At the 30th Grammy Awards, it received three nominations including Album of the Year, with Houston winning Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)".
On October 28, 2020, the album was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America, for sales of over 10 million copies in the United States.
Finally, Jellybean Benitez produced the top ten hit "Love Will Save the Day".
[8] The first single released from the album, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", made its debut at number 38, her highest debut at the time, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the issue dated May 16, 1987, and reached the top position in six weeks later, becoming her fourth number one hit.
[22] Thanks to its strong sales and airplay across Europe, it went to top position of European Hot 100 Singles chart and remained at the summit for eight weeks.
The former became her second number one hit on Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play chart and was certified Gold for shipments of 500,000 copies by the RIAA on December 6, 1995.
[33][34][35][36][37] "I Know Him So Well" was released as the sixth and final single from the album exclusively in Australia, Germany, Netherlands, and Spain.
Her cover version earned a nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 1988 Grammy Awards Note Upon the album's debut, the critical reception of Whitney was mixed.
Jon Pareles of The New York Times criticized something as formulaic on the album, stating that: "Whitney plays everything safe.
Even the album title fits in with an Arista Records custom of separating female singers—Dionne, Aretha, Carly—from their last names."
He was not positive of her vocals on it, commenting "What's more unsettling is that in the two years since Whitney Houston was released, the singer hasn't gotten much more expressive.
"[2] Vince Aletti from Rolling Stone also gave an unfavorable review, stating "the formula is more rigorously locked in than before, and the range so tightly circumscribed that Houston's potential seems to have shrunk rather than expanded" and the record is "smug, repressive and ridiculously safe."
Also, he made some sarcastic comments about the first single, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", calling it "How Will I Know II", spoken at Hollywood's blockbuster sequels.
[45] Robert Hilburn, in his review for Los Angeles Times, regarded the album as "another commercial blockbuster", writing that the record is "a series of highly accessible selections that will work on a variety of radio formats."
However, he expressed his considerable disappointment that Whitney did precious little to define the singer's vision, adding that she had a sensational voice but didn't assert much vocal character on it.
"[47] The St. Petersburg Times showed a favorable attitude toward her new album at large, stating "[Whitney] is, first and foremost, a product.
[50] It made her the fourth artist to achieve that feat overall, behind Elton John with Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy and Rock of the Westies, Stevie Wonder with Songs in the Key of Life and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band with Live/1975–85.
[51] On June 27, 1987, the album topped the chart and remained there for eleven consecutive weeks, the longest run among the releases that reached peak position of the year.
[54] In 2020, it was certified Diamond (10× Platinum) in the US, for shipping/ selling over 10 million copies by the Recording Industry Association of America[55][56] The album re-entered the Billboard 200 the week of February 25, 2012, after Houston's death, at number 122.
With 1.2 million copies sold there, it would become the biggest selling album by a female artist in the UK, a record that has since been broken.
Since 1957, the magazine has distributed its "Bravo Otto" awards based on the readers' vote in different categories each year.