You're Still My Man," and the seemingly classic dance music of "I Wanna Dance With Somebody."

In the early nineties, who will not forget the movie "The Body Guard" she starred herself in  and with its sound track, she herself sings.

No other than our international youtube sensation, Charice Pempimco is amazed by her wonderful voice together with other big time international record superstar as Cristina Aguilera and Maria Carey as evidenced by the way they sing when they were just starting.

Charice in fact was brought to fame with her rendition of the popular songs of Whitney which include sound tracks from the movie "The Body Guard" to wit "I Will Always Love You,"  "Run To You," and "I Have Nothing."

The sad thing for Whitney is that although, millions were inspired and transformed by her classic songs, on her part, its the opposite.  Her popularity and glamor just brought her later to nowhere and emptiness until her tragic death.  She is too young to die at 48 which is supposedly should still be at her prime.

At her peak, Houston the golden girl of the music industry. From the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world's best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.

She had the he perfect voice, and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.

But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.

It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.

Certainly, to all of us who desire success, and for some who wants to be famous, there are lots to learn from her tragedy.  Something that could be a good point for discussion in Character Education with her biography as a starting point.

Based on the Breaking News;  Singer Whitney Houston Has Died at 48 and Whitney Houston, superstar of records, films, dies  

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