Whitney Houston: A Star Burnt Out By Drugs

At her peak Whitney Houston was a superstar of the music industry, with the perfect voice and the perfect look to match.

But in later years the woman who used to be one of the world's biggest selling artists became known for her drug use, bizarre behaviour and a rocky marriage to singer Bobby Brown.

Her death, from unknown causes in a Beverly Hills hotel room at the age of 48, came on the eve of the Grammy Awards - an arena where she was once queen of the night.

From the mid-1980s to the late-1990s she wowed audiences around the world with a seemingly effortless, soaring voice - a voice rooted in gospel and polished for the masses - and sold more than 55 million records in the US alone.

Her mass appeal carried her beyond the music and into films, where she starred alongside Kevin Costner in the 1992 movie The Bodyguard.

The film gave her perhaps her most memorable hit: a rendition of Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You, which topped charts in the UK and the US for weeks.

It won Grammy awards record of the year and best female pop vocal, and the film's soundtrack was named album of the year.

Credited with influencing a generation of younger singers such as Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera and Leona Lewis, she herself appeared to have been born into greatness.

:: Stars pay tribute to 'incomparable' Whitney

In addition to being Aretha Franklin's goddaughter and the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick, she was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston.

She began singing in the church as a child and was a backing singer for the likes of Chaka Khan and Jermaine Jackson in her teens, leading her to her first break when music mogul Clive Davis first heard her perform.

Her debut self-titled album was released in 1985 when she was barely out of her teens.

It had hit after hit - Saving All My Love For You, How Will I Know and The Greatest Love Of All, among others - and sold millions.

But behind the superstar sheen there were warning signs. Towards the end of her career, Houston became an example of the toll of drug abuse.

Her records stopped selling, the hits stopped coming and her voice became weak and raspy.

She confessed to abusing cocaine and marijuana, among other drugs, and appeared so gaunt at a 2001 Michael Jackson tribute concert that rumours spread she had died the next day.

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy," she told ABC's Diane Sawyer in a 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.

Houston had blamed her addictions on her marriage to Brown, during which he was charged with domestic abuse.

The couple, who had one daughter together, Bobbi Kristina, divorced in 2007.

Houston would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Oprah Winfrey in 2009. But in the meantime, there were missed concert dates, a stop at an airport due to drugs, and public meltdowns.

She staged what seemed to be a successful comeback with the 2009 album I Look To You. It would eventually go platinum.

But the revival did not last long. A concert to promote the album on American TV and an appearance on the X Factor in the UK backfired as Houston's voice sounded off-key.

A world tour left many fans unimpressed, confirming suspicions that she had lost her gift, and cancelled concert dates raised fears she may have been abusing drugs, but she blamed illness.

Houston was due to make her return to the big screen in the remake of the classic movie Sparkle.