All At Once – Whitney Houston

Have you ever turned up for a magazine shoot and insisted on playing an imaginary piano? Or turned up four hours late for a dinner with Nelson Mandela with the excuse that you’re tired? If the answer is no, then you are probably not Whitney Houston. With a voice that could shatter glass at ten paces and the kind of tantrums that would cause the most demanding of divas to comment, “Bit picky isn’t she?” Whitney Houston rose to become the biggest selling soul and pop star of the 80’s, at one point, even outselling Madonna in album sales. Recently in the news more for her drug problems (she checked into a drugs rehabilitation centre in March 2004) and her turbulent on-off marriage to R&B singer Bobby Brown, (he has recently served a prison sentence for violating the terms of his parole), Houston has still managed to maintain her eminence as a soul diva. Born on 9 August, 1963 in Newark, New Jersey, Whitney was destined for stardom almost as soon as she could walk. As the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston and a cousin of soul star Dionne Warwick, Whitney grew up surrounded by music. She grew up singing in the church choir but her natural talent and beauty stood out from the start. As a teenager she sang backing vocals for Chaka Khan and Lou Rawls and she dabbled successfully as a model, featuring on the covers of Seventeen and Glamour. She also appeared in TV commercials and sitcoms but these were just diversions and a warm-up for the main event, a singing career. At …