Whitney Houston 2, 2003), and gospel singer Emily "Cissy" (Drinkard) Houston. Her elder brother Michael is a singer, and her elder half-brother is former basketball player Gary Garland. Her parents were both African American. Through her mother, Houston was a first cousin of singers Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick. Her godmother was Darlene Love and her honorary aunt was Aretha Franklin, whom she met at age 8 or 9 when her mother took her to a recording studio. Houston was raised a Baptist, but was also exposed to the Pentecostal church. After the 1967 Newark riots, the family moved to a
Whitney Houston (album) years before and was the main theme of the boxer Muhammad Ali biopic ""The Greatest"" in the same year. In February 1986, the controversy was caused at the 28th Grammy Awards by the absence of Whitney Houston's name for the Best New Artist. Although "Whitney Houston" was her debut album released in 1985, she was not nominated in that category because of her disqualification as a new artist. Upon hearing that Houston would be denied the opportunity to compete in the Best New Artist category for 1985, Clive Davis, then the president of Arista Records, sent a letter of complaint