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News of Whitney Houston's sudden death rocked the music industry and millions of fans worldwide, after the 48-year-old pop star was found unresponsive in a bathub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Saturday afternoon.
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The pioneering solo artist had been preparing to attend a pre-Grammy Awards party hosted by her mentor Clive Davis. Her premature death cast a grim shadow on Sunday night's Grammy Awards ceremony, which was marked by tributes to the fallen star.
Though the official cause of death has not yet been confirmed, an unnamed law enforcement official told Fox News that drugs and alcohol are likely to blame.
"It looks like it was a lethal combination of prescription drugs and alcohol, but it's still too early to rule out other causes. That's just what it's looking like now," the official said.
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Houston's 1985 arrival on the music scene was named on USA Today's 2007 list of 25 memorable musical moments of the previous quarter-century. Her incredible vocal range and supermodel looks earned her virtually instant stardom after Davis discovered the 19-year-old singing with her mother Cissy's cabaret act.
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Her debut album "Whitney Houston" remains one of the best-selling solo album of any female artist in music history, and the pop superstar is credited with breaking down racial barriers in the entertainment industry: She was the first African-American female performer to be given heavy rotation on MTV, and later played the female lead alongside Kevin Costner in the interracial romance "The Bodyguard."
Houston enjoyed unrivaled success and a squeaky-clean image throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, but began to show signs of personal turmoil not long after her eyebrow-raising marriage to R&B star Bobby Brown in 1992. While she continued to record music and began a commercially successful string of film roles, over the years Houston appeared unhinged from drug use and a volatile marriage.
Though many were dubious of Houston's oft-quoted claim that she did not use crack cocaine, the troubled star often acknowledged her struggles -- even if she didn't always call them by name.
"It is a wonderful, marvelous feeling to be looked at and not judged," she said in her 2010 BET Honors acceptance speech, prompting an eruption of applause.
"I want us to be proud of each other," she continued. "With grace, with mercy, with integrity and dignity for each other. Let's continue to lift each other up; not only in our triumphs, but when we're going through our trials and our tribulations."
Earlier in the ceremony, Houston stood in the front row and cheered Jennifer Hudson on as she performed "I Will Always Love You," the song Houston made famous -- and one that Hudson would perform again at the 2012 Grammy Awards the day after the superstar's death.
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Houston's 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer on "Primetime" appears to have been intended to set the record straight on her marriage and her drug use, but instead amplified concerns about her physical and mental health.
"It wasn't always about the drug," a raspy-voiced Houston told Sawyer. "I would stay in my room for days at times, just trying to get it together to know what my next phase was going to be."
