Whitney Houston: Looking back (PHOTOS)

1. This undated photo of a young Whitney Houston — perhaps when she was around 19 — shows her with the man who discovered her, Clive Davis.

2. Houston and her mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, visited MTV in 1986.

3. A 1987 snapshot shows Houston at the filming of her music video, the ’80s classic “I
Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).”

4.  Houston performed what many consider to be the best rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” before Super Bowl XXV in 1991 in Tampa, Fla. After the attacks of 9/11, the single of this rendition climbed all the way to No. 6 on the charts.

5. Houston posed with then-husband Bobby Brown and daughter Bobbi Kristina in 1998. In a 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer, she said she considered her family to be one of her greatest achievements.
   

6. Showstoppers: Mariah Carey and Houston performed “When You Believe” during the 71st Academy Awards in 1999.

7. Rumors circulated after the icon appeared scarily gaunt during Michael Jackson’s 30th Anniversary Celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 2001.

8. Whitney Houston and daughter Bobbi Kristina (Houston and Brown divorced in 2007) arrived at the Clive Davis and The Recording Academy’s 2011 Pre-Grammy Gala at The Beverly Hilton hotel on Feb. 12, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Houston would die almost exactly one year later before the same event.