''Everbody's searching for a hero. People need someone to look up to''.

It gets a bit scary perhaps, please tell me when it does, but all the great great artists who formed a generation, or maybe a few generations, become distinct. And since their music all fall in the genre I love most, or maybe because I have a thing for legends and icons who live a troubled but extraordinary life, my blog features a lot of these figures.

It seems like yesterday that I posted about the wonderful Etta James. I am deeply appalled by the fact that someone a lot younger, who lived a life close to Etta James' life in a way, has died as well. I saw it all over the internet this morning: Whitney Houston (48) is found dead in her hotel apartment, the cause of her death is unknown.

We all knew, just like we did when Amy Winehouse died (she was even more troubled), it had to happen some day. Whitney Houston's best time was far far behind her. Due to drugs, alcohol and her relationship with Bobbi Brown, who was, let's say, not that good to her.

Whitney Houston was born in Newark as the daughter of Cissy Houston (who was a background singer from among others Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin) and the niece of Dionne Warwick. She sang a lot when she was young, did some modelling work and her first record appeared in 1985.

She's had a lot of terrific songs. Of course she's most famous for 'I will always love you', probably the most heard love song and a very admirable achievement of Whitney: there are few singers who have such a wide voice range. Other amazing songs were: 'Run to you', 'The Greatest Love of All', 'Didn't we almost have it all' and we musn't forget the uptight 'I wanna dance with somebody'.

Whitney also played in some films, like 'The Bodyguard', which made her even more famous. At the end of the millenium, Whitney was surrounded by quiteness. When she got back on track, she was extremely skinny and everyone wondered: anorexia? drugs? or stress from her relationship with Bobbi Brown?

After a divorce in 2006, she made her comeback in 2008 with the great album 'I look to you'. 'Million dollar bil' was praised by the press and it seemed to go well with Whitney.

But did it? Because we know little about the cause of her death yet. Perhaps it were drugs, or suicide, who knows? I'm just really sad we lost another great singer, her voice gives me the pimples everytime I hear one of her songs. And that may not even be the worst feeling, I think I'll be spending a lot of time in front of my record player listening to her LP 'Whitney'.

We gotta keep her music alive. The artist may be gone, transformed in another icon, another legend, but her music will live with us until eternity.

''I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all''