  Born January 16, 1979, in
Brooklyn, New York, Aaliyah (Haughton) now
makes Detroit her home. Aaliyah began her
performing at the young age of 11 when she
sang on-stage with Gladys Knight's troupe in Las Vegas.
Nicknamed, "Liyah," Aaliyah just
graduated from the Detroit High School for
the Fine and Performing Arts (June, '97).
With 2 hit LPs by the time she was 18 years
old, Aaliyah has already established herself
as an up-and-coming R&B force. After a
childhood of intermittent performances
including Star Search and TV pilots,
Aaliyah's uncle, Barry Hankerson (Gladys Knight's ex-husband)
introduced Aaliyah to a performer he was
managing, R.
Kelly. The meeting resulted in Kelly
producing (and writing most songs on)
Aaliyah's debut LP, Age
Ain't Nothing But A Number.
 # 15
Singles Artist of the Year
 Entertainment Weekly
said of Aaliyah: "...imagine En
Vogue packed into
one teenage body and backed by hip-hop
svengali R.
Kelly and you have Aaliyah..."
As Aaliyah's star began to rise,
rumors surfaced about a possible marriage
between 15 year-old Aaliyah and 25+ Kelly.
The rumor was never confirmed or denied.
The single "Back And Forth" was certified
gold.
Aaliyah hit the Top 40 with
"Back And Forth."
Aaliyah topped the Billboard
R&B Singles chart for 3 weeks and the
R&B Singles Sales chart for 5 weeks with
"Back And Forth."
 Age
Ain't Nothing But A Number was released
and gave Aaliyah 2 Top 5 pop hits: "Back And Forth" and "At Your Best (You Are
Love)."
R.
Kelly wrote all the songs on the LP
(except "At Your Best (You Are
Love)).
Aaliyah hit the Top 10 with "Back And Forth."
Aaliyah topped the Billboard
R&B Airplay chart for a week with "Back And Forth."
Age
Ain't Nothing But A Number was certified gold.
 Aaliyah hit the Top 40 with
"At Your Best (You Are
Love)."
Age
Ain't Nothing But A Number was certified
platinum.
Aaliyah hit the Top 10 with "At Your Best (You Are
Love)."
The single "At Your
Best" was certified gold.
Aaliyah was nominated for an American Music
Award for Favorite Soul/R&B New
Artist.
 Aaliyah appeared on the
soundtrack for Low
Down Dirty Shame with "The Thing I
Like."
 # 86
Singles Artist of the Year
Aaliyah could be heard on the
soundtrack for Sunset
Park with "Are You Ready."
 Aaliyah's alliance with Kelly
was not present on her 2nd LP released - One
In A Million. The LP gave Aaliyah another
Top 10 pop hit with "If Your Girl Only Knew" as well as the
hits "One In A Million" and "4 Page Letter." Another track
on the LP was a remake of Marvin Gaye's "Got To Give It
Up." Aaliyah extended her reputation for
sultry, street-wise sounds and videos. The
Source proclaimed: "...Aaliyah is
ready to showcase her mature side..."
 Aaliyah hit the Top 40 with
"If Your Girl Only Knew."
Aaliyah topped the Billboard Hot
R&B Singles chart for 2 weeks and the Hot
R&B Singles Sales chart for a week with
"If Your Girl Only Knew."
One
In A Million was certified gold.
Aaliyah hit the Top 10 with "If Your Girl Only Knew."
 # 20
Singles Artist of the Year
 Aaliyah hit the Top 40 with
"One In A Million."
"One In A Million" topped the
Billboard R&B Singles Airplay chart for 6
weeks.
One
In A Million was certified platinum.
One
In A Million was certified 2x platinum.
 Aaliyah hit the Top 40 with
"4 Page Letter."
A good start with getting into
movies came with Aaliyah's contribution to
the Anastasia soundtrack with the
track "Journey To The Past."
Aaliyah hit the Top 40 with
"The One I Gave My Heart
To."
 The single "The One I Gave My Heart
To"
was certified gold.
Aaliyah hit the Top 10 with "The One I Gave My Heart
To."
Aaliyah could be heard on Timbaland &
Magoo's LP Welcome
To Our World on the track "Man
Undercover."
 # 36
Singles Artist of the Year
 Aaliyah could be heard on the Dr.
Doolittle soundtrack with the Top 5 hit
"Are
You That Somebody?" (and seen in the film
with a cameo appearance).
As for her next LP, Aaliyah told
MTV: "I haven't really started anything
just yet... I do have some ideas... I'm gonna
keep them a secret... but definitely I will
be working with my family (including Missy
Elliott and Ginuwine)...
but as far as other ideas, I haven't really
decided a lot of things just yet."
Aaliyah was nominated for a Soul
Train Award for Best R&B/Soul Single,
Female ("One In A Million").
 Aaliyah hit the Top 40 with
"Are
You That Somebody?"
Aaliyah topped the Billboard
R&B Singles Airplay chart with "Are
You That Somebody?" for 8 weeks.
Aaliyah hit the Top
10
with "Are
You That Somebody?"
Aaliyah could be heard on Timbaland's LP Tim's
Bio: Life Fram Da Basement on the track
"John Blaze."
 Aaliyah was nominated for an American Music
Award for Favorite
Soul/R&B Female Artist.
Aaliyah was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal
Performance - Female ("Are
You That Somebody?").
 Aaliyah was nominated for a
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Music Video
(all for "Are
You That Somebody?").
Aaliyah was nominated for 2 Soul
Train Lady of Soul Awards for Best
R&B/Soul Song and Best R&B/Soul or
Rap Music Video ("Are
You That Somebody?").
 Aaliyah was nominated for 2 MTV Video Music
Awards for Best R&B Video and Best Video from a Film ("Are
You That Somebody?").
Aaliyah could be heard on the
soundtrack for Music
Of The Heart with "Turn The Page."
Aaliyah showed up on the
soundtrack for Next
Friday with "I Don't Wanna."
 # 34
Singles Artist of the Year
 New material by Aaliyah could be
found on the soundtrack for Romeo
Must Die including a track with DMX, "Come Back In
One Piece" and the tracks "Try
Again"
and "Are You Feelin' Me?" Aaliyah
also starred in the film. She also talked
with MTV about the movie and her next LP:
"I had to stop the album to do the movie
and then stop it again to do the
soundtrack."
Aaliyah hit the Top 40 with
"Try
Again."
 The Romeo
Must Die soundtrack was certified
platinum.
Aaliyah hit the Top
10
with "Try
Again"
which also hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100
for a week (the first song without a
commercial single release to ever do so).
Aaliyah was nominated for 2 Soul
Train Lady of Soul Awards for Best
R&B/Soul Single - Solo and Best
R&B/Soul or Rap Music Video ("Try
Again").
 Aaliyah took home 2 MTV Video Music
Awards for Best Female Video and Best Video from a Film ("Try
Again")
and the video was also nominated for Best Choreography (Fatima Robinson). The
video was also nominated for 2 Billboard
Music Video Awards for Maximum Vision Video
and Best R&B Clip of the Year.
 # 110
Singles Artist of the Year
Aaliyah was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal
Performance - Female ("Try
Again").
 Aaliyah released Aaliyah. Aaliyah said
of her new LP to Billboard:
"There is always a bit of pressure to do
a good album... to do good work, period. I
really put a lot of pressure on myself, more
so than other people. But I try not to let
that overwhelm me to the point where I can't
even do good work. I just put it aside and do
the best that I know I can."
Aaliyah hit the Top 40 with
"We Need A Resolution."
 Tragedy struck on August 25th,
when Aaliyah and 8 others were killed when
their plane crashed in the Bahamas shortly
after take off on route toward Miami. Aaliyah
had just finished shooting a new music video
for the single "Rock The Boat" and was
returning to Florida. Reports about the plane
crash cause vary from engine failure to the
plane being overloaded with baggage. Aaliyah
had been set to start filming her role in the
sequel to The Matrix. Aaliyah did
finish her work with the film Queen
Of The Damned which was released in 2002.
Aaliyah had also planned to work on a remake
of the film Sparkle which was to be
produced by Whitney
Houston.
Aaliyah was certified
platinum.
Aaliyah was nominated
for a Soul Train Lady of Soul Award for Best
R&B/Soul or Rap Song of the Year ("Try
Again").
 Remembrances: Gladys Knight: "...Her star had
just begun to shine so brightly. Though she
was ours for only a short time, what a time
it was. I love Aaliyah, and I will miss her
for the rest of my life." "Quincy Jones: "She was like
one of my daughters, she was one of the
sweetest girls in the world." Timbaland: "She was like
blood, and I lost blood." DMX: "(she was a)...
down-to-earth sister with enough energy to
put anyone on a cloud." Puff
Daddy: "She was one of those
individuals that would light up a room. She
always greeted you with a smile."
 Aaliyah, topped the Billboard
200 Albums chart for a week - selling over
300,000 copies in the US during the week
after her death.
"Rock The Boat" hit the Top 40.
Aaliyah was certified 2x
platinum.
Aaliyah could be heard on Timbaland &
Magoo's LP Indecent
Proposal on the track "I Am
Music."
Aaliyah's brother, Rashad,
helped with the finished product of Aaliyah's
film Queen
Of The Damned by adding dialogue touch-ups.
Critics in Rolling
Stone voted Aaliyah as Best R&B
Artist of the Year.
 # 47
Singles Artist of the Year
 Aaliyah was
awarded 2 American Music
Awards for Favorite
Soul/R&B Female Artist and Favorite
Soul/R&B Album.
Aaliyah topped
the UK Singles chart for a week with "More Than A Woman."
Aaliyah was
nominated for 2 Grammy Awards for Best R&B Vocal
Performance - Female ("Rock The Boat") and Best R&B Album (Aaliyah).
Aaliyah's film Queen
Of The Damned was released and was the #1
movie in its opening week.
 Aaliyah hit the Top 40 with
"More Than A Woman."
Aaliyah won a Soul Train Award
for Female R&B/Soul Single ("Rock The Boat").
Aaliyah's parents filed a
lawsuit against Virgin Records and Blackhawk
International Airways accusing them of
negligence and contributing to the death of
their daughter.
 Reports serviced that cocaine
and alcohol were found in the system of the
pilot flying that plane that crashed with
Aaliyah. The pilot had also been sentenced to
probation for 3 years for possession of crack
cocaine only 2 weeks before the flight.
Aaliyah's "Rock The Boat" won the Best
R&B/Soul Single, Solo award and
R&B/Soul or Rap Song of the Year at the
Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards.
Aaliyah's video for "Rock The Boat" was nominated
for a MTV Video Music
Award for Best R&B Video.
Aaliyah ranked
# 36 on VH1: 100
Sexiest Artists.
Aaliyah hit the
Top 40 with "I Care 4 U."
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