Houston began singing at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, as a child and became a background vocalist while in high school. She was one of the first black women to appear on the cover of Seventeen after becoming a teen model in 1981. With the guidance of Arista Records chairman Clive Davis, Houston signed to the label at age 19. Her first two studio albums, Whitney Houston (1985) and Whitney (1987), both peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and are among the best-selling albums of all time. Hit singles from the albums, including "How Will I Know", "Greatest Love of All" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", established her as a catalyst in the acceptance of black female artists on MTV. Her third studio album, I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990), yielded two Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, the title track and "All the Man That I Need". Houston's rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV in 1991 received widespread media coverage.
Houston made her acting debut with the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard (1992), which despite its mixed reviews became the tenth highest-grossing film to that date. Its soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and remains the bestselling soundtrack album of all time. It generated multiple hit singles, including "I Have Nothing", "I'm Every Woman" and "I Will Always Love You"; the latter won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, spent a then-record 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and became the best-selling single by a woman in music history. Subsequently, she went on to star in the films Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996), and she recorded their respective soundtracks; the former scored her last Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)", while the latter, produced by Houston herself, became the bestselling gospel album of all time. As a film producer, she produced multicultural movies and series such as Cinderella (1997) and The Princess Diaries and The Cheetah Girls.
Houston's first studio album in eight years, My Love Is Your Love (1998), spawned several hit singles, including the title track, "Heartbreak Hotel", "It's Not Right but It's Okay" and the Academy Award-winning Mariah Carey duet "When You Believe". Following the success, she renewed her contract with Arista for $100 million in 2001, one of the biggest recording deals of all time. However, her personal problems began to overshadow her career. Her 2002 studio album, Just Whitney, received mixed reviews, while her drug use and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown received widespread media coverage. After divorcing Brown, Houston returned to the top of the Billboard 200 chart with her final studio album, I Look to You (2009). In February 2012, Houston accidentally drowned in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, with heart disease and cocaine use as contributing factors. News of her death coincided with the 2012 Grammy Awards, which took place the day following her death, and was covered internationally. Her life and career were dramatized in the 2022 biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody. Her assets amounted to $250 million, earned over a 25-year career.
Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_Houston
Discography
Whitney Houston (1985)
Whitney (1987)
I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990)
My Love Is Your Love (1998)
Just Whitney (2002)
One Wish: The Holiday Album (2003)
I Look to You (2009)
America The Beautiful
Whitney Houston Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain
America! I love you, America! God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea
The first stanza of the song America The Beautiful by Whitney Houston is an ode to the natural beauty of America. The lyrics are an expression of the love and pride that the singer feels towards her country, and the remarkable landscapes that are found within it. The 'spacious skies' in the first line refer to the vast expanse of blue sky that stretches out over the American landscape, while the 'amber waves of grain' in the second line evoke images of golden wheat fields swaying in the breeze. The 'purple mountain majesties' mentioned in the following line describe the stunning peaks of America's mountain ranges, with their peaks rising high above the surrounding landscape. Lastly, the phrase "above the fruited plain" points to the fertile valleys that are plentiful in America's heartland.
However, the stanza ends with a plea for grace and unity. Houston sings, "America! I love you, America! God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea." This is a hope that the country may find unity in its diversity, as divine grace would bring the people together as 'brothers and sisters'. The imagery in the song thus serves as an ode to the natural beauty of America, while also invoking a sense of national unity.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain
America is lovely because of its wide open skies and fields of golden wheat.
For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain
The grandeur of America's purple-hued mountains standing over the lush flatlands is breathtaking.
America! I love you, America! God shed His grace on thee
The singer loves America deeply and hopes for divine blessings upon the nation.
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea
May kindness and unity reign from coast to coast, elevating all that America has to offer.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
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