Whitney Houston was born on August 9th in Newark, New Jersey. She grew up in a middle-income area; they moved into when she turned four years old. Whitney’s mother, Emily Houston, went by “Cissy,” had and raised to children. Her oldest is a boy named Michael, and the youngest being Whitney. Whitney always had a passion for singing even as a young child; she loved and knew she wanted to pursue singing. Luckily Whitney’s mother was a singer, so her mother trained her and taught her how to use her voice and perform growing up. Whitney’s mother, Cissy, was a gospel and backup singer. She was very successful in being able to sing backup for an artist like Aretha Franklin. Aretha Franklin was also Whitney’s Godmother. Her cousin was also Dionne Warwick, who also was a successful singer. So, Whitney had a family of singers. Growing up, since Whitney’s mother knew she had a love for singing, she taught her to sing and had her sing in church to get practice. When she was 11 years old, her mom joined Whitney in a junior gospel choir at a church in Newark named New Hope Baptist Church. Before this, at just the ages of 8 and 9, Whitney’s mom would be taker to recording studios to practice singing. Growing up singing, Whitney looked up to both her mother and godmother Aretha Franklin.