Whitney Houston was a force like the hurricane to be reckoned with in the American song circles during her heyday in the 1990s. And it was a sad news that the pop icon died on February 2， 2012 at the age of 48.

Below， eight highlights from Houston’s life of ups and downs.

Singing the National Anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl

Whitney’s natural born talent was clear from her first national television appearance， when she belted out Home on “The Merv Griffin Show”， accompanied by nothing more than a piano.

Whitney’s powerful rendition of The Star Spangled Banner at Super Bowl XXV got such an overwhelming response that it was released as a commercial single. It reached the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart， making her the only performer to turn the national anthem into that big of a hit.

Whitney won her first Grammy for Saving All My Love for You， her first No.1 single， at the 1986 Grammy Awards. She performed the ballad at the show and won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program the following year.

Whitney’s success in the music industry catapulted her into the film world. In 1992， she starred in The Bodyguard alongside Kevin Costner， playing a star who hires protection after being tormented by a stalker. It was one of the first interracial films to not make the fact that it was interracial a focal point. Though some critics panned Whitney’s acting， the film was an overwhelming success， making more than $410 million worldwide. It also made I Will Always Love You one of her most memorable hits—the song went on to win Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal.

In 1995， Whitney starred in Waiting to Exhale with Angela Bassett， Loretta Devine， and Lela Rochon. The film about black women struggling with relationships opened at No.1 and made more than $81 million worldwide， proving that a film marketed primarily at a black audience could have wide ranging success. Whitney’s song featured in the film， Exhale Shoop Shoop also reached No.1 on the Billboard charts.

Over most of the past ten years， Whitney’s music career stalled as she endured multiple rounds of rehab and divorced Brown in 2007. Having disappeared for seven years， she came back in a big way with I Look to You， her first studio album. It sold 304，000 copies in its first seven days on the market， sending Whitney back to the top of the charts and giving her the best debut week of her career. It led her to launch her 2010 “Nothing but Love” world tour. Though some said Whitney’s signature voice showed the stress of her ups and downs， she soldiered on， putting on shows in Asia， Australia and Europe even though fans and critics panned her performances.

The realities of Whitney’s marriage to Bobby Brown emerged in 2003 when police responded to a domestic violence call from her about her husband. They found her with a cut lip and bruised cheek. Their marriage was further revealed in Bravo’s 2005 reality show “Being Bobby Brown，” which showed both Whitney and Bobby in incredibly compromising situations. The Hollywood reporter famously dubbed it “undoubtedly the most disgusting and execrable series ever to ooze its way onto television.”

In 2009， Whitney opened up to Oprah Winfrey about her marriage to Brown， revealing that he spit on her in front of their daughter， she hit him over the head with a telephone， and marijuana laced with cocaine was her drug of choice during their time together. While she declared herself drug free， she returned to rehab in 2011. She also told Oprah why she took a break from show business. “It was too much，” she said. “So much to try to live up to， to try to be， and I wanted out.”

20世紀(jì)90年代，惠特尼·休斯頓事業(yè)處于巔峰時(shí)期，颶風(fēng)般橫掃美國歌壇。這位流行歌壇天后人物在2012年2月11日不幸辭世，年僅48歲，這是一個(gè)讓人悲痛的消息。

下面是休斯頓跌宕人生中的八大標(biāo)志性時(shí)刻。

在1991年的美國橄欖球超級杯賽上演唱國歌

惠特尼的天賦在她首次電視銀幕亮相中展示無余。在“莫夫·格里芬秀”節(jié)目中，僅在一架鋼琴的伴奏下，她用嘹亮動聽的美妙聲音唱出了歌曲《家》。

惠特尼在第二十五屆超級杯賽上，憑她強(qiáng)有力的表演，用一曲《星條旗永不落》震撼了世界，并使國歌成為一支商業(yè)性單曲發(fā)行。她演唱的國歌排在了《公告牌百首最熱歌曲榜》的前20位，這使她成為唯一讓國歌產(chǎn)生轟動效應(yīng)的演唱者。

惠特尼首張單曲《我的愛全部給你》獲得1986年格萊美獎(jiǎng)。她在格萊美頒獎(jiǎng)現(xiàn)場演唱了這首歌曲，第二年，她獲得艾美獎(jiǎng)綜藝/音樂節(jié)目最佳個(gè)人表演獎(jiǎng)。

惠特尼在樂壇的成功也讓她躋身影壇。1992年，她與凱文·科斯特納共同主演了《保鏢》，在劇中她扮演一位因無法忍受跟蹤狂的騷擾而雇傭保鏢的歌星。這是首部黑白人種相戀但種族差異并非焦點(diǎn)的電影。盡管惠特尼的表演招致了一些批評，但并沒有影響這部電影的巨大成功，全球票房收入超過4.1億美元?！段覍⒂肋h(yuǎn)愛你》也因此成為她最令人難忘的歌曲之一：它榮獲之后的格萊美年度唱片獎(jiǎng)，而格萊美最佳流行女歌手獎(jiǎng)也被惠特尼捧走。

1995年，惠特尼與安吉拉·貝塞特、洛利塔·戴文妮和萊拉·羅瓊共同主演了電影《待到夢醒時(shí)分》。這部電影講述了黑人婦女與婚姻抗?fàn)幍墓适拢_創(chuàng)了黑人電影新紀(jì)元，全球票房收入超過8100萬美元，證明了一部以黑人觀眾為主的電影是可以獲得廣泛的成功的。惠特尼在電影中演唱的主題曲《夢醒時(shí)分》也榮登《公告牌排行榜》榜首。

近十年間的大部分時(shí)間，惠特尼的音樂生涯處于停滯階段，她持續(xù)多次進(jìn)戒毒所接受治療，終于與丈夫在2007年分手。消失7年后，她帶著再度出山的第一張錄音室專輯《你是我的希望》再次閃耀登場。專輯上市頭七天賣掉30.4萬張，使惠特尼再居排行榜首，贏得重返歌壇的頭彩，并為她2010年“只有愛”世界巡演的啟動造勢。盡管一些歌迷與評論家質(zhì)疑她的演出，有人說她把生活的浮沉溶入了歌聲，但她還是堅(jiān)持在亞洲、澳大利亞和歐洲進(jìn)行了巡演。

2003年，警察接到惠特尼家暴報(bào)警電話，并做出處理回應(yīng)，她與鮑比·布朗的婚姻真相浮出水面。警察發(fā)現(xiàn)她嘴唇破裂，臉頰上有淤青。他們的婚姻在布拉沃的2005年真人秀節(jié)目“成為鮑比·布朗”中揭開面紗，惠特尼和鮑比在節(jié)目中表現(xiàn)出了令人難以置信的妥協(xié)。好萊塢記者恰如其分地稱其為“毫無疑問是令人厭惡的、可憎的電視系列節(jié)目”。

2009年，惠特尼開誠布公地在“奧普拉·溫弗瑞脫口秀”談起了她與布朗的失敗婚姻，丈夫在女兒面前朝她吐口水，她用電話機(jī)砸在他頭上，而他們在一起的那段時(shí)間里，大麻和可卡因成了她的伴侶。雖然她宣布已戒除了毒癮，但2011年再次返回戒毒所接受治療。她還告訴了奧普拉自己為什么暫別娛樂圈。“生活太辛苦了，”她說，“我為此付出了極大努力，我想走出陰霾。