Music Icon Whitney Houston Dies at Age 48
- No signs of criminal intent, drug use
- Police investigation of death has begun
- Music world, social networks react
- Grammy awards likely to change
- Information regarding 911 call released
- Last onstage performance on Grammy eve (video)
Associated Press has reported that music legend Whitney Houston has died of unreported causes, according to her representative Kristen Foster.
Whitney was the most awarded female singer of all time, becoming the first artist to reach seven consecutive Billboard top 100 hits. Her incredible influence in the music industry as a cross-over artist provided a driving force for other African American female artists to take up singing careers.
Her incredible voice earned Houston 2 Emmy Awards, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, and a total of 415 career awards.
Houston starred in a number of Hollywood hits, including blockbuster The Bodyguard, alongside Kevin Costner. The movie's soundtrack included the hit single "I Will Always Love You", which lept to a million albums sales in one week, the quickest rise to that level in history, landing the album in the top four sales of all time.
Whitney was slated to appear in a remake of the 1976 movie Sparkle, according to CNN.
Houston has had long-standing issues with substance abuse, but declared herself clean in 2010 after her second stay in a rehabilitation center.
Social networks Facebook and Twitter have blown up over the loss of a woman whose talents and personal issues have both drawn us to her incredible voice yet saddened us to her pitfalls. Within minutes of Houston's reported death, #RIP Whitney Houston was trending on Twitter.
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