STAGE TUBE: Whitney Houston Dies at 48; First TV Appearance Singing 'Home' from THE WIZ

Whitney Houston's first television performance was on the Merv Griffen show (April 29, 1985) singing 'Home' from THE WIZ. A rep for singer Whitney Houston announced tonight to the Associated Press that Houston died this afternoon at age 48. No location or cause of death has yet been revealed. 

With over 170 million combined album, singles and videos sold worldwide during her career with Arista Records, Whitney Houston had established a benchmark for superstardom. 

Houston just recenty filmed the remake of the 1976 film 'Sparkle' playing the role of Jordin Sparks's mother in the film, which will feature the original score from composer Curtis Mayfield. Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil served as writer and director.  SPARKLE is currently set to be released in theaters on August 24th by Sony Pictures. The drama is directed by Salim Akil and written by Mara Brock Akil.  It stars Jordin Sparks, Whitney Houston, Derek Luke, Mike Epps, Carmen Ejogo, Tika Sumpter, Omari Hardwick and Cee-Lo Green.

Houston's career has consisted of record-setting achievements in music: the only artist to chart seven consecutive #1 Billboard Hot 100 hits ("Saving All My Love For You," "How Will I Know," "Greatest Love Of All," "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)," "Didn't We Almost Have It All," "So Emotional," and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go"); the first female artist to enter the Billboard 200 album chart at #1 (her second album, Whitney, 1987); and the only artist with seven consecutive multi-platinum albums (Whitney Houston, Whitney, I'm Your Baby Tonight, The Bodyguard, Waiting To Exhale, and The Preacher's Wife soundtracks, and My Love Is Your Love).

In 1997, she starred in the made-for-television remake of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella. In addition to co-producing, Houston starred in the movie as the Fairy Godmother along with Brandy, Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, and Bernadette Peters. An estimated 60 million viewers tuned into the special giving ABC its highest TV ratings in 16 years. The movie received seven Emmy nominations including Outstanding Variety, Musical or Comedy, while winning Outstanding Art Direction in a Variety, Musical or Comedy Special.

In fact, The Bodyguard soundtrack is one of the top 10 biggest-selling albums of all-time (at 17x-platinum in the U.S. alone), and Whitney's career-defining version of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" is the biggest-selling U.S. single of all-time (at 4x-platinum).