BREAKING NEWS - Whitney Houston Dies Aged 48 - February 12th 2012

Police have confirmed that Whitney Houston died at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles this afternoon.A detective from the Los Angeles Police Department says police received a 911 call at 3.23pm LA-time (12.23 NZ-time) from a member of Houston's entourage.

Speaking at a press conference, Mark Rosen said police arrived at the fourth floor room within two minutes, and found members of Houston's entourage and hotel staff attempting resuscitation.

The 48-year-old singer was pronounced dead at 3.55pm local time.

Rosen says detectives are working to determine whether it was natural death or whether there are any suspicious circumstances.

He said it is too early to say whether there were any signs of drug use.

Website TMZ has reported the presence of a police crime lab vehicle outside the hotel.

Rosen said that Houston's body remains in the hotel room.

Houston was staying at the hotel which was to be the scene of an annual pre-Grammy party hosted by Clive Davis, the music industry figure who discovered Whitney Houston.

The 48-year-old singer won six Grammy Awards, two Emmy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards during her record-breaking career.

Houston, inspired by soul singers in her New Jersey family, including mother Cissy Houston and cousins Dionne Warwick and the late Dee Dee Warwick, as well as her godmother Aretha Franklin, became one of the most celebrated female singers of all time.

Her popularity soared in the 1980s and 1990s with consecutive No. 1 hits including the smash single I Will Always Love You, from the soundtrack of the feature film The Bodyguard, in which she starred. The soundtrack won the 1994 Grammy for Album of the Year.

In 2009, Houston confessed to being a cocaine addict during TV interview with Oprah Winfrey, and admitted she and her Brown's drug use spiralled out of control after she starred in hit movie The Bodyguard in 1992.

The star voluntarily entered an outpatient rehab programme to seek help for drug and alcohol problems last May.

Houston had reportedly overcome her crack cocaine addiction but had spent all of her fortune.

In August 2001, Houston signed the biggest record deal in music history at the time with Arista/BMG, renewing her contract with the label for $100 million to deliver six new albums.

She released her last LP 'I Look to You' in August 2009 but a concert to promote the album on Good Morning America went awry as Houston's voice sounded ragged and off-key.

And in a world tour she failed to hit notes and left many fans unimpressed; some walking out.

She was about to relaunch her career with an appearance in a musical drama called Sparkle and she was also being considered to be a judge on Simon Cowell's The X Factor.

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