Aaliyah
Aaliyah was born on this date in 1979. She was a Black singer and actress.
She was born Aaliyah Haughton in Brooklyn with Native American, Oneida heritage from a grandmother. She moved to Detroit when she was a young girl. Aaliyah began performing at a young age, and by the time she was eleven, she was singing on stage in Las Vegas for a five-night stand with Gladys Knight's troupe. In 1994, she recorded her debut album "Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number" at age fourteen. It went platinum and spawned a pair of gold singles: "Back & Forth" and "At Your Best (You Are Love)."
Aaliyah embodied originality with her mysterious, smooth vocal delivery, sophisticated musical sensibilities, and a masterful sense of independence. She released "One in a Million" as she began her senior year as a student at Detroit's Performing Arts High School. Her song “Try Again" earned her a Grammy nomination for best female R&B vocalist. She made her feature-acting debut in the film "Romeo Must Die." She also had signed on to appear in two sequels to the high-tech thriller "The Matrix."
Unfortunately, Aaliyah, at age 22, died on August 25, 2001, when a small plane that was to carry her and eight others back to the United States crashed after takeoff in the Bahamas. She was to begin shooting the video for “Rock The Boat" in Miami, according to her Web site. It was not clear whether she filmed that video while in the Bahamas.
