Get to know these popular black couples who have doubled down as musicians

Whitney Houston & Bobby Brown
Bobby & Whitney first met at the Soul Train Music Awards in 1989. Both of them had skyrocketing careers. Houston was riding a wave of success that appeared unstoppable, and Brown’s 1988 album, Don’t Be Cruel, which produced five top 10 hits, including “My Prerogative” and “Every Little Step,” won him the “Best R&B/Urban Contemporary Album of the Year – Male” award that year.

The couple got married on July 18, 1992. Many questioned their union openly. Bobby was the reigning bad boy of music who had previously been shot, was involved with gangs during his adolescence and was already father to three children from two women while Whitney, on the other hand, was America’s current sweetheart with a squeaky-clean image built on songs about love and longing.

In March 1993, the couple welcomed their daughter and only child, Bobbi Kristina Brown.

The first year of matrimony brought the couple a lot of success. Four months after the wedding, Houston starred in the film The Bodyguard, in which she played a terrorized singer protected by a security guard played by Kevin Costner. As if the film being a worldwide hit was not enough, Whitney had some of her songs featured in the soundtrack of the movie. She won three Grammy’s from the album.

Unfortunately, it did not take too long for things between Bobby and Whitney to take a nosedive. There were allegations and rumors of infidelity by both of them. Things worsened when Clive Davis, Whitney’s mentor and manager, was ousted from the label Arista in 2000. Before she could recover from that, her dad passed away in 2003. On Bobby’s side, he took a break from music to focus on his marriage and daughter and when he returned to release his fourth solo album, Forever, in 1997, it flopped. Sadly, it was the only album he produced during his marriage to Whitney.

They finally divorced in 2007. Five years after, Whitney sadly passed away.