Whitney Houston drowns in bathtub

at 3:55pm on Saturday afternoon, hours before she had been due to perform.
Her frantic daughter Bobbi Kristina (19) is understood to have got into a “furious screaming argument” with police who refused to let her into the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles to see the body of her mother.
Friends of Miss Houston’s cousin Dionne Warwick, who also went to the hotel to try to see the body, have said that she is “inconsolable”.
The cause of death is not yet known. But on the Thursday evening before her death, the singer went on a wild binge in which she is said to have clashed with security guards.
The next evening she “partied heavily, drank and chatted loudly” with friends at the hotel bar, claims TMZ.
It is not known if the destructive spiral played a part in death of the I Will Always Love You singer who had spent more than a decade battling an addiction to crack cocaine since rising to international stardom in the early 90s.
Police have begun searching the hotel room for any signs of illegal drugs. The circumstances of the death are not thought to be suspicious but the authorities are investigating.
As the singer’s body was wheeled to an ambulance, just yards away stars including Britney Spears, Tony Bennet and Kim Kardashian were taking part in the pre-Grammy Awards party at the hotel.
Miss Houston had been due to attend the event which was organised by her mentor Clive Davis.
The surreal scene inside the hotel event unfolded with Mr Davis paying tribute to the singer, before saying: “Now ladies and gentlemen, let the music begin.” Stars paid tribute to her throughout the evening.
Grammy president and CEO Neil Portnow, who called Houston a friend, said “canceling the party was never an option.”
He announced that Jennifer Hudson would perform a tribute to Houston at yesterday’s Grammys.
News of the death brought a string of public tributes from the music industry.
Simon Cowell said Houston was a “true diva” with “one of the best voices I have head in my life ever”.
The Saving All My Love singer’s publicist Kristen Foster confirmed that the singer had died.
An unconfirmed report later emerged which said that Houston had been found alone in her bathtub. She may have drowned in the water.
A spokesman for the local police department said that emergency services had been called to the hotel at 3:43pm on Saturday, arriving minutes later.
Officials rushed to the room on the fourth floor where she was staying as a guest, where they found security staff and firemen attempting to revive her using CPR. Life-saving attempts proved unsuccessful after 20 minutes, and she was pronounced dead at 3:55pm.
Bobbi Kristina and Miss Warwick were eventually allowed into the room later in the evening, according to Radar.com.
The relatives broke down in floods of tears in emotional scenes inside the room, it is understood. Outside, fans gathered to mourn the star.
Authorities are currently trying to determine a cause of death, the spokesman added.
He said there were “no obvious signs of foul play and no obvious signs of a cause of death”.
It was initially unclear whether or not her death was drug-related, as has been speculated by some.
Police are understood to be seeking a search warrant to sift through the hotel room for any signs of drugs. Some reports said that Houston had been found by her on-off boyfriend Ray J, but that turned out to be mistaken.
Her ex-husband Bobby Brown – whom Miss Houston blamed partly for her drug issues – was said to be “in and out of crying fits” upon hearing the news – but still appeared on stage on Saturday with his band New Edition, and cried out “I love you, Whitney!” in the middle of the concert.
A relative of Brown said Houston’s former husband is struggling to cope with the news.
Singer Johnny Gill, one of Brown’s New Edition bandmates, is on tour in Memphis with the star.
“Bobby is struggling and he’s devastated,” he told CNN.
Houston’s mother Cissy apparently spoke to her daughter just half an hour before her death, and did not think anything was wrong.
And in the star’s last interview in November, she said she was “older and matured” – and described her 18-year-old daughter as her “greatest inspiration”.
Houston won six Grammy awards, two Emmys, 30 Billboard Music Awards, and 22 American Music Awards, among others awards.
Her album Whitney in 1985 was the first album by a woman to ever debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Charts.
She has sold more than 170 million albums worldwide.
The album also gave her perhaps her most memorable hit – a stunning rendition of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You, which sat atop the charts for weeks and featured in The Bodyguard in 1992.
It was Grammy’s record of the year and best female pop vocal, and the Bodyguard soundtrack was named album of the year.
But the star’s life had spiralled downhill since her early hits. She suffered a long battle with drugs, including cocaine, as well as alcohol and spent various spells in rehab.
Recent appearances had become increasingly erratic and the years of substance abuse had clearly taken a toll.
She cancelled a string of concerts and talk shows as she struggled to cope. In a chat show with Oprah in 2003, the star admitted the scale of her addiction to smoking crack cocaine.
“It was every day, every,” she said.
“I didn’t think about the singing part of it any more.” – Daily Mail.