• Whitney grows up surrounded by a family of legendary singers, such as her mom, Cissy Houston, and her cousin Dionne Warwick, and is exposed to the “ins and outs” of the music business.
  
• Whitney suffers a severe childhood accident. Doctors say she may never speak again.
  
• She is a quiet child who has few friends in school.
  
• At 14, she makes her un-credited singing debut, paired with her mother on back-up vocals for Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman.”
  
• Despite some persistent offers, Cissy refuses to let Whitney sign to a label until she finishes high school.
  
• She becomes a successful model and tries her hand at acting, but is so determined to sing that she puts her burgeoning “side” careers on hold.
  
• Whitney makes the final cut to play Denise Huxtable on The Cosby Show but turns down the opportunity in order to pursue a singing career even though she doesn’t have a recording contract yet.
  
• Whitney toils for years, singing on the nightclub circuit with her mother, until she finally gets noticed by one of the biggest executives in the industry, Clive Davis.
  
• After two years of recording with some of the industry’s top producers and songwriters, Whitney launches the most successful debut album for a female artist of all time.

Interviews include many of the celebrities Whitney encountered during her rise to fame, including Luther Vandross, Ashford and Simpson, Aaron Neville, Jermaine Jackson, Chaka Khan, and her cousin Dionne Warwick and mother Cissy Houston. Some interview highlights:

• Dionne Warwick, Cousin: "We refer to moms as backstage mothers. She was a backstage baby."
  
• Michael Beinhorn, Musician: “When I saw her, I was like, oh man, we’re gonna get a couple, like whiny squeaks out of this one.”
  
• Valerie Simpson, Singer/Songwriter: “It’s like watching a flower bloom before your very eyes. She wasn’t yet groomed but there was no doubt, this was a rose.”
  
• Jay Sandridge, Director of The Cosby Show: “She knew she was a good enough singer that she was gonna do very well without being on The Cosby Show.”
  
• Gerry Griffith, A&R, Arista Records: "What was lacking in the first performance was a sense of confidence. The voice was almost where it should be, the confidence wasn’t quite there."
  
• Clive Davis, President, Arista Records: "This is just one of those few all-time artists who clearly breathes sparks and magic and charisma and star appeal."

Some of the footage highlights include:

• Footage from a teenage Whitney’s choir performances in her native Newark’s New Hope Baptist Church.
  
• Whitney’s TV debut on The Merv Griffin Show.
  
• Her first TV acting role on Gimme A Break.
  
• Audio of Whitney’s first, obscure recordings: two songs with disco producer Michael Zager, one song with avant-garde jazz group Material.

NEWSFILE: 12 NOVEMBER 2002