For 15 years Whitney Houston has been serenading fans with her soulful music that effortlessly tugs at your heart one minute and has you grooving the next. She recently celebrated her acclaimed career at Arista Records with the release of Whitney: The Greatest Hits, a greatest hits collection.

The compilation of 36 songs spans her auspicious inception as a performer in 1985 to the present. It features tunes from Houston's first three multiplatinum-selling albums, Whitney Houston, Whitney, I'm Your Baby Tonight, and her latest My Love Is Your Love. The collection also includes tunes from movies in which she starred such as The Bodyguard, Waiting To Exhale, and The Preacher's Wife. The first 18 songs consist of ballads-or "cool down" tunes if you will-such as You Give Good Love, Saving All My Love For You, Greatest Love of All, I Will Always Love You and Exhale (Shoop, Shoop).

The next 18 songs-"throw down" party tunes- will give you a workout marathon on the dance floor with funky remixes of songs like It's Not Right But It's Okay, Heartbreak Hotel, I'm Every Woman, I'm Your Baby Tonight, and How Will I Know. Houston fans are also in store for four newly recorded songs, Could I Have This Kiss Forever, a duet with Enrique Iglesias, If I Told You That, a duet with George Michael, Fine, a song with rapper Q-Tip, and the sassy duet, Same Script, Different Cast, with fellow labelmate Deborah Cox. Her teaming up with Cox has produced one of music's most powerful female duets.

When Houston first hit the music scene, Arista Records founder Clive Davis introduced the young diva to the world on the Merv Griffin show for her first major television performance. Davis could see that Houston had what stars are made of when he introduced by her saying, "For the next generation, there's a singer that combines the fiery gospel of Aretha Franklin with the stunning elegance and the beauty and lyric phrasing of Lena Horne, and she is Whitney Houston."

Since that time, Houston has made a place for herself as one of the greatest female performers of all time with U.S. album sales totaling nearly 60 million copies. Along the way of her impressive career, Houston garnered six Grammy Awards-music's highest honor- and 21 American Music Awards, the most for any female recording artist!

With Houston's insurmountable fame also has come a barrage of rumors throughout the years, including a recently much-publicized rumor of an alleged drug addiction. When security officers at a Hawaii airport found 15.2 grams of marijuana in her purse in January, Houston and her hubby, performer Bobby Brown, left before the cops could arrive, according to authorities. The incident further fueled the rumor. US Weekly recently reported that Houston's friends and family were so concerned about her health last summer that they, along with two drug specialists, pleaded with the award-winning vocalist to seek treatment for an unspecified drug problem. But Houston's representatives have steadfastly denied the allegations of any personal problems.

A couple of years ago when the rumor first began to circulate, Houston addressed it in the hopes of putting it to rest. "No, I'm not a drug addict and neither is my husband," she once told Newsweek. "A lot of what we go through is stress. When I'm stressed, I don't eat and I guess that makes people think I'm on drugs. Some people eat; I don't. But there is no problem, no reason for me to, like, check in. My mother is very up on it, and my mother isn't having that. If there were a problem, she'd take control and do something." Adding to the singer's alleged woes are recent news reports that her longtime assistant and best friend, Robyn Crawford, is no longer working for her management company, Nippy Inc.

Houston could not be reached at JET press time for comment. Nevertheless, in spite of the never-ending swirl of rumors, Houston hasn't let any of that stand in her way. She continues to be a woman of motion and is staying busy. Arista recently celebrated its 25th anniversary with a star-studded musical tribute. Houston was a knockout at the event. She was the highlight of the show with her voice strong and mightier than ever.

Just recently she finished making videos for If I Told You That (directed by Kevin Bray) and Could I Have This Kiss Forever (directed by Francis Lawrence). Houston also has two movie projects in the works, according to Debra Martin Chase of BrownHouse Productions, Houston's film production company. So far Houston and Chase plan to produce the Disney-based film, The Princess Diaries, a story about a rebellious 16-year-new New Yorker who discovers she is the princess of a small European country. This will mark their second time working on a Disney film about a princess; the first was the Emmy Award-winning Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, in whch Houston also starred. Chase and Houston are also planning to produce a contemporary remake of the 1976 classic movie Sparkle, which follows the lives and loves of three sisters as they attempt to make a name for themselves as performers. Betweeen making music and movie magic, the best is yet to come for Houston.