Mariel Concepcion, N.Y.
The wait is over -- Whitney Houston is finally making her comeback on Sept. 1 with an as-yet-untitled album on Arista Records. For her return, the label has set up a countdown on the New Jersey-bred artist's official site,
WhitneyHouston.com, which will also preview selected tracks slated to appear on the album in coming weeks.
Producers and songwriters said to aid with the set include
will.i.am, Sean Garrett and Akon, although there is no confirmation on whether a duet with Akon, "
Like I Never Left," which leaked last year, will make the cut.
"The voice is there; I don't think anyone could ever take that from her. As long as we apply that voice to hit records, she'll be right back where she left off," Akon told Billboard.com back in 2007.
Houston made her first high-profile public appearance at her mentor
Clive Davis' pre-Grammy gala back in February, where she performed a four-song set that included brief renditions of "I Will Always Love You" and "I Believe in You and Me" plus a tent revival-style take on "I'm Every Woman."
Houston has been dogged in recent years by drug and health issues -- including rehab stints in 2004 and 2005 -- a legal dispute with her father, John Houston, rumored financial problems and a troubled marriage to fellow singer Bobby Brown that ended in divorce.
Houston's last album was 2002's "Just Whitney," which sold 737,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
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