Tonight's Grammy Awards will be full of tributes to Whitney Houston, including a special performance by Jennifer Hudson, a day after she was found dead in a Los Angeles hotel.
Celebrity reaction to Whitney Houston's tragic death at 48 continues to pour in with some of the biggest entertainment names in the world mourning the loss of a legendary singer.
Barbra Streisand said "She had everything, beauty, a magnificent voice. How sad her gifts could not bring her the same happiness they brought us."
Dolly Parton reacted by saying "Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston," Parton said in a statement obtained by Reuters. "I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song, and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, 'Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.'"
Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, told CNN in a statement, "I just can't talk about it now. It's so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen. My heart goes out to Cissy, her daughter Bobbi Kris, her family and Bobby."
Tweeting in reaction to Whitney Houston's death on Saturday, Mariah Carey called Houston's voice "one of the greatest to ever grace the earth."
Carey's more flamboyantly ornamental style may have been the most obvious role model for young divas over the past two decades. But there never would have been a Mariah had there not been a Whitney - nor a Beyoncé, a Christina Aguilera, a Kelly Clarkson, a Jennifer Hudson.
"When I started my career, I wanted to be like her," Celine Dion said in a statement, while Aguilera noted, "Her notes soared to places most singers dream of reaching." Toni Braxton acknowledged her "incredible influence over music as a whole."
More than crossing lines between pop and R&B, in fact, Houston's virtuosity transcended genre entirely. "Whitney Houston was the first CD I ever bought," country star Le An Rimes pointed out on Twitter. "I'm doing what she taught me to do by listening to her records over and over as a little girl."
Even those who lacked the technical ability to emulate Houston were inspired by the beauty and power of her singing. Jennifer Lopez called Houston's "one of the greatest voices of our time," while Rihanna simply tweeted, "No words. Just tears."
The 48-year-old singer was pronounced dead just hours before she was expected to attend a pre-Grammy gala. Beverly Hills police say "there were no obvious signs of any criminal intent."
The coroner's office says an autopsy will be performed.
Houston had been at rehearsals for the Grammy show on Thursday, coaching singers Brandy and Monica, according to someone who was there but wasn't authorized to speak publicly about it. The person said Houston looked disheveled, was sweating profusely and liquor and cigarettes could be smelled on her breath.
Houston was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone. Her 1992 hit "I Will Always Love You" won her Grammys for record of the year and best female pop vocal.
But with her success came drug use, erratic behavior and a rocky marriage to singer Bobby Brown that ended in 2007. All of it took a toll on her once-stunning voice, leaving it sounding frayed and hoarse in recent years.
Houston was the first superstar to marry a gospel-honed agility and rhythmic intuition with an expert pop balladeer's knack for velvety smoothness and slick drama. Just as Barbara Streisand and Aretha Franklin respectively set the standard for female pop and soul singers in the '60s, Houston set the standard for pop-soul singers in the '80s.
Veteran music journalist J.D. Considine, a contributor to Canada's The Globe and Mail, notes that Houston had crossover potential in her bloodlines. Her elder cousin, Dionne Warwick, "is a gospel-schooled singer who sang straight-down-the-line pop, even as she took elements from R&B and jazz."
But where Warwick's voice and delivery were more modest and idiosyncratic, Houston championed a smooth, soaring, happy approach that influenced generations of radio stars, not to mention aspirants on American Idol and a crop of other TV talent searches.
"What Whitney's style came down to was selling the melody and selling it hard, and selling your voice along with it - showing that you had the ability to take the chorus all the way to the moon," Considine says. "Whitney had the power to do that, whereas a lot of other singers don't, and have embarrassed themselves trying to."
Certainly, no one had better tone than Houston in her prime. Her voice was creamy pure but capable of shivery, sultry nuances and siren-like belting.
AP/CBS/USA TODAY