Biography of AaliyahAaliyah Dana Haughton (January 16, 1979 - August 25, 2001), better known as Aaliyah, was an award winning American singer, dancer, actress,model, and Teen Idol. Introduced to audiences by R&B/pop singer R. Kelly, Aaliyah became famous during the mid-1990s with several hit records from the songwriting/production team of Missy Elliott and Timbaland.
Despite her short career, she sold approximately 32 million records worldwide. In addition to commercial success, her collaborations with Timbaland helped shape the sound of R&B in the latter half of the 1990s. She also modeled for Tommy Hilfiger and starred in two motion pictures before her death in a plane crash in the Bahamas.
Aaliyah Dana Haughton was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, New York to Michael and Diane Haughton, and was raised in Detroit, Michigan. Her name means "Highest, Most Exalted, The Best" in both Arabic and Hebrew. Her maternal grandmother, Mintis L. Hicks Hankerson, gave her the middle name Dana. Aaliyah was brought up as a Catholic with her older brother Rashad Haughton. Her maternal grandmother was of African American and Native American descent. Diane Haughton, Aaliyah's mother, also a vocalist, encouraged her daughter's career.
In 1991, she appeared on the TV talent show Star Search at age ten, singing her mother's favorite song, "My Funny Valentine". Although she did not win, she remained a good sport and continued to perfect her skills. Aaliyah worked with an agent in New York and auditioned for TV shows, including Family Matters.
Following her appearance on Star Search, an eleven year old Aaliyah performed on stage in Las Vegas, Nevada with Gladys Knight, her aunt by way of Knight's marriage to her uncle, Barry Hankerson. Knight recalled, "She was still quite young, but she already had it--that spark the world would later see and fall in love with." In her early teens, Aaliyah attended the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts, and graduated as a Dance major with a 4.0 GPA.
At age 14 Aaliyah signed with her uncle Barry Hankerson's Blackground Records label in 1993. The following year she released her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing but a Number. At the time, R. Kelly was an artist that her uncle was managing. He went on to write almost every song on Aaliyah's debut, as well as produce the album. "Age" went platinum within months and featured the singles "Back and Forth" which hit number one for 8 weeks, "Down with the Clique," and the album-title single "Age Ain't Nothing but a Number." The lone track not written by R. Kelly, a cover of the Isley Brothers's "At Your Best" hit number 2 for 10 weeks. By 1995, the album had gone double platinum in the US, having sold over 2 million units. "Back and Forth" and "At Your Best" was certified gold by RIAA in 1994.
Rumors began to surface that the 15-year old singer and the 27-year old R. Kelly had secretly married. Both artists' camps initially denied the rumor, but Vibe magazine published a copy of their Illinois marriage license dated August 31st, 1994, which showed that Aaliyah's age had been falsely listed as eighteen. The rumors, combined with the name of the third single, propelled "Age Ain't Nothing but a Number", to number seventy-five on the Billboard Hot 100. The marriage was annulled by February 7, 1995. In addition to the mystery of her personal life, fans were drawn to Aaliyah's image as a cool, aloof songstress. Her trademark looks during this era were wearing baggy Tommy Hilfiger men's clothing and concealing her left eye behind her hair.
The self-titled album represented a mature artist, embracing her identity as an adult woman. "Loose Rap" was the first chosen to be her first single but when "We Need a Resolution was released," it featured a signature production from Timbaland, an eerie electro-goth skittering rhythm over which Aaliyah breathily sang about needing an end to a confusing relationship. The video showed a grown-up and sexually confident Aaliyah, writhing with a snake in slick modern backdrops. During an April 2001 interview with MTV, she explained:
"I first dealt with snakes when I was in Australia and I did the photo shoot for the album. We used five pythons in the shoot. At first, I was a little nervous, but once I started to handle them, I totally fell in love and felt an affinity toward them. They're very mysterious creatures. They live in solitude, [and] there are times in my life [when] I just want to be by myself. There are times I can't even figure myself out. I feel they are very complex creatures, at the same time, they're sexy, too. That's why they represent Aaliyah pretty well. They're dangerous, but quite beautiful. I thought that it would be an animal that could represent me on this album, so I wanted to take it from the photo shoot to the video and probably throughout the whole project."
Aaliyah was released three months later on July 17, 2001 to excellent reviews. The All Music guide gave the album high praise. "Urban albums rarely come any better than this, and there haven't been many records better than this in 2001, period." Aaliyah introduced a darker and edgier side to her music and was noted as showcasing her growth both as an artist and as a person. She recorded much of the album while working on her second film, The Queen of the Damned. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart,. In the week following her death, the album sold 305,000 units and went double platinum in the US by October.
On August 25, 2001, at 6:50 pm (EST), just after wrapping up filming of the "Rock the Boat" video, Aaliyah and various members of her record company boarded a twin engine Cessna 402B (N8097W) at Marsh Harbour, Abaco Island, Bahamas to travel to Opa-locka Airport near Miami, Florida. The crew had a flight scheduled the next day, but the video wrapped early. Aaliyah and her entourage were eager to return to the US and took their heavy equipment from the shoot on the plane rather than leave it behind.
The plane crashed shortly after takeoff about 200 feet (70 m) from the runway. Pilot Luis Morales III and all eight passengers were killed in the aviation accident. Along with Aaliyah were her make-up artist Eric Foreman, Anthony Dodd, her security guard Scott Gallin, Douglas Kratz (a director of video production for Virgin Records), stylist Christopher Maldonado, Keith Wallace and Gina Smith (both employees of the Blackground label).
According to findings from an inquest conducted by the coroners office in the Bahamas, Aaliyah suffered from "severe burns and a blow to the head," in addition to severe shock. The coroner theorized that, even if Aaliyah had survived the crash, her recovery would have been virtually impossible given the severity of her injuries. She died at 6:50 PM; ironically the same time of day she was born was also 6:50 PM.
Aaliyah's funeral was held on August 31, 2001 at Saint Ignatius Loyola Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan, New York City. She was interred at the Rosewood Mausoleum in Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.
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