Houston will be mourned Saturday in a funeral at the church where she began singing in the choir as a young girl.
The service at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey will be attended by family and friends, and will be broadcast across the world on the internet and television.
Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder will sing tributes and Houston's mentor, record producer Clive Davis, will deliver an address.
The guests will include chat show host Oprah Winfrey and Kevin Costner, Houston's film co-star in "The Bodyguard," singers Alicia Keys, Chaka Khan and Brandy, movie mogul Tyler Perry, and the Revs Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
After some apparent family disagreement over whether he should be invited, Houston's ex-husband of 15 years, the singer Bobby Brown, is on the guest list. Brown is going ahead with a planned concert hours after the funeral at a casino in Connecticut.