Whitney Houston with Kevin Costner in “The Bodyguard” (The Kobal Collection)
Houston looking worse for wear as she leaves Tru Hollywood nightclub on Thursday. (David Tonnessen/Ben Dome, PacificCoastNews)
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Whitney Houston, the pop singer whose towering voice helped her ascend to the t෴op of the entertainment world before drug abuse brought her crashing back down, died yesterday. She ⛄was 48.
Houston — who sold 200 million albums and singles worldwide and rose to fame in the middle of the 1980s with such hits as “Saving All My Love For You” and “How Will I Know” — was found dead in her fourth-floor room in the Beverly Hilton Hotel, sources told The Pos✱t.
Police said emergency responders were on the scene in less than ♚three minutes and administered CPR, but were unable to revive her. She was pronounced dead at 6:55 p.m. New York time.
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A coroner’s official confirmed this morning that Houston’s body was transported from the hotel and is awaiting an autopsy.
No cause of death was revealed but authorities sa🌞id there were no signs of foul play.
She was found by her bodyguard, a publicist for rapper Ray-J, who had been dating Houston, told CNN. Several reports said she was fou🌊nd in a bathtub.
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She was in Califor✤nia for music mogul Clive Davis’ celebrity-packed party last night ♕— one day before the Grammy Awards.
Sources told The Post that Davis, Houston’s mentor who launched 🌜her career more than two decades ago, “is devastated.”
The 🎐party went ahead in the same hotel — even as Houston’s body was still upstairs in her room as it had not been removed by the coroner.
Davis began with a moment of silence to honor Houston and told🀅 the crowd, “Whitney would have wanted the music to go on and her family asked that we carry on,” People magazine reported.
Producers for tonight’s Grammys were scra♛mbling to set up a tribute.𓆏 One R&B record exec told The Post that the whole show was being rewritten.
Jennifer Hudson and Chaka Khan will perform ꦑa tribute, E! Online reported.
A haggard-looking Houston shဣowed signs of trouble on Thursday, as she sw𒈔eated profusely and reeked of booze and cigarettes while coaching other singers such as Monica and Brandy.
Later that night, she sang with Kelly Price at a pre-Grammꦺy party 🔴in what would become her final live performance.
That same day, the troubled Houston had also gotten into a shouting match with Sta🐎cy Francis, a finalist on X Factor, the Hollywood Reporter said.
On Friday, Houston appeared disoriented as she left the LA club Tru Hollywood, The Sun of Londꦦon reported.
Houston, who was born in Newar🐻k, NJ, on Aug. 9 1963, seemed﷽ destined for success.
Hܫer mother was a gospel singer, her cousin was pop legend Dionne Warwick and Houston was the goddaughter of Aretha Fran𒈔klin.
“It’s so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn’t believe what I was reading ꧒coming across the TV screen,” Franklin said last night.
After starting her singing career as a child at church, Houston would sing backup for music heavyweights such as Chaka Khan and Jeﷺrmaine Jackson in her teens.
Her talent soon caught the eye o🤡f Davis, who offered her hꦜer first record contract in 1983.
“The time that I first saw her singing in her mother’s act in a club . . . it was such a stunning impact,” Davis told “G🅷ood Morning America.”
Houston b𝓡urst onto the scene when she was just 21 with her debut eponymous album in 1985. It featured several hit singles and quickly sold millions while he♕r videos became a staple on the new MTV.
She release🍸d her second album, simply called, “Whitney,” two years later.
That included such hits as “I Wanna Dan�𓆉�ce With Somebody” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go.”
She was firmly established as America’s Sw𓄧eetheart i♔n 1991 when she sang a heart-stopping rendition of the national anthem at the Super Bowl as the first Persian Gulf War had just begun.
The following year was her greatest success.
While starring in the movie, “The Bodyguard,” the fไilm’s soundtrack included her biggest hit: her haunting version of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.”
It was on the top of🎶 the charts for weeks and won her Grammys for record of theඣ year, album of the year and best female pop vocal.
That was the same year sh✤e married Brown, a member of New Edition.
Some saw it as an odd pairing as Brown had a reputation as a bad boy and Houston was perceived as being p🌊ristine.
After nearly 15 years of marriage, and numerous arrests♚ and appearances on re🦋ality television, they divorced.
After a decade of nearly ⛦continuous successes, Houston’s career and image began a downward spiral becꦑause of drugs.
“The biggest devil is me. I’m either my best friend or my worst🅺 enemy,” Houston told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in a 2002 interview where Brown sat by her side.
There were moments where her career seemed to come close to recapturing൩ her previous glory.
She had popular movies in 1995 and 1996 ꧂with, “Waiting to Exhale” and “The Preacher’s Wife.”
She won another Grammy in 1998 for b♏est female R&B vocal for “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay.”
But the drug abuse — she admitted to using marijuana, cocaine and pills — had rendered her once perfect voice ne♚arly unrecognizable and unable to hit her signature high notes.
She took a s🍨tab at numero🎉us comebacks, and will even be seen in the film “Sparkle,” which comes out in August. But she never regained her place atop the music world.
He🅺r last album, “I Look to You,” was released in 2009.
Houston toured but🍰 the disappointing performances caused 🅠many to walk out and numerous cancellations raised doubts about her sobriety.
She claimed in 2010 that she was off drugs,ꦆ but the🐟 Los Angeles Times said she checked into rehab again last May and a final comeback never happened.
Producers for Fox’s “The X Facto🥂r” had approached Houston last week to be one of its judges, sources told The Post.
Her reps said she was interes൩ted and a meeting was set up for tomorrow.
‘‘Ever s🅷ince I’ve been doing this job, the No. 1 sing𓄧er anyone ever wanted to emulate, if they really wanted to be a superstar, it was always Whitney,” the show’s host, Simon Cowell, told CNN last night.
“She was the benchmark, she truly was.”
Whitney by the numbers
* 4th best-selling female artist of all time, behind Madonna, Mariah Carey and Celi꧂ne Dion.
* 200 million albums and singles sold worldwide
* 1🥂4 weeks atop the 1985 ch𝓡arts with her debut album
Most-awarded female artist with:
* 30 Billboard Music Awards
* 22 American Music Awards
* 6 Grammys
* 2 Emmys
Houston’s Finest Moments
* “The Greatest Love of All,” 1985 🐻— Houston’s debut album produced three No. 1 hits, but it was♔ this soaring, gospel-tinged hymn that earned her the nickname “The Voice.”
* “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” 1987 — This song’s video — with Houston da🍸ncing in technicolor makeup and barely there minidresses — turned Whitney into a sex symbol.
*🐈 “The Star-Spangled Banner,” 1991 — Delivered before Super Bowl XXV, it’s considered perhaps the finest rendition of the national anthem ever performed. It was released as a single after 9/11, and reached No. 6.
* “I Will Always Love You,” 1992 — 🌠The theme song from her film “The Bodyguard” was inescapable. The extended I-eee-I-eeee-I is oft imitated, but never matched.
Additional reporting by Helen Kumari and Michael Shain