Multi-Platinum Award Winning Singer Whitney Houston Dies at 48

Whitney Houston (Whitney Elizabeth Houston), a multi-platinum pop/R&B singer who ruled the charts for decades beginning in the mid-1980s, has died, her publicist Kristen Foster confirmed to MTV News on Saturday, February 11. Houston was 48.

According to CNN, Beverly Hills Police confirmed the singer was found dead inside a Beverly Hilton hotel room at approximately 3:55 p.m. PT. The cause of death is being investigated.

Houston was a singer, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all time. Her list of awards includes two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, and 22 American Music Awards, among a total of 415 career awards as of 2010. Houston was also one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide.

She had recently staged a comeback in 2009, after a tumultuous divorce from singer Bobby Brown in 2006 after 14 years of marriage. The ex-couple have a daughter together, Bobbi Kristina. Brown and Houston battled substance abuse issues throughout their marriage, and their travails were well-publicized. But in recent years, Houston had made attempts to revive her once thriving music career only to find that her show-stopping voice had gathered some rust.

At her height, Houston was the music industry's reigning diva, releasing chart-topping albums well into the late 1990s.. Her unparalleled voice and All-American beauty propelled her onto the silver screen as well, with roles in the "The Bodyguard" and "Waiting to Exhale." The soundtrack for the former film yielded a string of hit singles and broke myriad chart records as well.

(Source: Mtv)