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)
You Light Up My Life
Whitney Houston Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Waiting for someone to sing me his song
So many dreams I kept deep inside me
Alone in the dark but now
You've come along
And you light up my life
You give me hope
You light up my days
And fill my nights with song
Rollin' at sea, adrift on the water
Could it be finally I'm turning for home?
Finally, a chance to say hey,
I love you
Never again to be all alone
'Cause you
You light up my life
You give me hope
To carry on
You light up my days
And fill my nights with song
And you
You light up my life
You give me hope
To carry on
You light up my days
And fill my nights with song
With song
You give me hope
To carry on
You light up my days
And fill my nights with song
It can't be wrong
When it feels so right
'Cause you
You light up my life, my life, my life, my life oooh
In the song "You Light Up My Life" by Whitney Houston, the singer expresses their feelings of loneliness and need for someone to come along and brighten up their world. The lyrics suggest that the singer has been waiting for a long time, possibly with many failed attempts at finding someone to love. However, when the person who completes them finally arrives, they light up their life, give them hope, and fill their nights with song. The song speaks to the profound impact that love can have on an individual's life, and how it can change everything for the better.
The second verse of the song suggests that the singer has been lost at sea, drifting aimlessly and possibly feeling hopeless. However, with this newfound love, they finally feel like they are turning for home. This could be taken literally or metaphorically, with "home" referring to a physical place, or a sense of emotional belonging. Whatever the case may be, the implication is that the singer finally feels like they have found the missing piece that they have been searching for.
Overall, the song is a powerful and emotional expression of what it means to find love and companionship in a world that can sometimes feel cold and lonely. By lighting up the singer's life, this person has changed everything for them, bringing hope, joy, and music into their world.
Line by Line Meaning
So many nights I sit by my window
I spend numerous nights staring out of my window aimlessly, waiting for my soulmate to arrive.
Waiting for someone to sing me his song
I yearn for a companion who can capture my emotions through his or her music.
So many dreams I kept deep inside me
Many aspirations and goals are buried deep inside my heart and never came to fruition.
Alone in the dark but now
I had been lonely for far too long, but you're here now to light up my darkness.
You've come along
You unexpectedly entered my life and became my light and hope.
And you light up my life
Your presence changed me, and you became my ray of sunshine in an otherwise cloudy day.
You give me hope
You inspire me to keep going, even when the going gets tough.
To carry on
To cope with life's ups and downs and keep moving forward.
You light up my days
You bring light to my everyday existence, and my days are now filled with positivity.
And fill my nights with song
Your love fills my heart with joy, and I have sweet dreams at night.
Rollin' at sea, adrift on the water
I could be at sea, lost, and trying to find my way, without your unconditional love.
Could it be finally I'm turning for home?
Thanks to you, I no longer have to wander aimlessly in search of love, because I found it in you.
Finally, a chance to say hey, I love you
I now have the opportunity to express my deep affection for you, and appreciate how much you mean to me.
Never again to be all alone
Because you're here, I never have to face loneliness ever again.
It can't be wrong
This kind of love isn't misguided or wrong in any way.
When it feels so right
This love feels perfect, and it just flourishes naturally.
'Cause you
The reason why my life is complete is because of you.
You light up my life, my life, my life, my life oooh
Your presence affects me so much, and I couldn't be happier to have you in my life.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Joe Brooks
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind