Aaliyah was born on January 16, 1979 in Brooklyn, New York as Aaliyah
Dana Haughton. The name "Aaliyah" means "most exalted one" in Swahili.
Her family had connections in the music industry, her uncle (Barry
Hankerson), a manager and entertainment lawyer, who was once married to
Gladys Knight. Aaliyah's mother enrolled the young girl in
voice lessons, after which, when she was still quite young, her family
moved to Detroit where she acted and sang in school plays, including
"Annie." At the age of nine, Aaliyah auditioned for a popular
television show, "Star Search," but lost the competition. A few
years later, her uncle arranged for her to perform in Las Vegas as part
of a Gladys Knight revue. It was through her uncle, that Aaliyah met
Robert Kelly, later to be known
R Kelly, one of the star hopefuls that
he was managing at the time. R Kelly became her mentor, and the R&B
singer wrote and produced songs for Aaliyah.
1994 saw the release of Aaliyah's debut album, "Age Ain't Nothing but a
Number." The album quickly became platinum, with two hit singles, "Back
and Forth," and "At Your Best." The singles both reached the Top Ten
and went gold, "Back and Forth," reaching number one on the R&B charts.
There was a brief disturbance when the 15 year-old singer, pretending to
be 18, married the 25 year-old R Kelly in August that year. Shortly
after, the marriage was annulled, and the two artists went their
separate ways.
1996 saw the release of Aaliyah's sophomore album, "One in a Million."
She had grown much in the two years, working with a variety of
producers, including Timbaland, who co-wrote some of the tracks along
with Missy Elliott. The album spawned four hits, "If Your Girl Only
Knew," "One in a Million," "Four Page Letter," and a Dianne Warren
ballad, "The One I Gave My Heart To." With so many hits, the album went
double platinum.
In 1997, Aaliyah graduated from high school. She sang some songs for
feature film soundtracks, including "Journey to the Past," from
"Anastasia," which received an Oscar nomination, and "Are You That
Somebody?" for the Eddie Murphy comedy, "Dr. Dolittle." She had a brief
appearance in the latter movie.
Aaliyah kept busy, attempting to start an acting career and modeling for
Tommy Hilfiger. She starred with DMX and Jet Li in "Romeo Must Die,"
accompanied by a soundtrack single, "Try Again," that became a chart hit
in the summer of 2000. She then appeared in a vampire film, "Queen of
the Damned," from the Anne Rice novel, in which she played the main role
as the vampire queen.
Shortly afterward, the star finished her third album, entitled
"Aaliyah," much of it produced and written by Timbaland. It was
released in the summer of 2001. The album was a critical success, with
"We Need a Resolution," becoming another R&B chart topping hit. On
August 25th, 2001, during a trip to the Bahamas for the filming of a
video for, "Rock the Boat," the small Cessna airplane carrying Aaliyah,
crashed in a forest shortly after takeoff. The plane had been overloaded
and the pilot's autopsy showed drugs and alcohol. Aaliyah was killed
instantly. Aaliyah's album and the single "Rock the Boat," became
posthumous hits.
Aaliyah Dana Haughton was buried in the Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum
in Hartsdale, New York.
