Whitney Houston first Black artist with 3 diamond albums

Music fans will always love Whitney Houston. Sales figures proved that, as the late singer became the first Black recording artist to have three diamond-certified albums, Billboard reported.

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Sony Music and the singer’s estate announced that Houston’s second album, 1987′s “Whitney,” reached the 10x platinum, or diamond status, as certified by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album went gold, with 500,000 sales, and platinum (1 million sales) on July 28, 1987, according to the RIAA.

The album joins her 1985 self-titled debut and the 1992 soundtrack to “The Bodyguard” as diamond-certified albums, Entertainment Weekly reported. Houston’s video for “I Will Always Love You” also recently passed one billion YouTube views, Billboard reported.

Houston was found dead at the Beverly Hills Hilton, submerged in her bathtub, on Feb. 11, 2012. She was 48.

“Whitney” produced five songs in Billboard’s top-10 singles list, and four of them -- “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” “So Emotional” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”-- rose to No. 1, making Houston the first female recording artist with four consecutive Hot 100 No. 1s, Billboard reported.

That gave Houston seven consecutive No. 1 hits, as three from her “Whitney Houston” debut album -- “Saving All My Love for You,” “How Will I Know” and “Greatest Love of All” -- also topped the charts, the magazine reported.

In a statement, Houston’s estate thanked the singer’s fans “for their abiding love for her music and making this achievement come true.”

Houston, who also performed a memorable, rousing rendition of the national anthem before Super Bowl XXV, was elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. Her induction ceremony will be streamed on HBO on Nov. 7.

Cox Media Group