Whitney Houston - One Moment In Time

      

 

 LYRICS: One Moment In Time

Each day I live
I want to be a day to give the best of me
I'm only one, but not alone
My finest day is yet unknown
I broke my heart for every gain
To taste the sweet, I faced the pain
I rise and fall,
Yet through it all this much remains

I want one moment in time
When I'm more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams
Are a heart beat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I'm racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel, I will feel eternity

I've lived to be the very best
I want it all, no time for less
I've laid the plans
Now lay the chance here in my hands

Give me one moment in time
When I'm more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams
Are a heart beat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I'm racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel, I will feel eternity

You're a winner for a lifetime
If you seize that one moment in time
Make it shine

Give me one moment in time
When I'm more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams
Are a heart beat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I'm racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will be, I will be, I will be free

I will be, I will be free

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (born August 9, 1963) is a recording artist, actress, and former fashion model. A relative to several prominent soul singers, including her mother Cissy Houston, cousins Dee Dee and Dionne Warwick, and godmother Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston began singing at her New Jersey church as a member of a junior gospel choir at age eleven. After Whitney Houston began performing alongside her mother at night clubs in the New York City area, she was discovered by Arista Records label head Clive Davis.

Whitney Houston released her debut album Whitney Houston in 1985, which became the best-selling debut album by a female artist. Her second studio album Whitney (1987) became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Whitney Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts as well as her prominence on MTV enabled several African-American women to follow in her success.  

Following her marriage to fellow singer Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston appeared in her first starring role in the feature film The Bodyguard in 1992. The film's original soundtrack won the 1994 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and became the world's best-selling soundtrack. Its lead single, "I Will Always Love You", became one of the best-selling singles in music history. 

Whitney Houston continued to star in feature films and contributed to soundtracks including Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996). After the release of her fourth studio album My Love Is Your Love (1998), Whitney Houston renewed her recording contract with Arista Records in 2001 for a historic $100 million dollars. Whitney Houston subsequently released her fifth studio album, Just Whitney the following year. Amidst widespread media coverage of personal and professional turmoil, Whitney Houston's marriage to Brown ended in 2006.

Whitney Houston is one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 140 million albums and 50 million singles, worldwide. Whitney Houston is ranked as the fourth best-selling female artist in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America, with 54 million certified albums. Known as "The Voice" for her "powerful, penetrating pop-gospel" vocals, Whitney Houston has been listed by Rolling Stone magazine as one of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Whitney Houston has been cited as an influence among numerous contemporary R&B and pop music artists. Whitney Houston is also the most awarded female artist of all time.

Whitney Houston was born in a rough neighborhood in the projects of Newark, New Jersey. Whitney Houston is the third and youngest child of John and gospel singer Cissy Houston. Her mother, along with cousin Dionne Warwick and godmother Aretha Franklin are all notable figures in the gospel, rhythm and blues, and soul genres. Whitney Houston was raised a Baptist, but was also exposed to the Pentecostal church. 

After the 1967 Newark riots, the family moved to a middle class area in West Orange, New Jersey when she was four. At the age of eleven, Whitney Houston began to follow in her mothers footsteps and started performing as a soloist in the junior gospel choir at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where she also learned to play the piano. Whitney Houston's first solo performance in the church was "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah". When Whitney Houston was a teenager, her parents divorced and she continued to live with her mother. Whitney Houston attended a Roman Catholic single-sex high school, Mount Saint Dominic Academy, where she met her best friend Robyn Crawford, whom she describes as the "sister she never had." While Whitney Houston was still in school, her mother continued to teach her how to sing. In addition to her mother, Franklin, and Warwick, Whitney Houston was also exposed to the music of Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, and Roberta Flack, most of whom would have an impact on her as a singer and performer. 

Whitney Houston spent some of her teenage years touring nightclubs with her mother while Cissy was performing, and she would occasionally get on stage and perform with her mother. In 1977, at age fourteen, Whitney Houston was the featured lead vocalist on the Michael Zager Band's single "Life's a Party" (the group is known for their 1978 hit "Let's All Chant"). Zager subsequently offered to help obtain a recording contract for the young singer, but Cissy declined, wanting her daughter to finish school first. Then in 1978, at age fifteen, Whitney Houston sang background vocals on Chaka Khan's hit single "I'm Every Woman", a song she would later turn into a hit for herself on her monstrous-selling soundtrack album The Bodyguard. Whitney Houston also would sing back-up on albums by Lou Rawls and Jermaine Jackson. In the early 1980s, Whitney Houston then started working as a fashion model after a photographer saw her at Carnegie Hall singing with her mother. 

Whitney Houston appeared in Seventeen Magazine and became one of the first women of color to grace the cover of Seventeen magazine. Whitney Houston also appeared in a Canada Dry soft drink commercial. While modeling, Whitney Houston continued her burgeoning recording career by working with producers Michael Bienhorn, Bill Laswell and Martin Bisi on an album they were spearheading called One Down, which was credited to the group Material. For that project, Whitney Houston contributed the ballad "Memories". Robert Christgau of the The Village Voice called Whitney Houston's contribution "one of the most gorgeous ballads you've ever heard".

Whitney Houston had previously been offered several recording agencies (Michael Zager in 1980 and Elektra Records in 1981). In 1983, Gerry Griffith, an A&R representative from Arista Records, saw Whitney Houston performing with her mother in a New York City nightclub and was impressed. He convinced Clive Davis, Arista's label head, to take time to see Whitney Houston perform. Clive Davis too was impressed after the performance and offered Whitney Houston a worldwide recording contract, which Whitney Houston signed. Later that year, Whitney Houston made her national televised debut alongside Davis on the The Merv Griffin Show.

Whitney Houston signed with Arista in 1983 but did not begin work on her album immediately. Arista put forth the deal to make sure no other label signed the singer from under them. Davis wanted to find the right material and right producers for Houston's debut album. Some producers were not deemed right by the label, others had to pass on the project due to prior commitments. Whitney Houston first recorded a duet with Teddy Pendergrass entitled "Hold Me", which appeared on his album, Love Language. The single, released in 1984, gave Whitney Houston her first taste of success, becoming a Top 5 R&B hit. It would also appear on her debut album when released in 1985.

With production from Michael Masser, Kashif, Jermaine Jackson and Narada Michael Walden, Whitney Houston's self-titled 1985 debut album was released in February 1985. Rolling Stone Magazine praised the new talent, calling Whitney Houston "one of the most exciting new voices in years" while The New York Times called the album "an impressive, musically conservative showcase for an exceptional vocal talent." After the dance-funk single "Someone For Me" failed to chart in both the US and UK, the album initially sold modestly and failed to make an impact. The plan was to first appeal to a black audience, hence the release of the next single, the soulful ballad "You Give Good Love", which peaked at #3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 while going #1 on the R&B Charts. As a result, the album began to sell before topping the R&B Album chart while Whitney Houston continued promoting the album touring night clubs in the US. 

 

With success on the R&B Charts, Davis wanted Whitney Houston to crossover to a broader audience. Whitney Houston began performing on popular night shows that usually weren't open to many black acts. The jazz-pop ballad "Saving All My Love for You" was released next and would become Whitney Houston's first #1 hit single in both the US and the UK. Whitney Houston was now an opening act for singer Jeffrey Osborne on his nationwide tour. At the time, MTV had received harsh criticism for not playing enough videos by African American artists while favoring rock acts. The next single, "How Will I Know", peaked at #1 and would introduce Whitney Houston to the MTV audience thanks to its video. This would make Whitney Houston one of the first African American female artists to receive heavy rotation on the network. By 1986, a year after its initial release, Whitney Houston topped the Billboard 200 album chart and stayed there for 14 consecutive weeks. The final single, "Greatest Love of All," became Whitney Houston's biggest hit at the time after peaking #1 and remaining there for three weeks. Whitney Houston had established a cross-over base and was now able to headline her own tour thus embarking on her Greatest Love Tour. 

The album had become an international success, being certified 13x Platinum (diamond) in the United States alone.

At the 1986 Grammy Awards ceremony, Whitney Houston was nominated for three awards including Album of the Year. Whitney Houston was ineligible for the Best New Artist category due to her previous duet recording with Teddy Pendergrass in 1984. She won her first Grammy award for 'Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female' for "Saving All My Love for You". At the same award show Whitney Houston also performed that Grammy-winning hit; the performance later won her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program. Whitney Houston won seven American Music Awards in 1986, and an MTV Video Music Award. The album's popularity would also carry over to the 1987 Grammy Awards when "Greatest Love of All" would receive a Record of the Year nomination. Whitney Houston's debut is currently listed as one of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and on The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame's Definitive 200 list. Whitney Houston's grand entrance into the music industry is considered one of the 25 musical milestones of the last 25 years, according to USA Today. Following Houston's breakthrough, other African-American female artists such as Janet Jackson and Anita Baker were able to find notable success in popular music. 

Whitney Houston’s second album, Whitney, was released in June 1987. The album featured production from Masser, Kashif and Walden again, as well as Jellybean Benitez. Many critics complained that the material was too similar to her previous album. Rolling Stone said, "the narrow channel through which this talent has been directed is frustrating." Still, the album was an enormous success. Whitney Houston became the first female artist in music history to debut at number one on the US and UK album chart while also hitting number-one in several other countries around the world. The album's first four singles, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)", "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "So Emotional", and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" all peaked at number one on the US Hot 100, which gave Whitney Houston a total of seven consecutive number-one hits, thus breaking the record of six previously shared by The Beatles and The Bee Gees. The album's fifth, and final single, "Love Will Save the Day" also became a Top 10 hit on the Hot 100. Whitney Houston has been certified 9x platinum in the US for sales of over nine million copies. To date, the album has sold approximately 25 million copies worldwide.

At the Grammy Awards in 1988, Whitney Houston was nominated for three awards including Album of the Year, winning her second Grammy for 'Best Female Pop Vocal Performance' for "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)". Following the release of the album, Whitney Houston embarked on the Moment of Truth World Tour which was one of the ten highest grossing concert tours of 1987. The success of the tour and Whitney Houston's albums helped make her one of the top 10 highest earning entertainers according to Forbes Magazine. Whitney Houston was the highest earning African-American woman and the second highest entertainer after Bill Cosby. The list included her concert grosses during 1986 and 1987. 

 

With the success of her first two albums, Whitney Houston was undoubtedly an international crossover superstar, the biggest since Michael Jackson, appealing to all demographics. However, some black critics complained that she was selling out. They noted that Whitney Houston's singing on record lacked the soul that was present during her live concerts. At the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards, when Whitney Houston's name was called out for a nomination, a few in the audience jeered. Whitney Houston defended herself against the criticism, stating "if you're gonna have a long career, there's a certain way to do it, and I did it that way. I'm not ashamed of it." Still, Whitney Houston took a more urban direction with her third studio album, I'm Your Baby Tonight, released in November 1990. Whitney Houston produced and chose producers for this project and as a result, it featured production and collaborations with L.A. Reid and Babyface, Luther Vandross, and Stevie Wonder. 

The album showed Whitney Houston's versatility on a new batch of tough rhythmic grooves, soulful ballads and up-tempo dance tracks. Reviews were mixed. Rolling Stone felt it was her "best and most integrated album". while Entertainment Weekly, called Whitney Houston's shift towards an urban direction "superficial". The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and went on to be certified four times platinum in America while selling ten million total worldwide. The first two singles, the new jack swing "I'm Your Baby Tonight" and the gospel-tinged "All The Man That I Need", each hit number one on both the Hot 100 and R&B singles charts.  

The third and fourth singles, "Miracle"; and "My Name Is Not Susan" peaked at numbers nine and twenty, respectively. A fifth single, "I Belong to You", peaked in the Top 10 on the R&B charts, while yet a sixth single, the duet with Stevie Wonder entitled, "We Didn't Know", made the R&B Top 20.

Whitney Houston performed "The Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV in January 1991. VH1 listed the performance as the 12th greatest moment that rocked TV. Whitney Houston's recording of the song was released as a commercial single, reaching the Top 20 on the US Hot 100 making her the only act to turn the national anthem into a pop hit.  

Whitney Houston donated her share of the proceeds to the Red Cross. As a result, the singer was named to the Red Cross Board of Governors for her efforts. Later that year, Whitney Houston put together her Welcome Home Heroes concert with HBO for the soldiers fighting in the Gulf War and their families. The free concert took place at the Norfolk Air Force Base in Norfolk, Virginia in front of 3,500 people. HBO descrambled the concert so that it was free for everyone to watch. Whitney Houston's concert gave HBO its highest ratings ever. She then embarked on the I'm Your Baby Tonight World Tour.

Throughout the 1980s, Whitney Houston was romantically linked to American football star Randall Cunningham and actor Eddie Murphy, whom she dated. She then met R&B singer Bobby Brown (formerly of New Edition) at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards. After a three year courtship, the two were married on July 18, 1992. Nearly a year later, Whitney Houston gave birth to their daughter Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, her first child, his fourth, on 5 March. 

 

With the huge success of her first two albums, movie offers came from Robert De Niro, Quincy Jones, and Spike Lee, though Whitney Houston felt the time wasn't right. Whitney Houston’s first film role was in The Bodyguard, released in 1992 and co-starring Kevin Costner. Whitney Houston plays Rachel Marron, a star  who is stalked by a crazed fan and hires a bodyguard to protect her. The film was successful at the box office, grossing more than $121 million in the U.S. and $410 million worldwide thanks in large to the success of Whitney Houston's soundtrack to the film. USA Today listed it as one of the 25 most memorable movie moments of the last 25 years.

The film's soundtrack was also a worldwide success. Whitney Houston executive produced and contributed six songs for the motion picture's adjoining soundtrack album. It featured production from David Foster. Entertainment Weekly said the two cover songs are "artistically satisfying". Rolling Stone said it is "nothing more than pleasant, tasteful and urbane". The soundtrack's lead single was "I Will Always Love You", written and originally recorded by Dolly Parton in 1974 . Some, including Foster and radio programmers, were skeptical that the song would fare well at radio due to Whitney Houston's a capella intro. Still, the record company took the risk and released it as the first single and it became a massive international hit. "I Will Always Love You" peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for a then-record-breaking 14 weeks, number one on the R&B chart for a then-record-breaking 11 weeks, and number one on the Adult Contemporary charts for five weeks. This allowed "I Will Always Love You" to become the first single to top those three charts simultaneously for five weeks. "I Will Always Love You" also hit number-one in nearly every other country worldwide. The soundtrack debuted at #1 and remained there for twenty non-consecutive weeks and became one of the fastest selling albums ever. At one point the soundtrack sold over a million copies in a week, becoming the first album to do so. 

  

With the follow-up singles "I'm Every Woman", a Chaka Khan cover, and "I Have Nothing" both peaking in the top five, Whitney Houston became the first female artist to ever have three singles in the Top 20 simultaneously. The album was certified 17x platinum in the United States with worldwide sales of forty-two million. Whitney Houston won three Grammys for the album, including two of the Academy's highest honors, Album of the Year and Record of the Year. In addition, Whitney Houston won 8 American Music Awards, including the Award of Merit, and a BRIT award. Following the success of the project, Whitney Houston embarked on another expansive global tour in 1993 and 1994. Her concerts, movie, and recording grosses made her the third highest earning female entertainer of 1993-1994, just behind Oprah Winfrey and Barbra Streisand according to Forbes. Whitney Houston finished fifth in Entertainment Weekly's annual "Entertainer of the Year" ranking  and according to Premier Magazine, Houston was one of the 100 most powerful people in Hollywood. 

In October 1994, Whitney Houston was invited to perform at a state dinner at the White House honoring newly elected South African president Nelson Mandela. At the end of her world tour, Whitney Houston performed three concerts in South Africa to honor President Mandela, playing to over 200,000 people. This would make the singer the first major musician to visit the newly unified and apartheid free nation following Mandela's winning election. The event was considered the nation's "biggest media event since the inauguration of Nelson Mandela"

 Download Whitney Houston : One Moment in Time, I will always love you

Visit Whitney Houston below,

 

Official website: whitneyhouston.com
Official MySpace: www.myspace.com/whitneyhouston
Offical Facebook: www.facebook.com/WhitneyHouston 

Source : Wikipedia