Whitney houston brief biography of princess

Houston was born in Newark, New Jersey. Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick are her cousins. Through her father, she had a second elder half-brother, John III. Her elder brother, Michael, was a songwriter, and her elder half-brother is former basketball player and singer Gary Garland.

How old is whitney houston

Her godmother was singer Darlene Love and family friend Aretha Franklin was considered an honorary aunt. Devastated by the events of the Newark riots , Whitney's family eventually relocated to a middle-class area in East Orange , New Jersey. Her parents later divorced. Houston began singing in the church choir at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark at age five, where she also learned to play the piano.

By age eleven, she began performing as a soloist for the junior gospel choir, performing the hymn, "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah". Houston was described as having an impressive ranging mezzo-soprano voice. In , she was discovered by an Arista Records representative and signed to the label. Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts and later was transferred to an all-girls Catholic school, Mount Saint Dominic Academy at nearby Caldwell , in her sixth grade year where she eventually graduated from in at Houston became a fashion model after she was discovered by a photographer who filmed her and her mother during a performance for the United Negro College Fund at Carnegie Hall.

She became one of the first women of color to appear on the cover of a fashion magazine when she appeared on the cover of Seventeen. Houston released her first album, Whitney Houston , in She sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl and earned widespread praise for the performance.