Whitney Houston | Biography, Songs, Albums, Death, & Facts

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Career decline

In 1998 Houston released My Love Is Your Love, which did not sell as well as previous efforts but was praised by critics and earned her another Grammy Award. In 2001 she signed a new multialbum contract with Arista for $100 million, but personal difficulties soon overshadowed her recording career. Houston’s tumultuous relationship with Brown (the couple divorced in 2007) provided fodder for the tabloids, as did her acknowledged drug use and financial issues. Her 2002 album, Just Whitney, was a personal response to her detractors, but its sales were disappointing compared with earlier efforts. Other than a lackluster holiday album, One Wish (2003), Houston spent subsequent years in a state of virtual retirement. Critics had noted that her voice sounded as if it had suffered damage from smoking and drug use, and she began working with a vocal coach to rebuild her talent.

In February 2009 she began a comeback effort with a four-song set at Clive Davis’s annual pre-Grammy Awards gala. The performance was greeted warmly, and in June Houston announced that an album of new material would be available later that year. I Look to You was released in August to positive reviews and strong sales. The album’s standout songs include the up-tempo “Million Dollar Bill” (penned by Alicia Keys) and the title track, a slow-building ballad written by R. Kelly. Yet some critics couldn’t help comparing Houston to her peak in the 1980s and ’90s. Ann Powers wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “What’s hard to give up is the dream of painless perfection that the young Houston represented.” In 2009–10 she went on tour, but her vocal troubles led to some audiences booing or walking out during her performances.

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