A family representative announced Saturday evening that multi-Grammy Award winning singer Whitney Houston has died at age 48.
According to a police spokesman, at 3:23 p.m. PST, Beverly Hills police responded to an emergency call at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Police report that medics attempted to revive Houston in her fourth floor room for 20 minutes; however, authorities pronounced the singer dead at 3:55 p.m.
A police representative said the cause of Houston's death is under investigation.
The singer who sold over 170,000,000 albums and singles and significantly influenced a generation of performers, suffered later in her career from drug use and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown.
The New York Times reports that her mentor Clive Davis remarked at his pre-Grammy Award party at the Beverly Hilton, "Whitney was a beautiful person and a talent beyond compare. She graced this stage with her regal presence and gave so many memorable performances here over the years."
It is not apparent how the singer's death will affect Sunday night's 54th Grammy Award presentation; however, executive producer Kenneth Ehrlich announced that singer Jennifer Hudson will perform a special tribute to Houston during the broadcast.
"Simply put, Whitney would have wanted the music to go on and her family asked that we carry on." Davis said.
Houston scored consecutive No. 1 hits throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including the 1994 Grammy Album of the Year "I Will Always Love You" from the film The Bodyguard.
The daughter of singer Cissy Houston, Whitney was born on August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey.
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