that's where they will try to determine the cause of death. a music industry executive stayed in the room just above houston's and says she heard two loud booms and a man's voice around 20 minutes before houston was pronounced dead. ♪ ♪ i get so emotional, baby every time i think of you ♪ >> it is hard to know where to begin or how to describe the life of whitney houston, as both an entertainer and person. she's being described as larger than life. born in 1963 to gospel singer cici houston. her debut album entitled, of course, "whitney houston" sold 12 million copies in the u.s. alone. she recorded a string of billboard flb one hits in the 1908s and 1990s, including "saving all my love for you" and "how will i know." ♪ and i will always love you ♪ i will always >> houston went on to star with kevin kosner in the hit "the bodyguard." the soundtrack was one of the top ten biggest selling albums of all time, and it included a remake of dolly pardon's "i will always love you." she later battled drug problems and became better known for her high profile and 15-year marriage to bobbi brown. they had one child, who is 19 years old. houston had just finished film aing remake of the 1970s music "sparkle." it is scheduled to be released nationwide in august. tonight was supposed to be the music industry's big night, the grammys, but now there is, of course, a dark cloud hanging over the event. what are people saying about whitney houston? our entertainment correspondent kreen. >> reporter: many are still reeling from the fact that whitney houston has died. she was found at the beverly hilton. paramedics were called to the scene but were unable to resuscitate her. they were not able to determine the cause of death. houston was just 48 years old. she was scheduled to attend the annual clive davis pre-grammy party in the evening. it's one of the premier parties before the grammys. music's biggest night, davis, the mega producer who helped launch houston's very successful career. he asked for a moment of silence at the party and said he is personally devastated by the loss of someone so dear, so close to him for so many years. as you can imagine, ted, reaction from many in the music business has been pouring in. many expressing deep sorrow about the loss. for example, tony bennett. he said houston was the greatest singer he has ever heard. christina aguilera said houston's notes soar to places most singers dreamed of reaching. she will be missed. and eddie lavert from the ojays has said the loss has left a hole in our souls. the recording academy plans to pay tribute with jennifer hudson taking part in the ceremony. ted. >> well, fans, about everybody i know, is reacting to the sudden loss of a great singer. twitter lit up in the hours following houston's death reaching as many as 1,000 tweets per second according to top storiy.com. celebrities at the clive davis pre-grammy party spoke to our camera crews about the loss of a legend. >> she sent so much love out into the world, and she was an inspiration for so many people, and we're there with her. >> i have known her for a little girl up, you know, and her family, of course, and i'm venturing out to say this and may get some flack, but there will never be another voice like that. >> when i first heard whitney houston, i call up clive davis at sony columbia, and i said clive, that's one of the greatest singers i ever heard. >> i just remember when we were doing "the bodyguard" that she would work all day filming, tired from that and come into the studio, and just rip her coat off and go up to the mike, like i said, like a race horse, and she is the definitive girl. i love great voices, and hers was the greatest of all. >> you know that voice anywhere. i gri up listening to "the bodyguard" soundtrack. that was like my jam. >> it was amazing to see someone like that have all the star qualities and be able to sing like that because all people with star quality are not necessarily excellent. we see it. she was excellent and a star. >> the memories that i have of her is sitting with her in atlanta talking about the music that she wanted to do, talking about the songs that she wanted me to write for her. she said i just need people to know that i'm happy. i'm not bitter. i'm not depressed. i'm happy. i got my kids, my music, and my god. i'm happy. >> all throughout the day we'll be bringing you tributes to whitney houston from coast-to-coast. we'll be live outside the newark new jersey church where the pop icon got her start as a child singing in the church choir. at 11:00 eastern reverend al sharpton will call for a national prayer for houston's family during a service at the second baptist church in los angeles, and beginning at 3:00 eastern we'll be live from the red carpet at the 54th annual grammy awards. we'll get reaction to houston's death from some of the music industry's biggest stars. millions of fans, of course, are flooding on-line sites to express their grief and shock about houston's sudden death. we'll tell you what they're saying coming up. ♪ after giving it my all ♪ winter storms have come ♪ and darkened my sun ♪ after all that i've been through ♪ ♪ i look to you how'd you do it? 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you, and good morning everyone. if you are waking up to this sad news, the report about whitney houston, people -- it's absolutely amazing the kinds of responses that have come in overnight on every platform known to man. what's behind me right now is whitney houston's official website, and you can see the simple image of her that says there in loving memory, and it links you over to an official facebook, which is getting tens of thousands of posts, and they keep increasing. just before the break we were mentioning that twitter had an incredible number of tweets and people weighing in on whitney houston here, and you can see more and more stories and memories of her at her official website. now, what weave been doing throughout the night is hearing from you and i report and on facebook as well. we have reports. i want to share it with you. this helps show the global impact of her life. take a look at this one. she was truly inspirational not just in america, but all over the world. particularly here in africa. she broke the glass ceiling from any black female entertainers. sure hope she finds the peace she lacked here on earth. came in on facebook. let's take another one. now are you in the hands of angels. whitney houston, i will always love you and remember you. that's from facebook. here's something that came in to us on cnnireport. i had the honor of attending a whitney houston concert about 18 years ago. she had the most beautiful voice. i'm satedened this voice is silent. so many people are remembering the specific concerts they went to decades ago and weighing in with the emotions they felt at the time. this is the power of music. it's the biggest reasons it sticks with you so incredibly long. let's keep going here. another one for you. from christy also on ireport, who writes a simple message that says her voice touched my life and my family's lives forever and does. i will mention one more here. this is a woman who wrote overnight saying she made it through some of the toughest times of her entire life. i made it through some of the roughest times of my life with whitney houston's songs. times when my faith and strength as a woman were tested. i prevailed belloing lyrically through her voice. let's come back to my screen for a second. let's see what you can do no wrush i showed you the official website and how can you weigh in there. i also want you to see this. we at cnn are partners with time magazine and time.com. what time does is bring together some of the most iconic images of that person. we've seen them do this before. remember after michael jackson's tragic death. now, here are some classic images of whitney houston. i just want to show you a few. this is one early on of her marriage to bobbi brown, and the third one i'm going to end on for you here is particularly significant given today. this is a shot from 1988, whitney houston accepting a grammy for best pop vocal. also in los angeles at the grammys that year, and as we know, she was in los angeles for the grammys. this time around. we have video of her as well. i will just let you know, we look forward to hearing from you. i'll be here throughout the morning and throughout the day. we're going to be hearing from ow every platform. ireport, twitter, facebook. you can always reach me at josh lebs.cnn. while i bring this back to ted, i got a post on facebook this morning that i find so interesting, ted. this is from an old friend of mine who is now a very successful opera singer named chari grouper. >> at her best whitney houston innately possessed what so many of us singers work a lifetime to achieve. this is the breadth of whitney houston's power, her musical power, and the success of her career. we have opera singers weighing in, and people in africa saying she broke the glass ceiling, and millions of people in this country are mourning her loss today. >> absolutely, josh. everybody today remembering songs and just remembering her unbelievable voice. >> whitney houston died on the eve of the grammy awards. josh was saying music's biggest awards show will, of course, go on tonight, but it does plan a special tribute to houston. find out who will sung in her honor. we'll have details ahead. plus, we're also monitoring some other stories, including this icy pilot on a busy interstate. stay with us. for fastidious librarian emily skinner, each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. ...which meant she continued to have the means to live on... ...even at the ripe old age of 187. life well planned. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. but we couldn't simply repeat history. we had to create it. introducing the 2013 lexus gs, with leading-edge safety technology, like available blind spot monitor... 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[ engine revving ] the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. ♪ >> we'll have more on whitney houston in just a moment, but, first, here are some stories that we're watching this morning. in here syria we are now hearing that the military is putting civilians on their tanks to act as human shields. one opposition activist said it's happening in the city of homs which is the epicenter of the uprising. syria's military has been bombing at opposition forces killing over 100 people in the last 48 hours. the greek parliament votes today on a bailout deal that could save the country. at least economically and much of europe's financial disaster. there is a lot of pushback from the greek people who launched protests over pay cuts that would come out of the bailout. greek's failure could impact american ebanks. many of those ebanks -- as many as 65 cars piled up in accidents out of ohio highways. snow is being blamed for chain reaction crashes on i-76 and portage county where there are two wrecks a mile apart. each wreck involved more than ten cars. there is a major accident on the ohio turnpike, and there are a few injuries that nobody seriously hurt. meteorologist reynolds wolf is in our weather center, and this is the second day we've seen that. it's been ohio today treacherous. >> absolutely. >> you know what's interesting. i bet you know this, ted, as a guy who is from wisconsin, it seems like a lot of these pile-ups always begin during the early snowfalls. it seems that people are trying to just learn how to drive once again in the snow and ice, and then later in the season i know we're already into february, but it's been a strange winter -- it seems as we get closer to spring, we have some of those late snowfalls, people handle it a lot better. it's kind of a little bit of a learning curve that people have to deal with. ruin the learning curve is we have plenty of sunshine for the northern plains, but on both other sides of the continent we have entirely different weather conditions. snow in parts of the northeast. let's examine that first very quickly. as we zoom in, we'll notice we still have watches and warnings, some advisories, especially for parts of the appalachians, and as we zoom in more, you'll notice parts of the great lakes. with the prevailing wind coming from the northwest, it's going to affect plays like lake ontario and even lake erie, and as the wind moves across the lakes, water in a constant state of evaporation, it's going to mix if with that cold air aloft, and the result will be lake-effect snowfall. be ready, you may have up to a foot of snowfall before the weekend is out. even in binghamton right along parts of 85, it cab rough for you. even on 86, ted just showed you that video moments ago. well, again, you might have backups and issues like that. keep that in mind. something else we're going to see as we look out towards the west and the central plains. a lot of purple out there. the reason why we're seeing that, winter weather not watches or warnings, but mostly advisories. we have a few watches and warnings, but the advisories are there to warn you about what's coming in the coming days. this area of low pressure that's bringing scattered showers to parts of the san gabriels in southern california and even places like big berry. you've had snowfall. that low is not going to remain locked in place. it's going to drift in a little bit and then surge back up to parts of the southern plains, and the central plains tapping into the overwhelming moisture coming in from the gulf of mexico. the result is going to be scattered showers, possible thunderstorms in south texas, but notice on the other side of that frontal boundary, you've got the cold air and, again, the moisture. the result will be the chance of snowfall. very quickly, let's wrap it up. 36 the high. 46 in dallas. 43 in atlanta. back over to denver and into salt lake city. 30s and 40s. 58 in san francisco and 65 in los angeles. that's your forecast. ted, your turn. >> all right. thanks. >> well, the music world is mourning the sudden death of whitney houston. up next singer jennifer holiday joins me to talk about houston's life, legacy, and her unforgettable voice and the friendships that they share. ♪ what i am ♪ because i never change all my colors for you ♪ ♪ take my love i'll never ask ♪ oh will you grab us some yoplait? sure. what flavor? mm, one of each. lemon burst, hm, cherry orchard, blackberry harvest... my daughter's grabbing some yoplait. pina colada, orange creme. i can't imagine where she is... strawberry cheesecake. 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"i want to dance with somebody." it earned her top female vocalist grammy performance. she was 48 years old. her bodyguard found her unconscious at the beverly hilton hotel. a cause of death has not been determined. this will be a special tribute to her tonight at the grammy awards. >> here outside staples center the executive producer of the show ken ehrlich told us the show will go on and that jennifer hudson will perform some sort of special tribute to whitney houston. >> i have asked jennifer hudson to come and we're really at this moment, you know, talking about what she's going to do, but it will be something respectful. it's not going to be a full blown tribute. to me that feels like it's too early. it's too fresh at this moment. we're working on something that will be really respectful and appropriate to whitney's memory. >> well, ehrlich says this won't be an all-out tribute to whitney houston. he wants the same person who produced the michael jackson memorial here at staples center about two and a half years ago. cnn, los angeles. well, to her fans whitney houston was a larger than life superstar, but those who knew her personally, her friendship, was one that will always be treasured. we haven't heard a lot of that since the singer's death, but we have one of those people on the phone right now. tony award winning actress jennifer holiday joins us now by phone from san diego where she performed last night where it's also about 3:30 in the morning. thanks very much for staying up to share with us. first of all, jennifer, your reaction to the death of whitney houston? >> well, ted, i can, first of all, thank you for allowing me to share my grief with so many of us. this has been just devastating for so many of us, and our hearts are just bleeding now, and i was watching cnn. i'm getting ready for my performance here in san diego with the san diego symphony, and i just almost dropped, and i, of course, you know, of being in show business thinking about my audience and my needing to sing for them tonight. i had to pull myself together, but through the whole performance and through my time of getting ready, i just couldn't quit thinking about her. as i walked into the symphony hall, the hall was empty, and i could see a piano with a light there, and i could swear that i could see her singing "i will always love you" because of that scene that was there, and i just stopped for a minute, and i just shed a few tears, and i said, okay, you got to pull it together. you have an audience waiting on you as well. >> we heard about that jennifer hudson is going to be doing a special treb out at the grammys tonight. she actually played you, your part, in "dream girls." tonight will be a lot of celebrity reaction and what whitney houston meant for them. you had a special relationship with her. give us an indication of what type of person whitney houston was. we all know she had a wonderful voice and a wonderful performer. what type of a person was she? >> whitney was one of the most down -- just so down home and just nice and kind-hearted, and i had met her early on because i move so many of the same people that she knew -- michael jackson -- all these people that i move, of course, through "dream girls" and then