The unmistakable sense of dread started the morning of 's pre-Grammys gala - the hottest ticket of the weekend, hosted by the legendary music producer at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
R&B singer, had spent 13 weeks at number one back in 1998 when she dueted with , on the hit track, The Boy Is Mine. Fourteen years on she was due to perform their first collaboration since, a brand new number called It All Belongs To Me.
But, waking up that morning, on February 11, 2012, she felt what she describes as 'a hot, radiating itch in my throat.'
It was like no feeling she'd ever had before.
'I didn't feel hoarse, nor was I raspier than usual,' she writes in Phases: A Memoir, published on March 31. 'It was a strange sensation, like someone had taken a safety pin and slowly dragged it up my esophagus.'
It gave her an eerie sense of foreboding - one that would prove heartbreakingly prescient.
Brandy became a teen singing and acting sensation in the mid-1990s, known for her powerful vocal range and intricate riffs.
As a child, her idol was Whitney Houston. And as a star in her own right, the pair became extremely close. Houston even acted as her mentee's real-life fairy godmother when she cast her in the 1997 musical remake of Cinderella.
As a child, Brandy's idol was Whitney Houston
Houston acted as her mentee's real-life fairy godmother when she cast her in the film, Cinderella
Houston and Brandy pictured at the premier of the 1997 musical remake of Cinderella
But in the years since, while Brandy had gone on to serve as a judge on the first season of America's Got Talent and taken part in Dancing with the Stars, Houston had experienced a series of well-publicized setbacks, including a doomed marriage to Bobby Brown, and ongoing battles with drugs.
In 2000, Houston was fired from a planned performance at the Academy Awards because of her erratic behavior during rehearsals.
Two years later the singer - looking alarmingly thin - admitted to having used alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and pills during an interview with Diane Sawyer. But she insisted her troubles were all in the past.
That proved to be a tragic lie as, by 2009, in what would be one of her final interviews, she told Oprah Winfrey that drug use had been an everyday thing for her since the mid-1990s.
She had been to rehab at least three times - in 2004, 2005 and 2011 - but .
So when she appeared 'like a chaotic meteor' at Brandy's rehearsals on February 11, the day before that Grammy performance, the press were understandably eager to capture her every move.
'Whitney came bouncing - no, exploding - onto the that stage,' writes Brandy, 'trailing laughter, water and the unmistakable scent of trouble. Her clothes clung to her damply, evidence of an impulsive swim, and she moved with the unpredictable rhythm of someone no lingered tethered to the room.
'"Baby girl!" she called out to me. "Baby girl!"'
Houston experienced a series of well-publicized setbacks, including a doomed marriage to Bobby Brown, and ongoing battles with drugs
Houston with Clive Davis before his legendary pre-Grammy party in 2007
'Whitney appeared to be under the influence, and it was tough to be in a room crawling with strangers whispering and judging her,' writes Brandy
The singer's cause of death was accidental drowning, with contributing factors including coronary artery disease and cocaine use - she was just 48
A coroner's van leaves the Beverly Hilton Hotel with Whitney Houston's body
Fans placed flowers and notes at a memorial outside the Beverly Hilton Hotel for Houston
Houston's funeral took place in Newark, New Jersey, On February 11, 2012
'I felt my body go limp,' writes Brandy, 'then I fell to the floor, convulsing with sobs. I could faintly make out the sound of my mom on the receiver trying her hardest to soothe me through the phone.'
