what inspired whitney houston to become a singer
Whitney Houston At the age of 11, Houston 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.[22] Her first solo performance in the church was "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah".[23] When Houston was a teenager, she attended Mount Saint Dominic Academy, a Catholic girls' high school in Caldwell, New Jersey, where she met her best friend Robyn Crawford, whom she described as the "sister she never had".[24] While Houston was still in school, her mother continued to teach her how to sing.[5] Houston was also exposed to the music of Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, and Roberta Flack, most of whom would have an influence on her as a singer and performer.[25]
Vesta Williams Mary Vesta Williams (December 1, 1957 – September 22, 2011[2]) was an American singer–songwriter, who performed across genres such as pop, jazz, adult contemporary and R&B. Originally credited as Vesta Williams, she was simply known as Vesta beginning in the 1990s.[3] She was known for her four–octave vocal range.[4][5] She once sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the Los Angeles Lakers game opener using all four of those octaves. Although Williams never had any albums certified gold nor any Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, she scored six Top 10 hits on the United States Billboard R&B chart from the mid–1980s to the early–1990s which included "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" (1986), "Sweet Sweet Love" (1988), "Special" (1993), and her 1989 R&B hit and signature song,[6] "Congratulations".[7]