# Cultural impact of Whitney Houston

The American entertainer Whitney Houston is recognized globally for her crossover appeal on the popular music charts and movies that influenced the breaking down of gender and racial barriers. As one of the best-selling and most awarded performers in history, Houston's career has left a profound legacy on the entertainment industry and popular culture. Known as ''The Voice", she was named the greatest woman in music by ABC and the second-greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone. In 2025, Forbes named Houston the top black female vocalist, the number one female singer of the 80s and third of the 90s. Many major publications including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Fox News, NBC News and The Independent dubbed Houston the “greatest singer of her generation”.
Houston has had a significant impact on breaking racial barriers for African Americans in the entertainment industry and popular culture. She is also regarded as a gay icon and had an impact on politics. Her career has influenced many artists across the globe and received many tributes. Her popularity and achievements has been compared to that of successful male performers such as Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles.
Throughout her career spanning four decades, she has broken many records, including 7 consecutive US number-one singles, the best-selling album of all time by a woman, best-selling debut album by a solo artist, and best-selling physical single by a woman. Her first two albums, Whitney Houston (1985) and Whitney (1987), along with The Bodyguard soundtrack (1992), rank among the best-selling albums of all time and made her the only black artist to score three RIAA diamond-certified albums. Her second album Whitney (1987) was the first album by an artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 and UK Albums Chart. "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" and "I Will Always Love You" are among the best-selling singles of all time, with the former being named the best pop song ever by Billboard.
Houston worked in nine feature films, three television films, and seven television episodes, and appeared in seventeen commercials. She made her screen acting debut in the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard (1992) which was the one of the 10 highest-grossing films worldwide at the time, making $411 million worldwide. Houston continued starring roles in Waiting to Exhale (1995), The Preacher's Wife (1996) and Cinderella (1997). As a film producer, she produced hit series such as The Princess Diaries and The Cheetah Girls and multicultural movies Cinderella and Sparkle (2012). As a teen model, she was one of the first black women to appear on the cover of Seventeen magazine.
She has been inducted into multiple halls and walks of fame, including the Grammy Hall of Fame (twice), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in her first nomination, the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, the New Jersey Hall of Fame, and the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. Houston won numerous accolades throughout her career, including two Emmy Awards, eight Grammy Awards (including two Grammy Hall of Fame honors), 14 World Music Awards, 16 Billboard Music Awards (36 Billboard awards in all), 22 American Music Awards, and 31 Guinness World Records. The Guinness World Records named Houston the highest-earning posthumous female celebrity. Her life has been the subject of several documentaries and biopics.

## Global stardom

Houston achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, especially in music, movies, television, and modeling. She is the black female artist with the most Guinness World Records in history with 31. In 1997, the Franklin School in East Orange, New Jersey, which Houston attended as a child, was renamed to the Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative & Performing Arts. Madame Tussauds unveiled four wax figures of Houston in 2013, inspired by her looks from the music video of I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me), film The Bodyguard, album cover of I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston and The Star-Spangled Banner performance at the 1991 Super Bowl. She held an honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Grambling State University, Louisiana.

### Music

Houston is one of the world's best-selling music artists of all time, the best-selling female R&B artist of the 20th century, and the best-selling female physical single artist in history. Throughout her career, she has released seven studio albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have been certified diamond, multi-platinum or platinum. As of 2025, she was ranked as one of the best-selling artists in the United States by the RIAA with 61 million certified albums. Houston became the first female artist to go diamond with an album after her soundtrack to The Bodyguard went ten-times platinum in November 1993. Two months later, in January 1994, her debut album, Whitney Houston, was the first studio album by a woman to be certified ten-times platinum, making her the first solo artist to receive two diamond albums. When her sophomore album, Whitney (1987), was certified diamond in October 2020, Houston became the first black recording artist in history to have three diamond-certified albums. Those three albums are also among the best-selling albums of all time. Houston is the only black female artist with six or more albums to sell more than ten million units worldwide. The Bodyguard remains the best-selling soundtrack and best-selling female album of all time, with global units of over 45 million, while "I Will Always Love You" remains the best-selling single by a female artist at 24 million units worldwide. In addition, her soundtrack for The Preacher's Wife is the best-selling gospel release ever. Between 1985 and 2010, Houston scored 21 number one singles in at least one official record chart in the the biggest music markets in the world. In addition, Houston became the first woman in history to have the two best-selling albums of the year in the US in two decades, accomplishing this with Whitney Houston in 1986 and The Bodyguard in 1993.
Houston won numerous accolades throughout her career, including two Emmy Awards, eight Grammy Awards (including two Grammy Hall of Fame honors), 14 World Music Awards, 16 Billboard Music Awards (36 Billboard awards in all) and 22 American Music Awards. Houston currently holds the record for most American Music Awards in a single night with eight, a record for a woman and tied in general with fellow musician Michael Jackson. Houston was the first artist to win more than 11 awards in one night at its fourth annual ceremony in 1993, which set a Guinness World Record at the time. Houston continues to hold the record for the most WMAs won in a single year, winning five trophies at the sixth World Music Awards in 1994.
A premier black female entertainer, Houston was inducted into the BET Walk of Fame and the Soul Train Hall of Fame. In 2001, Houston became the first artist to receive the BET Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2010, she was honored at The BET Honors with the Entertainers Award. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary, ranking Houston at number nine. In November 2010, Billboard released its "Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years" list and ranked Houston at number three who not only went on to earn eight number-one singles on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but also landed five number ones on R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
In August 2014, she was inducted into the official Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in its second class. In January 2020, Houston was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after her first nomination. In October 2020, the music video for "I Will Always Love You" surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube, making Houston the first solo 20th-century artist to have a video reach that milestone. In May 2023, Houston was one of the first of 13 artists to be given the Brits Billion Award by the BPI for reaching 1 billion career streams in the United Kingdom. Houston is one of only a handful of 20th century recording artists to have multiple songs reaching a billion streams on Spotify, doing so with her hits, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" (1987) and "Higher Love" (2019), achieving the feats in 2023 and 2024.

### Film

During her 20-year film career, Houston received several acting nominations for all four of her feature film roles. Houston's screen acting debut in the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard (1992) was the one of the 10 highest-grossing films worldwide at the time, making $411 million worldwide. Her role in The Bodyguard was listed by Billboard as one of the "100 best acting performances by [a] musician in a film", Houston received the People's Choice Awards nomination for Favorite Leading Actress in a Dramatic Motion Picture, the MTV Movie Awards nominations for Best Female Actress and Best Breakthrough Performance and the NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actress. Her second film, Waiting to Exhale (1995), which was notable for having an all-African-American cast, and was called by The Los Angeles Times a "social phenomenon". Waiting to Exhale was a financial success, grossing for a total worldwide of $81.45 million. She received a second consecutive NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actress.
For her role in The Preacher's Wife (1996), Houston won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress and earned $10 million for the role, making her one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood at the time and the highest-earning African-American actress in Hollywood. The movie earned approximately $57 million at the box offices and gave Houston the strongest reviews of her acting career. Cinderella (1997) was a major ratings success, originally airing to 60 million viewers and establishing itself as the most-watched television musical in decades, earning ABC its highest Sunday-night ratings in 10 years.
In the 2000s, she produced hit series such as The Princess Diaries and The Cheetah Girls. Houston produced the film The Princess Diaries (2001) alongside fellow BrownHouse partner Debra Martin Chase. Starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews, the film became an unexpected success in the box office, grossing more than $165 million worldwide. Houston and Chase became the first black people in box office history to produce a film that surpassed $100 million in the box office. In August 2003, Houston's second television film as a producer, The Cheetah Girls, premiered on the Disney Channel. A soundtrack of the film, executive produced by Houston, became successful, reaching double platinum status in the US. In April 2004, Houston's second film as producer, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, was equally successful in the box office like its predecessor, earning $134 million in the box office. Houston's success behind the scenes continued in 2006 with the airing of The Cheetah Girls 2, which Houston served as executive producer. The film remains one of the highest-rated Disney Channel Original Movies (DCOM) in history with more than 8.1 million viewers tuning in for the premiere. Later in 2010, Houston was cast in the remake of the 1976 film Sparkle, where she served as both a star and executive producer. The film marked her final acting role before her untimely death. The movie was released on August 17, 2012.

### Modeling

Houston became a fashion model in 1980 when she was 16 years old. She was discovered by an agent for Click Model Management, Inc. in New York and later signed with the prestigious Wilhelmina Models agency. A year later, in November 1981, Houston became one of the first black models to appear on the cover of a fashion magazine landing a cover of Seventeen; she was only the second black woman to make the cover after Joyce Walker. With her looks and girl-next-door charm, Houston became one of the most sought-after teen models in the country, later appearing in fashion spreads for Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Young Miss. Houston's further modeling achievements included being the first black singer to be placed on the covers of Harper's Bazaar and Redbook magazine in 1996. Houston's success with the film and soundtrack to The Bodyguard helped land the star on the cover of Rolling Stone in its June 10th issue, making her just the sixth black woman to make the cover.

## Influence on popular culture
### Racial and gender barriers

Houston is recognized as one of the most influential R&B artists in history and a cultural icon. During the 1980s, MTV was coming into its own and received criticism for not playing enough videos by black artists. With Michael Jackson breaking down the color barrier for black men, Houston did the same for black women. She became the first black woman to receive heavy rotation on the network following the success of the "How Will I Know" video. According to author Ann Kaplan in her book Rocking Around the Clock: Television, Postmodernism and Consumer Culture, "until the recent advent of Whitney Houston, Tina Turner was the only female Black singer featured regularly, and even so, her videos are far and few between." Houston was credited for breaking barriers for black female artists on the channel resulting in videos by Janet Jackson, Jody Watley and Tracy Chapman to be immediately accepted to the channel's playlist.
Black female artists, such as Anita Baker and Jackson, were successful in popular music partly because Houston paved the way. Baker commented that "Because of what Whitney and Sade did, there was an opening for me ... For radio stations, black women singers aren't taboo anymore."
Between the weeks of January 5, 1980 and March 8, 1986, no black female artist had topped the Billboard 200, only going as high as number two. Houston's debut album topped the Billboard 200 on International Women's Day, March 8, 1986, eventually staying at the top for 14 weeks. The last album by a black woman to top the chart prior to Houston was Donna Summer's first compilation, On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II, which topped the chart on January 5, 1980. During the week of June 21, 1986, when Janet Jackson's Control and Patti LaBelle's Winner in You joined Houston in the top three, it marked the first time in history that black and female recording artists held the top three positions of the Billboard 200. Eventually, Control and Winner in You each followed Houston to number one on the Billboard 200. On their 1986 year-end Billboard Hot 100 list, it was reported that six songs by black artists - including Houston's "How Will I Know" - made it to the top ten of the list, another first time occurrence for black artists, partially due to Houston's success. Houston in particular became just the second woman to be named the top pop artist on Billboard's year-end chart that year and was the first woman ever to have an album placed at number one on their top pop albums list. In addition, when "Greatest Love of All" and the Whitney Houston album simultaneously topped the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 on the week of May 17, 1986, Houston had become the first female artist since Kim Carnes in June 1981 to do so.
The following year, Houston's second album, Whitney made chart history by having Houston be the first female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200, it also became the first album by a woman to stay at number one for the first ten weeks it was on top of the chart, still the most weeks for a pre-streaming era album by a woman. In April 1988, Houston set an all-time chart record after her ballad, "Where Do Broken Hearts Go", topped the Billboard Hot 100, her seventh consecutive number one single to do so. By accomplishing this, Houston had broken the chart record for most consecutive number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, first set by The Beatles.
AllMusic noted her contribution to the success of black artists on the pop scene. The New York Times stated that "Houston was a major catalyst for a movement within black music that recognized the continuity of soul, pop, jazz and gospel vocal traditions". Richard Corliss of Time magazine commented on her initial success breaking various barriers:
   Of her first album's ten cuts, six were ballads. This chanteuse [Houston] had to fight for air play with hard rockers. The young lady had to stand uncowed in the locker room of macho rock. The soul strutter had to seduce a music audience that anointed few black artists with superstardom. [ ... ] She was a phenomenon waiting to happen, a canny tapping of the listener's yen for a return to the musical middle. And because every new star creates her own genre, her success has helped other blacks, other women, other smooth singers find an avid reception in the pop marketplace.
Essence ranked Houston at number five on their list of 50 Most Influential R&B Stars ever, calling her "the diva to end all divas". In October 2022, the same magazine ranked Houston at number one on its list of the 10 greatest R&B solo artists of all time. In 2015, she was placed at number nine (second as a female) by Billboard on the list "35 Greatest R&B Artists Of All Time". In 2025, Forbes named Houston the top black female vocalist.

### As a gay icon

In 1986, the LGBT magazine publication The Advocate reported that one of Houston's concerts at the Boston Common in Boston raised $30,000 for the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts and the Gay and Lesbian Counseling Service. Since then Houston became an activist for the fight against HIV and AIDS during the first decade of the AIDS epidemic. The Whitney Houston Foundation for Children, in particular, focused on helping children who suffered from HIV/AIDS, among other issues. In 1990, Whitney took part in Arista Records' 15th anniversary gala, which was an AIDS benefit, where she sang "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", "Greatest Love of All" and, with cousin Dionne Warwick, "That's What Friends Are For". A year later, Whitney participated in the Reach Out & Touch Someone AIDS vigil at London in September 1991 while she was finishing her historic ten-date residency at London's Wembley Arena; there, she stressed the importance of AIDS research and addressing HIV stigma.
In June 1999, Whitney gave a surprise performance at the 13th Annual New York City Lesbian & Gay Pride Dance at one of the city's West Side piers. According to Instinct magazine, Houston's unannounced performance at the Piers "ushered in a new era that would eventually make high-profile artists performing at LGBTQ events virtually commonplace". Before hitting the stage, Houston was asked by MTV veejay John Norris why she decided to attend the event. Houston replied, "We're all God's children, honey". In May 2000, Houston made the cover of Out magazine.
In his book, Gay Icons: The (Mostly) Female Entertainers Gay Men Love (2018), French academic Georges-Claude Guilbert wrote, "I do not think that anyone would dispute Houston’s gay iconicity... She was beautiful, she was black, she was fierce (sometimes), she sang dance music." Said Gerrick Kennedy in 2022 to CNN: "She was really the first one to do those big house remixes in a way we weren’t really seeing from Black girls. There was an element of performance in a space where queer people, especially Black queer people, were able to find freedom and liberation. That’s our connection with diva figures – how they make us feel, and it’s usually rooted in some form of liberation." Kennedy noted the release of Houston's critically acclaimed 1998 album, My Love Is Your Love, as "the moment when I, a Black queer boy growing up in the Midwest, which was super oppressive, felt free."
Many of her songs are considered gay anthems, including “Saving All My Love for You,” "Love Will Save the Day", “My Love Is Your Love,” “I Have Nothing,” "Where Do Broken Hearts Go", “Run to You,” “So Emotional”, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” and ''It's Not Right but It's Okay''.

### Public image and perception

Pop culture critics stated that in the past, very few people of color were widely embraced as "America's Sweetheart", until Houston's arrival in the mid-1980s and even then, the singer was considered a rare exception in a category often dominated by white women. According to music journalist Gerrick Kennedy, the nation had not yet "collectively christened a Black girl as America’s Sweetheart" prior to Houston. Beginning with her breakthrough during the 1980s, Houston cultivated a wholesome image that was marketed as "America's Sweetheart" by both the media and her management. Journalists such as Janice Min and Bim Adewunmi called her "the first black America's sweetheart". Film director Kevin Macdonald said Houston cemented her status as "America’s Sweetheart" when she performed "The Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV, becoming "this symbol of everything that was pure and sweet and lovely about America at that time".
According to Constance Grady of Vox, Houston represented "a kind of Americana to which Black women are not usually allowed access" that simultaneously made her palatable to white audiences but dismissible by some Black critics, who at times accused her of selling out. In the mid-1990s, the singer traded her "America’s Sweetheart" image in exchange for championing Black culture and art. Houston's reputation soured in the early 2000s when her drug addiction and troubled marriage to singer Bobby Brown became highly publicized and parodied by the media. Grady theorized that Houston "was allowed to be America’s Black sweetheart, but only if she followed the rules laid out by white America". Kennedy said that, for much of her career, Houston hid her personal struggles in order to be accepted as "America's Sweetheart", until the public ultimately ran out of patience with her.
Still however, A. Curtis Farrow, a music promoter from Houston's hometown of Newark, New Jersey and the founder of McDonald's Gospelfest told the Asbury Park Press in 2020 following news of Houston's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that "[Houston] never really stopped being ‘America’s sweetheart,’ ... To this day, when you talk about national anthems at the Super Bowl, everyone talks about hers first." Farrow further added that Houston's Rock Hall induction was "America saying 'You know what? The voice, America’s sweetheart Whitney Houston, is ours.'" Folk rock singer and guitarist Matt Nathanson's 2024 song "Whitney Houston's National Anthem", a duet with The Indigo Girls, off his album, King of (Un)Simple, references her Super Bowl XXV performance and uses the "America's Sweetheart" moniker to depict her.

## Impact on vocal style in popular music

Houston has been nicknamed ''The Voice'' and is regarded as one of the greatest vocalists of all time. Stephen Holden of The New York Times said that Houston "revitalized the tradition of strong gospel-oriented pop-soul singing". Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times referred to Houston as a "national treasure". Jon Caramanica, another music critic of The New York Times, called Houston "R&B's great modernizer", adding "slowly but surely reconciling the ambition and praise of the church with the movements and needs of the body and the glow of the mainstream". He also drew comparisons between Houston's influence and other big names on 1980s pop:
   She was, alongside Michael Jackson and Madonna, one of the crucial figures to hybridize pop in the 1980s, though her strategy was far less radical than that of her peers. Jackson and Madonna were by turns lascivious and brutish and, crucially, willing to let their production speak more loudly than their voices, an option Ms. Houston never went for. Also, she was less prolific than either of them, achieving most of her renown on the strength of her first three solo albums and one soundtrack, released from 1985 to 1992. If she was less influential than they were in the years since, it was only because her gift was so rare, so impossible to mimic. Jackson and Madonna built worldviews around their voices; Ms. Houston's voice was the worldview. She was someone more to be admired, like a museum piece, than to be emulated.
The Independent's music critic Andy Gill also wrote about Houston's influence on modern R&B and singing competitions, comparing it to Michael Jackson's. "Because Whitney, more than any other single artist – Michael Jackson included – effectively mapped out the course of modern R&B, setting the bar for standards of soul vocalese and creating the original template for what we now routinely refer to as the 'soul diva' ", stated Gill. "Jackson was a hugely talented icon, certainly, but he will be as well remembered (probably more so) for his presentational skills, his dazzling dance moves, as for his musical innovations. Whitney, on the other hand, just sang and the ripples from her voice continue to dominate the pop landscape." Gill said that there "are few, if any, Jackson imitators on today's TV talent shows, but every other contestant is a Whitney wannabe, desperately attempting to emulate that wondrous combination of vocal effects – the flowing melisma, the soaring mezzo-soprano confidence, the tremulous fluttering that carried the ends of lines into realms of higher yearning".
Houston's vocal stylings have had a significant impact on the music industry. Stephen Holden from The New York Times, in his review of Houston's Radio City Music Hall concert on July 20, 1993, praised her attitude as a singer, writing, "Whitney Houston is one of the few contemporary pop stars of whom it might be said: the voice suffices. While almost every performer whose albums sell in the millions calls upon an entertainer's bag of tricks, from telling jokes to dancing to circus pyrotechnics, Ms. Houston would rather just stand there and sing." With regard to her singing style, he added: "Her [Houston's] stylistic trademarks – shivery melismas that ripple up in the middle of a song, twirling embellishments at the ends of phrases that suggest an almost breathless exhilaration – infuse her interpretations with flashes of musical and emotional lightning."
Lauren Everitt from BBC News commented on the melisma used in Houston's recording. "An early 'I' in Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' takes nearly six seconds to sing. In those seconds the former gospel singer-turned-pop star packs a series of different notes into the single syllable", stated Everitt. "The technique is repeated throughout the song, most pronouncedly on every 'I' and 'you'. The vocal technique is called melisma and it has inspired a host of imitators. Other artists may have used it before Houston, but it was her rendition of Dolly Parton's love song that pushed the technique into the mainstream in the 90s. [ ... ] But perhaps what Houston nailed best was moderation." Everitt said that "[i]n a climate of reality shows ripe with 'oversinging,' it's easy to appreciate Houston's ability to save melisma for just the right moment."
In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Houston second on their list of the greatest singers of all time, stating, "The standard-bearer for R&B vocals, Whitney Houston possessed a soprano that was as powerful as it was tender. Take her cover of Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You', which became one of the defining singles of the 1990s; it opens with her gently brooding, her unaccompanied voice sounding like it's turning over the idea of leaving her lover behind with the lightest touch. By the end, it's transformed into a showcase for her limber, muscular upper register; she sings the title phrase with equal parts bone-deep feeling and technical perfection, turning the conflicted emotions at the song's heart into a jumping-off point for her life's next step."
In her review of I Look to You, music critic Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "[Houston's voice] stands like monuments upon the landscape of 20th century pop, defining the architecture of their times, sheltering the dreams of millions and inspiring the climbing careers of countless imitators". Powers added, "When she was at her best, nothing could match her huge, clean, cool mezzo-soprano". Elysa Gardner of the Los Angeles Times in her review for The Preacher's Wife soundtrack highly praised Houston's vocal ability, commenting, "She is first and foremost a pop diva – at that, the best one we have. No other female pop star – not Mariah Carey, not Celine Dion, not Barbra Streisand – quite rivals Houston in her exquisite vocal fluidity and purity of tone and her ability to infuse a lyric with mesmerizing melodrama."
In March 2020, the Library of Congress announced that Houston's 1992 single "I Will Always Love You" had been added to its National Recording Registry, a list of "aural treasures worthy of preservation" due to their "cultural, historical and aesthetic importance" in the American soundscape. Houston's debut album is listed as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine and is on Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Definitive 200 list. In 2004, Billboard picked the success of her first release on the charts as one of 110 Musical Milestones in its history. The first single “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” from her second album was named as the best pop song in history by Billboard. On August 5, 2022, Beyoncé released "The Queens Remix" to her single "Break My Soul", in which she mentions Houston, along with other cultural icons.

## Creative inspiration

Since her career's inception in 1977, Houston has influenced and inspired various number of artists all over the world. Producer, musician, and former American Idol judge Randy Jackson named Houston, along with Mariah Carey and Celine Dion as the voices of the modern era. Of Houston, in particular, with whom he played bass guitar on some of her recordings including, most notably, "How Will I Know" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", Jackson called her "the voice of a generation". As part of the "1990s vocal trinity" with Carey and Dion, Houston was widely credited with reviving the power ballad, and in doing so reshaping the adult contemporary radio format, making it one of the most popular formats of the 1990s and the early 2000s. Canadian singer Rêve recorded the song "Whitney" (2022), which was in tribute to Houston and her 1993 hit cover of "I'm Every Woman", which she sampled. The song went to number 29 on the Canadian Hot 100.
Various artists who have named Houston as a major influence and inspiration include:
* Michael Jackson
* Taylor Swift
* Aaliyah
* Rihanna
* Beyoncé
* Sam Smith
* Britney Spears
* Lady Gaga
* Celine Dion
* Katy Perry
* Adele
* Lucky Daye
* Demi Lovato
* Kelly Clarkson
* Nicole Scherzinger
* Kelly Rowland
* Selena
* Toni Braxton
* Ashanti
* Deborah Cox
* Robin Thicke
* Ciara
* Brandy
* Monica
* LeAnn Rimes
* Melanie Fiona
* Jennifer Hudson
* Christina Aguilera
* Jordin Sparks
* Alicia Keys
* Leona Lewis
* Ariana Grande
* Mariah Carey
* Jennifer Lopez
* Miley Cyrus
* Jessica Simpson
* Pia Toscano
* Coco Jones
* Ari Lennox
* Ava Max
* Nicki Minaj
Singer and entertainer Michael Jackson named Houston as one of his musical inspirations, calling her a "wonderful singer, real stylist. You hear one line, and you know who it is." Tony Bennett said of Houston: "When I first heard her, I called Clive Davis and said, 'You finally found the greatest singer I've ever heard in my life.'"
R&B singer Faith Evans stated: "Whitney was not just a singer with a beautiful voice. She was a true musician. Her voice was an instrument and she knew how to use it. With the same complexity as someone who has mastered the violin or the piano, Whitney mastered the use of her voice. From every run to every crescendo—she was in tune with what she could do with her voice and it's not something simple for a singer—even a very talented one—to achieve. Whitney is 'the Voice' because she worked for it. This is someone who was singing backup for her mom when she was 14 years old at nightclubs across the country. This is someone who sang backup for Chaka Khan when she was only 17. She had years and years of honing her craft on stage and in the studio before she ever got signed to a record label. Coming from a family of singers and surrounded by music; she pretty much had a formal education in music, just like someone who might attend a performing arts high school or major in voice in college."
Mariah Carey, who was often compared to Houston, said, "She [Houston] has been a big influence on me." She later told USA Today that "none of us would sound the same if Aretha Franklin hadn't ever put out a record, or Whitney Houston hadn't." Celine Dion who was the third member of the troika that dominated female pop singing in the 1990s, did a telephone interview with Good Morning America on February 13, 2012, saying "Whitney's been an amazing inspiration for me. I've been singing with her my whole career, actually. I wanted to have a career like hers, sing like her, look beautiful like her." Beyoncé told the Globe and Mail that Houston "inspired [her] to get up there and do what [she] did". She also wrote on her website on the day after Houston's death, "I, like every singer, always wanted to be just like [Houston]. Her voice was perfect. Strong but soothing. Soulful and classic. Her vibrato, her cadence, her control. So many of my life's memories are attached to a Whitney Houston song. She is our queen and she opened doors and provided a blueprint for all of us."
Mary J. Blige said that Houston inviting her onstage during VH1's Divas Live show in 1999 "opened doors for [her] all over the world". Brandy stated, "The first Whitney Houston CD was genius. That CD introduced the world to her angelic yet powerful voice. Without Whitney, half of this generation of singers wouldn't be singing." Kelly Rowland, in an Ebony's feature article celebrating black music in June 2006, recalled that "[I] wanted to be a singer after I saw Whitney Houston on TV singing 'Greatest Love of All'. I wanted to sing like Whitney Houston in that red dress." She added that "And I have never, ever forgotten that song [Greatest Love of All]. I learned it backward, forward, sideways. The video still brings chills to me. When you wish and pray for something as a kid, you never know what blessings God will give you."
Alicia Keys said "Whitney is an artist who inspired me from [the time I was] a little girl." Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson cites Houston as her biggest musical influence. She told Newsday that she learned from Houston the "difference between being able to sing and knowing how to sing". Leona Lewis, who has been called "the new Whitney Houston", also cites her as an influence. Lewis stated that she idolized her as a little girl.

### Covers and samples

Houston's music has been recorded, sampled and performed by a variety of artists. One of the first songs of Houston's to be covered was "Eternal Love", her collaboration with Paul Jabara on his album, Paul Jabara & Friends (1983) by fellow soul singer Stephanie Mills on her album, Merciless (1983), less than two years before Houston officially released her debut album. In addition, Houston's voice on the Michael Zager Band's "Life's a Party" (1978) was sampled on the track "Take Me (Ce Soir)" by Sedat the Turkish Avenger.
Her 1987 hit, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" has been covered more than 248 times from various artists of different musical genres, according to the sample database site, WhoSampled. Among its most prominent covers include versions from Fall Out Boy, Ashley Tisdale, Jessie J, David Byrne, Evanescence and James Bay among others. The same song has been sampled 78 times, including most prominently in songs such as pop artist Bebe Rexha and rapper Lil Wayne's "The Way I Are (Dance With Somebody)", "Dance!" by singer Lumidee and hip-hop artist Fatman Scoop, singer Natalie La Rose's "Somebody" ft. Jeremih, and country artist Thomas Rhett's "Don't Wanna Dance", which interpolated the song's chorus.
Female rap trio Salt-N-Pepa interpolated Houston's 1991 hit, "My Name Is Not Susan" for their own hit, "Whatta Man" (1993). Canadian rapper Drake sampled Houston's 1993 hit, "I Have Nothing" for his song, "Tuscan Leather", which opened his acclaimed 2013 album, Nothing Was the Same while rapper French Montana sampled the same song for his 2011 song, "Bend You Over". R&B artist Sevyn Streeter sampled Houston's 1985 hit, "Saving All My Love for You", for her hit, "My Love for You" (2019). Natalie Grant and Dolly Parton covered Houston's 1997 gospel-dance hit "Step by Step" in 2023. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo covered "When You Believe" at the 2024 Met Gala. Her landmark cover of "I Will Always Love You" has been covered over 155 times and sampled 43 times, including acts such as Canadian DJ Sickick, British rapper Theophilus London and the R&B group Next. Among the most notable covers of Houston's rendition of the song include Zapp & Roger and Shirley Murdock, LeAnn Rimes, Keke Wyatt, Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé.
Following her death in 2012, the TV show Glee dedicated an episode to Houston on their third season titled Dance with Somebody and featured several covers of Houston's work sung by the show's cast including Matthew Morrison, Amber Riley, Darren Criss and Chris Colfer. Of the covers, "It's Not Right but It's Okay" and "How Will I Know" made the Billboard Hot 100, while a third, a cover of "I Wanna Dance with Somebody", made the Canadian Hot 100.
At the BET Awards in June 2012, Monica, Brandy Norwood, Chaka Khan, brother Gary Garland-Houston and mother Cissy Houston all took part in performing Houston's songs in tribute to Houston, who performed at the first annual BET Awards in June 2001 and was the first recipient of the BET Lifetime Achievement Award. On December 16, 2012, singers Jordin Sparks, Melanie Fiona and Ledisi paid tribute to Houston on the 2012 Divas Live program, a show Houston had been a constant presence on, going back to 1999, singing Houston classics such as "I'm Every Woman", "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" and "How Will I Know".
Pop singer Pink referenced Houston and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" in her 2022 single, "Never Gonna Not Dance Again".
Other artists who have sampled and covered Houston over the years include Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera, Chante Moore, Jennifer Holliday, Babyface, Kelly Rowland, Brandy Norwood, Monica, Rapsody, Don Toliver, Tamar Braxton, George the Poet, Craig David, Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Natalie Cole, Jake Zyrus, The Whispers, Deborah Cox, Tamia, Glennis Grace, The Game, 9th Wonder, Twista, Gudda Gudda, Lil B, Jim Jones and David Guetta among a slew of others.

## Political impact

Houston showed support to Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement since the beginning of her career. She participated in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert at London's Wembley Stadium on June 11, 1988, which was watched by more than half a billion viewers and raised $1 million in charities, while also bringing awareness to apartheid. Houston had refused to work with agencies who did business with South Africa during her modeling years in the early-80s. In August of the year, Houston headlined Madison Square Garden for a United Negro College Fund benefit concert to raise money to fund historically black colleges and universities, raising a quarter of a million dollars. Houston later received the Frederick D. Patterson Award for her advocacy for black colleges and universities in March 1990. In May of that same year, Houston was named a "Point of Light Contributing Leader" and applauded by President Bush at The White House for her social consciousness. She and her mom Cissy (and brothers Michael and Gary) visited The White House and were given a private tour.
During the Persian Gulf War, on January 27, 1991, Houston performed "The Star-Spangled Banner", the US national anthem, at Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium. She donated all of the earnings from the performance sales to Gulf War servicemen and their families. The record label followed suit and she was voted to the American Red Cross Board of Directors as a result. Following the terrorist attacks in 2001, Houston re-released "The Star-Spangled Banner" to support the New York Firefighters 9/11 Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Fraternal Order of Police. She waived her royalty rights to the song, which reached number one on charts in October 2001 and generated more than $1 million. Cinque Henderson wrote in a 2016 article about Houston's Super Bowl performance in The New Yorker that Houston's rendition of the song was "the most influential performance of a national song since Marian Anderson sang “My Country, ’Tis of Thee” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the eve of the Second World War." Henderson further added that Houston's re-arrangement of the song helped to change African Americans' often-negative feelings about the national anthem, writing, "By making the idea of freedom the emotional and structural high point (not just the high note) of the anthem, Houston unlocked that iron door for black people and helped make the song a part of our cultural patrimony, too." Henderson explained that Houston's version "wasn’t just a revolution in music; it was a revolution in meaning."
Later after her Super Bowl performance in 1991, Houston put together her Welcome Home Heroes concert with HBO for the soldiers fighting in the Persian Gulf War and their families. The free concert took place at Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia in front of 3,500 servicemen and women. HBO descrambled the concert so that it was free for everyone to watch. The show gave HBO its highest ratings ever.
In October 1994, Houston attended and performed at a state dinner in the White House honoring newly elected South African president Nelson Mandela. At the end of her world tour, Houston performed three concerts in South Africa to honor President Mandela, playing to more than 200,000 people; this made her the first major musician to visit the newly unified and apartheid free nation following Mandela's winning election. Portions of Whitney: The Concert for a New South Africa were broadcast live on HBO with funds of the concerts being donated to various charities in South Africa. Houston's Whitney Houston Foundation for Children organization was awarded a VH1 Honor for all the charitable work in June 1995. Later in 1996, Houston did a private gig, for the wedding of Princess Rashidah, the eldest daughter of the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, at Jerudong Park Garden on August 24, 1996. She was reportedly paid $7 million to perform for this event. Media stories on the Brunei royal family indicated that Prince Jefri gave Houston a blank check for the event and instructed her to fill it out for what she felt she was worth.
Proceeds of Houston's two one woman show sold-out concerts at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. for her Classic Whitney: Live from Washington, D.C., taped live in October 1997, went to Marian Wright Edelman's Children's Defense Fund and were commemorated on the 100th anniversary of operatic singer Marian Anderson's birthday; significant due to Anderson famously being denied a concert there by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Houston's shows eventually raised $300,000 for the Children's Defense Fund.
After Houston's sudden death in 2012, The White House issued a statement, stating that President Obama was "deeply concerned" by the news and that "it's a tragedy to lose somebody so talented at such a young age". New Jersey Governor Chris Christie ordered all New Jersey state flags to be flown at half-staff on February 18 to honor Houston. The Kygo and Houston rendition of "Higher Love" was played immediately following Joe Biden's victory speech after his election as the 46th President of the United States on November 7, 2020. Writing for Billboard, Katie Bain described the song's use in a political setting: "Indeed, after Biden shared his vision of 'a nation united, a nation strengthened. A nation healed, 'Higher Love' backed up the message, particularly for those who know all the words... Few sentiments could so effectively summarize the weary travails of the American collective consciousness during the past four years." In 2021, President Donald Trump issued an amended executive order to inducted Houston into the National Garden of American Heroes monument project. In December 2023, the New Jersey Hall of Fame unveiled the Whitney Houston Service Area, formerly known as the Vauxhal Service Area at the Garden State Parkway. The New Jersey Hall of Fame explained that the renaming was part of their "ongoing program to honor its inductees by renaming Garden State Parkway service areas after them, and building displays about them".

## Press and media
### Recognition

Houston has been ranked and featured on various lists of the greatest singers of all time. In 2013, ABC named Houston the greatest woman in music. She was placed at number three on VH1's list of "50 Greatest Women of the Video Era". She was also ranked as one of the "Top 100 Greatest Artists of All Time" and “Top 200 Greatest Cultural Icons of All Time” by VH1. Houston's entrance into the music industry is considered one of the 25 musical milestones of the last 25 years, according to USA Today in 2007. It stated that she paved the way for Mariah Carey's chart-topping vocal gymnastics. She was ranked as the best female vocalist of all time by Smooth Radio. Many major publications including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Fox News, NBC News and The Independent dubbed Houston the “greatest singer of her generation”. In 2025, Forbes named Houston the top black female vocalist, the number one female singer of the 80s and third of the 90s.
VH1 listed her 1991 "The Star-Spangled Banner" performance at the Super Bowl as one of the greatest moments that rocked TV. She performed before 73,813 fans, 115 million viewers in the United States and a worldwide television audience of 750 million. The performance has often been compared to Elvis Presley's landmark trio of shows on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, stating the performance was "as influential a moment in television history" as Elvis' performances. Her ''Concert for a New South Africa'' in 1994 was considered the nation's "biggest media event since the inauguration of Nelson Mandela". During the 1994 FIFA World Cup Final, Houston arrived on the playing field with the legendary Brazilian soccer player Pelé and performed six songs for 25 minutes with support from several thousand dancers, flag bearers, and musicians during closing ceremony before the final game, Brazil vs. Italy; with over 2 billion viewers during her performance.

### Tabloid

Beside the widely recognition of her talent, Houston's private life and that of her family members have been the subjects of media and tabloid coverage. In the 2000s, her drug use, the tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown and family controversies often overshadow her acting and singing career. In September 2001, Houston's extremely thin appearance at Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special led to rumors about her health. In 2002, Houston became embroiled in an widespread media covered legal dispute with John Houston Enterprise, a company started by her father. The company, run by Kevin Skinner, sued her for $100 million, claiming unpaid compensation. Houston's father died in February 2003, and the lawsuit was dismissed in April 2004, with no compensation awarded.
During the promotion for her 2002 album Just Whitney, Houston gave an infamous interview with Diane Sawyer. During the interview, she addressed rumors of drug use, famously saying, "crack is wack". She admitted to using various substances but denied having an eating disorder.
The 2005 reality show Being Bobby Brown drew criticism for what critics perceived to be unflattering moments from Houston and Bobby Brown, but still achieved high ratings. However, the show was not renewed for a second season after Houston declined further participation. In September 2006, a year after Being Bobby Brown aired, Houston filed for legal separation from Brown, later filing for divorce the following month, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was granted on April 24, 2007.

### Death news coverage

When Houston passed away at the age of 48 on the eve of the 2012 Grammy Awards, the global media gave extensive news coverage for weeks.
ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, BBC News, and Sky News interrupted their programming to cover Houston's death, featuring interviews with those who knew her. Saturday Night Live displayed a photo of a smiling Houston from her 1996 appearance. MTV and VH1 aired many of her classic videos with news segments and celebrity reactions. Her memorial service was televised globally.
At the 54th Grammy Awards, the anticipation for the show's tributes to Houston greatly helped increased the ratings, which became the second highest in its history with 39.9 million viewers (trailing only behind the 1984 Grammys with 51.67 million viewers). The rating was 50% higher than in 2011. This remains the highest-rated Grammy telecast on 21st-century U.S. television.
Coverage of Houston's death was ranked as the most memorable entertainment event in television history by a study from Sony Electronics and Nielsen Media Research. The first hour after the news of her death saw 2,481,652 Twitter posts (18% of all tweets) and all of the trending topics mentioned Houston, making it the most-tweeted breaking-news event in the history of Twitter at the time. Within 24 hours it had reached 35 million tweets. Her death also brought 1,532,302 hits per hour to her Wikipedia article, the highest peak traffic on any article since at least January 2010. Houston topped the list of Google searches in 2012, both globally and in the United States, according to Google's Annual Zeitgeist most-popular searches list.
The death of Houston and Brown's only child, Bobbi Kristina Brown, 3 years later in 2015, was also covered internationally.

### Documentaries and specials

Her life, career and death have been the subject of many documentaries and specials. On November 16, 2012, CBS aired We Will Always Love You: A Grammy Salute to Whitney Houston, nine months after Houston's passing. Among the singers that took part in the Houston tribute were singers Celine Dion, CeCe Winans, Yolanda Adams, Usher and Jennifer Hudson. A television documentary film entitled Whitney: Can I Be Me aired on Showtime on August 25, 2017. The film was directed by Nick Broomfield.
On April 27, 2016, it was announced that Kevin Macdonald would work with the film production team Altitude, producers of the Amy Winehouse documentary film Amy (2015), on a new documentary film based on Houston's life and death. It is the first documentary authorized by Houston's estate. That film, entitled Whitney, premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was released internationally in theaters on July 6, 2018.
Lifetime released the documentary Whitney Houston & Bobbi Kristina: Didn't We Almost Have It All in 2021, which The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called "...less an exposé and more a loving tribute to these two women". On the tenth anniversary of her death, ESPN ran a 30-minute documentary of Houston's acclaimed performance of The Star Spangled Banner at Super Bowl XXV in 1991 titled Whitney's Anthem. In 2015, Lifetime premiered the biographical film Whitney, which mentions that Whitney Houston was named after prominent television actress Whitney Blake, the mother of Meredith Baxter, star of the television series Family Ties. The film was directed by Houston's Waiting to Exhale co-star Angela Bassett, and Houston was portrayed by model Yaya DaCosta.
In April 2020, it was announced that a biopic based on Houston's life, said to be "no holds barred", titled I Wanna Dance with Somebody, would be produced, with Bohemian Rhapsody screenwriter Anthony McCarten writing the script and director Kasi Lemmons at the helm. Clive Davis, the Houston estate and Primary Wave were behind the biopic, with Sony Pictures & TriStar Pictures. On December 15, 2020, it was announced that actress Naomi Ackie had been picked to portray Houston. The film opened on December 23, 2022, and grossed around $60 million, becoming one of the highest grossing biopics based on a historical African American female figure after the Tina Turner biopic, What's Love Got to Do with It.
Each actress listed portrays Houston:
* Whitney – Yaya DaCosta, 2015
* Bobbi Kristina – Demetria McKinney, 2017
* The Bobby Brown Story – Gabrielle Dennis, 2018
* Selena: The Series – Shauntè Massard, 2021 (S2, E6)
* I Wanna Dance with Somebody – Naomi Ackie, 2022