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Whitney Houston dies aged 48

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Mandy Esser
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« on: February 12, 2012, 03:15:44 am »

US singer and actress Whitney Houston dies aged 48


American singer and actress Whitney Houston has died at the age of 48
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Whitney Houston 1963-2012

    In pictures: Whitney Houston's life
    Rise and tragic fall of superstar
    Stars react to Houston death
    A life steeped in soul Watch

American singer and actress Whitney Houston has died in Los Angeles at the age of 48.

Police said she died in her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where she had been staying as a guest.

Houston was one of the most celebrated female singers of all time, with hits including I Will Always Love You and Saving All My Love For You.

But her later career was overshadowed by substance abuse and her turbulent marriage to singer Bobby Brown.

Ms Houston died on the eve of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. She had been due to attend a pre-awards party in the Beverly Hilton Hotel organised by her long-time mentor and record industry executive Clive Davis on Saturday evening.

The hotel was already teeming with reporters and celebrities when police received an emergency call from hotel security at 15.43 local time (23:43 GMT), Beverly Hills police spokesman Mark Rosen told the BBC.

Police were despatched, but paramedics, already at the hotel because of the party, attempted to resuscitate her, without success. She was pronounced dead at 15:55.

Mr Rosen said Ms Houston's entourage - comprising family members, friends and co-workers - had taken over much of the fourth floor of the hotel.

"There were a number of people on scene who were able to positively identify Ms Houston for us," he said, adding that her next of kin have been informed of her death.

He said police investigators were at the scene trying to determine the cause of her death, but said there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent".

Mr Davis went ahead with the party, holding a minute's silence and telling the audience he was "personally devastated by the loss of someone who has meant so much to me for so many years".

The US celebrity website TMZ.com reported that Ms Houston had been partying heavily on both Thursday and Friday nights.

She briefly took the microphone and performed a song while out in Hollywood on Thursday, and was seen drinking and chatting loudly with friends in the hotel bar on Friday, according to TMZ.
'Finest voice'

Houston's background was steeped in soul and gospel music.

Her mother was gospel singer Cissy Houston, she was cousin to singer Dionne Warwick and goddaughter to Aretha Franklin.

"I just can't talk about it now," Ms Franklin said in a short statement. "It's so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen."
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Analysis
Peter Bowes BBC News, Los Angeles

The music industry, hours before this years Grammy Awards ceremony, can scarcely believe the news. Whitney Houston had been planning to attend a pre-Grammys party thrown by her mentor and close friend, Clive Davis.

Guests have begun to arrive for the party, but it is unclear whether the event will go ahead. The scene at the Beverly hotel is frenzied. As well as police and the authorities, fans and the world's media have begun to gather.

The cause of Houston's death is unclear, with the police saying investigations are ongoing. It may take days or even weeks for tests to return with conclusive answers.

Having grown up in New Jersey, Houston began singing in church and then in the night clubs of New York, and was a model before being signed by Arista Records.

At the height of her career in the 1980s and 90s she won many awards and enjoyed several number one singles and albums.

Artists from Mariah Carey to Christina Aguilera have tried to emulate her bravura performances, but none of them were as good as the original, music critic Paul Gambaccini told the BBC.

Houston also enjoyed success acting in blockbuster films such as The Bodyguard and Waiting to Exhale.

In recent years drug use took its toll on the star and her voice - once acknowledged as one of the finest in pop music - was badly damaged.

"She did have it all, but the record is there of the decline into drug use and the damage done from drug use," said Gambaccini.

Her marriage to Brown, with whom she had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, ended in divorce in 2007. The marriage had been a tempestuous one, with allegations of domestic abuse.



Beverly Hilton, Los Angeles Houston was found on the fourth floor of the Beverly Hilton hotel

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy,'' Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in a 2002 interview.

Correspondents say Houston's death will undoubtedly overshadow the music industry's Grammy Awards.

Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, which runs the awards, told Reuters news agency they were working on ways of paying tribute to the singer.
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Houston's career highlights

    170m records sold worldwide
    11 US number one hits
    Won six Grammys, including three for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
    Won 30 Billboard Awards and 22 American Music Awards
    I Will Always Love You is the best selling single by a female artist of all time

Civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton said that on the morning of the Grammys, "the world should pause and pray for the memory of a gifted songbird".

Country singer Dolly Parton - who wrote one one of her most memorable hits, I Will Always Love You - said in a statement: "Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston."

"I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song, and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, 'Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed'."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17001548
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Mandy Esser
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« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2012, 02:14:50 am »

Whitney Houston's death stuns music world
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Whitney Houston performed briefly on Thursday - courtesy JET Magazine
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Whitney Houston 1963-2012

    * In pictures: Whitney Houston's life
    * Rise and tragic fall of superstar
    * Stars react to Houston death
    * 'Really sweet and very shy'

Fans and musicians have reacted with shock to the death of American singer and actress Whitney Houston.

Aretha Franklin, the star's godmother, said the news was "stunning and unbelievable" while Mariah Carey said she was "heartbroken and in tears".

Houston died in her hotel room the night before the Grammy Awards, which are taking place in Los Angeles. Some reports say she was found in the bath.

Meanwhile, Houston's daughter Bobbi, 18, has been taken to hospital.

The 48-year-old Houston was best known for powerful ballads such as I Will Always Love You and One Moment In Time.

But her later career was overshadowed by substance abuse and her turbulent marriage to singer Bobby Brown.

Following news of her death, a visibly distraught Brown took to the stage in Southaven, Mississippi, with his band New Edition on Saturday evening.

Opening the show, he pointed to the sky and declared, "I love you".

Addressing fans, he added: "First of all, I want to tell you that I love you all. Second, I would like to say, I love you Whitney. The hardest thing for me to do is to come on this stage."
Continue reading the main story
Houston's career highlights

    * 170m records sold worldwide
    * 11 US and four UK number one hits
    * Won six Grammys, including three for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
    * Won 30 Billboard Awards and 22 American Music Awards
    * I Will Always Love You is the best selling single by a female artist of all time

The couple's volatile marriage, which was marked by drug addiction and allegations of domestic abuse, ended in 2007.

After that, Houston's career appeared to be set for a revival. Her 2009 comeback album, I Look To You, reached number one in the US, and she had recently finished filming a new movie, Sparkle.
Autopsy

The singer's publicist Kristen Foster announced on Saturday that the singer had died. Police sources later confirmed that she had been found unresponsive in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Celebrity news website TMZ.com said the singer had been found slumped in the bathtub by members of her entourage, her face underwater.

Police investigators inspected the scene before Ms Houston's body was moved from the hotel to the coroner's office for an autopsy.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston

    She will never be forgotten as one of the greatest voices to ever grace the earth”

End Quote Mariah Carey

An autopsy is likely to be held within the next two days. However, if drugs or alcohol are involved, it will take between six and eight weeks for toxicology tests to be completed.

Houston's daughter Bobbi was taken from the Beverly Hilton - the same hotel where her mother died - on Sunday morning, according to the Beverly Hills Fire Department.

Her condition is currently not known, but is said to be "non-life threatening".

The singer's death came on the eve of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. She had been due to attend a pre-awards party in the hotel she was staying in, organised by her long-time mentor and record industry executive Clive Davis on Saturday evening.

He went ahead with the party, holding a minute's silence and telling the audience he was "personally devastated by the loss of someone who has meant so much to me for so many years".

Jazz legend Herbie Hancock, who was attending the event, said: "It's difficult not to be sad about it because it's a great loss. Her soul, her spirit, lives within all of us."

R&B star Rihanna, who was rehearsing her Grammy performance when the news broke, simply tweeted: "No words! Just tears".

She later posted lyrics from Houston's biggest hits on her Twitter account, including "I have nothing if I don't have you", a track from the soundtrack to the star's biggest film, Bodyguard.
Advertisement

The BBC's David Sillito looks back at Whitney Houston's career

Music mogul Simon Cowell said he expected Sunday's ceremony to become a tribute to the singer, describing her as a "trailblazer and "legend".

"There are so few people like her in the world. They are a rarefied breed, these are true superstars, legendary divas - and I say divas in the nicest possible way.

"She had one of the greatest voices I have ever heard in my life, ever."

Organisers of the Grammys later said Houston would be remembered in a special tribute by singer Jennifer Hudson.

Civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton said that on the morning of the Grammys, "the world should pause and pray for the memory of a gifted songbird".
'Finest voice'

Houston's background was steeped in soul and gospel music.

Her mother was gospel singer Cissy Houston, she was cousin to singer Dionne Warwick as well as having Aretha Franklin as godmother.

"I just can't talk about it now," Ms Franklin said in a short statement. "It's so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen."

Having grown up in New Jersey, Houston began singing in church and then in the night clubs of New York, and was a model before being signed by Arista Records.
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Mandy Esser
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« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2012, 02:17:31 am »




The star performed The Star Spangled Banner at the 1991 Super Bowl, and donated proceeds to the American Red Cross Gulf Crisis Fund

To this day, she holds the record for having the most consecutive chart-topping singles in the US - reaching number one seven times between 1985 and 1988.

The first of those, Saving All My Love For You, set the template of towering, melismatic vocal performances - with Houston stretching single syllables out over dozens of notes.

Artists from Mariah Carey to Christina Aguilera have tried to emulate her bravura performances, but none of them were as good as the original, music critic Paul Gambaccini told the BBC.

Houston also enjoyed success acting in blockbuster films such as The Bodyguard and Waiting to Exhale.

Sony Pictures announced on Sunday that it would release the star's final film, Sparkle, which is loosely based on the story of The Supremes, in August.

"Like all those who knew and loved her, we are shocked and saddened," said spokesman Steve Elzer said on behalf of the studio. "The world has lost an incomparable talent."

The film also features Houston's final recordings - including a cover of the gospel standard His Eye Is On The Sparrow - which will be released on a soundtrack album over the summer.
Drug abuse
Photos published by TMZ.com showing Whitney Houston out in Hollywood on 9 February 2012 Whitney Houston had been partying heavily at a pre-Grammy party on Thursday night

In recent years drug use had taken its toll on the star and her voice - once acknowledged as one of the finest in pop music - was badly damaged.

She cancelled the first date of what was to be her final UK tour in 2010 citing respiratory problems. In her later performances, she was often said to be short of breath and unable to sustain the long, high notes that had been a hallmark of her career.

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy,'' Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in a 2002 interview.

According to TMZ, Houston had been partying heavily on both Thursday and Friday nights.

She briefly took the microphone and performed a song while out in Hollywood on Thursday, and was seen drinking and chatting loudly with friends in the hotel bar on Friday, according to TMZ.

Despite her personal problems, she was still a widely-respected figure in the music industry.

Singer and X Factor judge Kelly Rowland paid tribute on Twitter, saying Houston had advised her in the early days of her career.

"I am beyond heartbroken. Whitney Houston was undoubtedly one of the greatest singers and performers of all time and such a huge influence of me [sic].
Advertisement

Tributes from rapper Sean 'Diddy' Coombes and singer Alicia Keys - Courtesy The Recording Academy

"She embraced me when I first started out with Destiny's Child, with love, with encouragement and with that powerhouse voice."

Country singer Dolly Parton - who wrote one one of Houston's most memorable hits, I Will Always Love You - said in a statement: "Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston."

"I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song, and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, 'Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed'."

George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, who wrote two of Houston's biggest hits How Will I Know and I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), paid tribute to her "matchless" voice.

"I am grateful to her always for the gifts she brought to my life by recording - by so thoroughly rocking - our two songs," said Rubicam.

"So Whitney, from my heart, I honour you and wish you peace and joy, wherever you are."

Rap mogul P Diddy recalled the time he spent with the star, saying: "She always hit you with that beautiful smile, she always hit you with that incredible energy.

"She gave you that hug that, you know? That grandma hug that you know that just shook your body."
More on This Story
Whitney Houston 1963-2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17003271

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Volitzer
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« Reply #3 on: February 13, 2012, 12:16:51 pm »

What a tragedy, first Rick James, then Michael Jackson, then Don Cornelius, now Whitney Houston.

So much musical talent being taken from us.    Cry
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Volitzer
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« Reply #4 on: February 13, 2012, 12:22:33 pm »

Establishment Media Hides Fact That Big Pharma Killed Whitney Houston



       

Singer died after taking a cocktail of anti-depressant drugs

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, February 13, 2012

The corporate media tells us it will be “six to eight weeks” before we know for sure how Whitney Houston died . By then they hope nobody will be paying attention, because it’s already been reported that the singer was killed by a cocktail of pharmaceutical drugs.


The 48-year-old performer was found dead in her bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on Saturday.

“An autopsy was completed on Houston Sunday, but “there will be no cause of death at this time because it is pending toxicology reports,” Ed Winter, assistant chief of the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office, told CNN.
“Winter declined to release the coroner’s initial finding of cause of death, saying lab results were expected in six to eight weeks.”

However, TMZ reports that Houstton’s family has already been told by L.A. County Coroner officials that “the singer did not die from drowning, but rather from what appears to be a combination of Xanax and other prescription drugs mixed with alcohol.”

No illegal drugs were found in Houston’s hotel room “but prescription drugs were present,” including “various pill bottles”. Despite talk of alcohol playing a role in her death, “There was no evidence that Whitney was drinking alcohol in the room.”

Houston had “a plethora of sedatives including Lorazepam, Valium, Xanax, and a sleeping medication that was found in her hotel room,” reports Radar Online.

Mainstream news networks have largely avoided discussion of multiple reports of pharmaceutical drugs being the cause of Houston’s death because the establishment is keen to hide the fact that pharmaceutical drugs, particularly psychotropic anti-depressants, kill more people than illegal substances by a factor of 300 per cent.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t
“Prescription drugs kill over 200,000 Americans every year — even when taken as directed and not abused!,” notes Mike Adams. In comparison, there is no documented case of marijuana ever killing anyone, despite the fact that it is illegal in America.

“Whitney Houston is just one of countless Americans who are victims of Big Pharma, an industry that cares far more about corporate profits than it does about the lives of real people. And today, we have lost yet another iconic American artist whose life was cut short by addiction, prescription drugs and the entire “medication culture” that exists in America today,” writes Adams, pointing out that Houston’s erratic behavior before her death clearly indicated she was suffering from the side-effects of psychiatric drugs, including Xanax, which is known to cause odd behavior and suicidal thoughts.

With the two industries tied at the hip, don’t expect the corporate media to do much to impugn its relationship with the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical boondoggle by reporting the truth about Houston’s cause of death.

Big Pharma spends more money on promotion and advertising than it does on research and development, a huge chunk of which goes to the big news networks, so don’t think for a second the likes of CNN, NBC and CBS will be too eager to make the connection between Houston’s intake of pharmaceutical drugs and her untimely demise.

Watch the video below from Alex Jones in which he explains why the establishment wants to downplay the fact that pharmaceutical drugs killed Whitney Houston.

See video here....

http://www.prisonplanet.com/establishment-media-hides-fact-that-big-pharma-killed-whitney-houston.html
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Tom Hebert
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« Reply #5 on: February 13, 2012, 01:13:14 pm »

It seems that Alex Jones and his minions can turn any event, even a tragedy, into a political event.  I read the comments to the article an this one summed it up nicely:

Quote
ringo stark Reply:
February 13th, 2012 at 9:43 am

The life of a conspiracy theorist is to blame everyone and everything around them and take no responsibility for anything what so ever. WH was a drug addict, nobody forced her to take street drugs or any other drug but she did. I can go into one of my cabinets and take out some type of cleaning chemical and down it and die from it, should the blame go to the manufacturer for my stupidity..of course not, but in the world of PP it is the fault of the manufacturer and I should not be blamed for my own demise.

PP is getting desperate and they are now grasping at straws as their conspiracy news is getting more and more ridiculous, the smart people who have been drawn into this crap will soon start to see the light of this bs site along with its ring leader, aj
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Volitzer
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« Reply #6 on: February 16, 2012, 12:45:17 pm »

Drugs from big Pharma that interact with each other kill millions each year.

I've literally have known people who go to doctor #1, he prescribe a drug, a person takes it for a year, feels like crap, then goes to doctor #2 and doctor #2 says... " Oh my God you have been taking this and you are not dead yet ?"  and immediately pulls him off.

The point is never take a drug unless you understand full well what it is doing in your body.
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