A true American diva, Whitney Houston went from fashion model to singer and actress in a seemingly effortless glide to the top. She is one of the best selling artists of all time and her songs are ubiquitously known throughout the world.

Young Houston grew up with several musical influences: her mother is Cissy Houston, famed gospel singer, her aunt is Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin was a close family friend. Houston learned to use her beautiful voice under their tutelage from childhood. She performed as a soloist in many gospel choirs and as a teenager sang in nightclubs and as a backup vocalist for Chaka Khan. She also modeled extensively for magazines like Vogue and Seventeen. Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records, saw Houston’s great potential and set out to make her a star by assembling a top team of songwriters, musicians and producers to work on her first album.

Whitney Houston, her debut album, soon started the climb to the top, where it would stay for months. With singles like “Saving All My Love For You,” “How Will I Know” and “Greatest Love of All” topping the pop and R&B charts, Houston’s entrance into the music world was explosive. She won numerous awards, including a Grammy and an Emmy. Her next album, Whitney became the first album by a female artist to debut at #1. The singles from the album—“I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” “So Emotional” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”—all peaked at #1 and shattered the record previously held by the Beatles and the Bee Gees for most consecutive top hits. The album brought another Grammy and a world tour in 1988.

In 1989, Houston shared the wealth by establishing a charity called the Whitney Houston Foundation for Children and regularly contributing to the Children’s Diabetes Fund and the United Negro College Fund. The following year, she released a third album, I’m Your Baby Tonight, which was another smash hit. After performing the anthem at the opening of Super Bowl XXV, her rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner was quickly released as a single to capitalize on the patriotic sentiment sweeping the U.S. during the Gulf War. Houston donated the proceeds from this single to charity.

In 1992, Houston turned her attention to the movies and starred in The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner. The film plucked a chord in romantic hearts everywhere and the soundtrack, featuring the Dolly Parton cover “I Will Always Love You,” was a mega hit. It remains the best selling movie soundtrack of all time and the single has become Houston’s signature song. Throughout the 90s, she continued to work in the movies and their soundtracks, appearing in Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher’s Wife. Both movies were helped along by the success of their winning soundtracks and they made Houston even more of a super star than she already was.

The late 90s brought a decline in Houston’s image due to a troubled marriage to Bobby Brown and multiple stints in drug rehab centers. Her record sales suffered as a result of the scandals but Houston is working hard—after successful rehabilitation in 2006—to return to the top of the music scene as the undisputed diva we know her to be.