Background

Ethnicity: She was African American, and had Native American (Oneida) heritage from a grandmother.

Aaliyah Dana Haughton was born on January 16, 1979, in Brooklyn, New York, and was the younger child of Diane and Michael "Miguel" Haughton (1951–2012).

Education

Aaliyah attended a Catholic school, Gesu Elementary, where in first grade, she received a part in the stage play Annie. From then on, she was determined to become an entertainer.

When she was growing up, Aaliyah attended Detroit schools and believed she was well-liked, but got teased for her short stature. She recalled coming into her own prior to age 15 and grew to love her height. Her mother would tell her to be happy that she was small and compliment her. Other children disliked Aaliyah, but she did not stay focused on them. "You always have to deal with people who are jealous, but there were so few it didn't even matter. The majority of kids supported me, which was wonderful. When it comes to dealing with negative people, I just let it in one ear and out the other. Those people were invisible to me." Even in her adult life, she considered herself small. She had "learned to accept and love" herself and added: "... the most important thing is to think highly of yourself because if you don't, no one else will".

During her audition for acceptance to the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts Aaliyah sung the song "Ave Maria" in its entirety in the Italian language.

Aaliyah, who maintained a perfect 4.0 grade point average when graduating from Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts, felt education was important. She saw fit to keep her grades up despite the pressures and time constraints brought on her during the early parts of her career. She labeled herself as a perfectionist and recalled always being a good student. Aaliyah reflected: "I always wanted to maintain that, even in high school when I first started to travel. I wanted to keep that 4.0. Being in the industry, you know, I don't want kids to think, 'I can just sing and forget about school.' I think it's very important to have an education, and even more important to have something to fall back on." She did this in her own life, as she planned to "fall back on" another part of the entertainment industry. She believed that if she could teach music history or open her own school to teach that or drama if she did not make a living as a recording artist because, as she reasoned, "when you pick a career it has to be something you love."

Career

The young singer competed unsuccessfully on the television program Star Search at age 11. Later that same year, she performed with R&B legend Gladys Knight, the former wife of her uncle and manager, Barry Hankerson, at a five-night stand in Las Vegas.

In 1994, at the age of 15, Aaliyah catapulted onto the R&B charts herself with her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing But a Number. Produced by the successful singer R. Kelly, the album quickly sold a million copies and eventually earned platinum status based largely on the success of two hit singles, "Back and Forth" and "At Your Best (You Are Love)." Later that year, tabloid reports surfaced claiming that the sultry teen singer had married the 27-year-old Kelly, but Aaliyah denied the union and the marriage was reportedly annulled.

While a student in the dance program at Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts (she graduated in 1997), Aaliyah released her sophomore album, One in a Million (1996). Helmed by the well-known pop producer Timbaland and featuring rap performer Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, One in a Million portrayed the 17-year-old singer as a sultry hip-hop chanteuse with a self-confidence well beyond her years. The album garnered favorable reviews and sold two million copies.

Aaliyah gained even more recognition in 1997 when she recorded "Journey to the Past," the Academy Award-nominated theme song to the animated feature Anastasia. She also performed the song for the Oscar telecast in 1998. Her next soundtrack effort, "Are You That Somebody?" for 1998's Dr. Dolittle, starring Eddie Murphy, went to No. 1 on the R&B charts, was a pop crossover hit, and earned Aaliyah her first Grammy Award nomination.

In 2000, Aaliyah made her acting debut in the surprise action hit Romeo Must Die, starring opposite martial arts star Jet Li in a Romeo and Juliet-inspired story set in modern-day Los Angeles. She was also an executive producer of the movie's soundtrack and performed the hit single "Try Again," which netted her a second Grammy nomination as well as two MTV Music Video Awards for Best Female Video and Best Video From a Film.

Her third album, Aaliyah, was released in July 2001 and reached No. 2 on the Billboard album chart. Also in 2001, she played the title role in Queen of the Damned, based on the bestselling novel by Anne Rice and released in theaters in 2002. She scored a major casting coup when she signed to appear in two upcoming sequels to the blockbuster sci-fi thriller The Matrix, starring Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne.

Tragically, Aaliyah was killed on August 25, 2001, when a small Cessna passenger plane carrying the singer and her video crew crashed and burst into flames shortly after takeoff from Abaco Island in the Bahamas, where they had just completed work on a video. The plane was headed for Miami, Florida. Aaliyah and seven other people, including the pilot, were believed to have died instantly, while a ninth passenger died later at a Bahamian hospital. Aaliyah was 22 years old at the time of her death. She is survived by her parents, Diane and Michael Haughton, and an older brother, Rashaad.

Achievements

• 

  Aaliyah has been credited for helping redefine R&B, pop and hip hop in the 1990s, "leaving an indelible imprint on the music industry as a whole." She was ranked in the VH1’s 2003 The Greatest series as one of the “Top 40 Women of the Video Era”.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Romeo Must Die 2000
  • Queen of the Damned 2002

• music

  • Age Ain't Nothing But a Number 1994
  • One in a Million 1996
  • Aaliyah 2001

Religion

Aaliyah was Roman Catholic: she attended a Catholic school growing up, went to church, and she credited God with giving her talent.

Politics

Aaliyah rarely talked about her political preferences. She performed at a White House Christmas celebration in 1998 for Bill and Hillary Clinton, and she had nice things to say about the President: "[I]t was really great to perform for [President Clinton] because he really loves music. And you can see the passion in his eyes as he’s watching you."

Views

Not that she didn’t spend plenty of time looking womanly and sexy, she just didn’t think her sexuality should define her as a performer: "I don’t wear things that are ridiculously short or low cut. I feel that your talent should do the talking not a revealing outfit."

Quotations: "I'm seventeen now so I've grown in a lot of ways, artistically and vocally."

"I was actually just blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful veterans and people that I had great chemistry with and that were just open to me."

"I love Eddie Murphy so I wanted to do a song on the soundtrack."

"Honestly, there were negative things that were said in the past and that was one reason that I did feel it was best for me to move on. That was a rough period for me and my family, a very tumultuous time. But I'm a very strong person. I think it says a lot about me that I'm here today and I answer the questions."

"I knew at a very young age this was what I wanted to do. I started singing at six so I knew by the time I was eight."

"I breathe to perform, to entertain, I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. I’m just a really happy girl right now. I honestly love every aspect of this business. I really do. I feel very fulfilled and complete."

"I’ve always been mysterious. My mother and father always used to ask me, "What are you thinking, what’s going on?" There are times when I don’t understand myself, you know what I mean?"

"I have a few childhood nicknames. One is "Babygirl". My father gave that to me when I was born. He said, "I have a beautiful baby girl" and that one stuck with me. A lot of people still call me "Babygirl."

Personality

Aaliyah had the vocal range of a soprano. With the release of her debut single "Back & Forth", Dimitri Ehrlich of Entertainment Weekly expressed that Aaliyah's "silky vocals are more agile than those of self-proclaimed queen of hip-hop soul Mary J. Blige."

Physical Characteristics: Aaliyah focused on her public image throughout her career. She often wore baggy clothes and sunglasses, stating that she wanted to be herself. She described her image as being "important ... to differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack". She often wore black clothing, starting a trend for similar fashion among women in United States and Japan. Aaliyah's fashionable style has been credited for being an influence on new fashion trends called "Health Goth" and "Ghetto Goth" also known as GHE20 GOTH1K.

She also was seen by others as a sex symbol. Aaliyah did not have a problem with being considered one. "I know that people think I'm sexy and I am looked at as that, and it is cool with me," she stated. "It's wonderful to have sex appeal. If you embrace it, it can be a very beautiful thing. I am totally cool with that. Definitely. I see myself as sexy. If you are comfortable with it, it can be very classy and it can be very appealing."

Quotes from others about the person

• Robert Christgau: "She was lithe and dulcet in a way that signified neither jailbait nor hottie - an ingenue whose selling point was sincerity, not innocence and the obverse it implies."
  
  Ciara: "She was true to who she was and she didn't seem to care about it. The core of her art to me is heavily, heavily urban based. When an artist's music is so urban based, sometimes people like to take risks with artists like that. When you think about it, it really is pop, it really is cultural and that's the one thing that I thought was cool about her music. It never felt like she was trying to reach across or do anything more than just keep that cool, soulful, heavy urban core about it. It wasn't like she was trying to be anything more than who she was. I really respect that and I appreciate that."
  
  Emil Wilbekin: "Aaliyah is an excellent role model, because she started her career in the public eye at age 15 with a gold album entitled Age Ain't Nothing but a Number. And then her second album, One in a Million went double platinum. She had the leading role in Romeo Must Die, which was a box office success. She's won numerous awards, several MTV music video awards, and aside from her professional successes, many of her lyrics are very inspirational and uplifting. She also carried herself in a very professional manner. She was well spoken. She was beautiful, but she didn't use her beauty to sell her music. She used her talent. Many young hip-hop fans greatly admire her."

Interests

• laser tag

• Writers

  J.K Rowling

• Music & Bands

  Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Sade, En Vogue, Nine Inch Nails, Korn, Prince, Naughty by Nature, Johnny Mathis, Janet Jackson, Barbara Streisand

Connections

Presumably, Aaliyah was illegally married to Robert Sylvester Kelly. At the time of her death, she was engaged to Damon Dash.

Father:

Michael "Miguel" Haughton

Mother:

Diane Haughton

parnter:

Robert Sylvester Kelly

With the release of Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, rumors circulated of a relationship between Aaliyah and R. Kelly. Shortly after, there was speculation about a secret marriage with the release of Age Ain't Nothing but a Number and the adult content that Kelly had written for Aaliyah. Vibe magazine later revealed a marriage certificate that listed the couple married on August 31, 1994, in Sheraton Gateway Suites in Rosemont, Illinois. Aaliyah, who was 15 at the time, was listed as 18 on the certificate; the illegal marriage was annulled in February 1995 by her parents. The pair continued to deny marriage allegations, stating that neither was married. One particular allegation among the rumor was that Aaliyah wedded Kelly without her parents' knowledge.

Aaliyah reportedly developed a friendship with Kelly during the recording of her debut album. As she recalled to Vibe magazine in 1994, she and Kelly would "go watch a movie" and "go eat" when she got tired and would then "come back and work". She described the relationship between her and Kelly as being "rather close." In 2016, Kelly said that he was in love with Aaliyah as he was with "anybody else." In December 1994, Aaliyah told the Sun-Times that whenever she was asked about being married to Kelly, she urged them not to believe "all that mess" and that she and Kelly were "close" and "people took it the wrong way." In his 2011 book The Man Behind the Man: Looking From the Inside Out, Demetrius Smith Sr., a former member of Kelly's entourage, wrote that Kelly told him "in a voice that sounded as if he wanted to burst into tears" that he thought Aaliyah was pregnant.

Partner:

Damon Dash

Aaliyah was dating co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records Damon Dash at the time of her death and, though they were not formally engaged, in interviews given after Aaliyah's death, Dash claimed the couple had planned to marry. Aaliyah and Dash met in 2000 through his accountant and formed a friendship. Dash has said he is unsure of how he and Aaliyah started dating and that the two just understood each other. "I don't know [how we got involved], just spending time, you know, we just saw things the same and it was new, you know what I mean? Meeting someone that is trying to do the same thing you are doing in the urban market, in the same urban market place but not really being so urban. It was just; her mind was where my mind was. She understood me and she got my jokes. She thought my jokes were funny."

Dash expressed his belief that Aaliyah was the "one" and claimed the pair were not officially engaged, but had spoken about getting married prior to her death. Aaliyah publicly never addressed the relationship between her and Dash as being anything but platonic. In May 2001, she hosted a party for Dash's 30th birthday at a New York City club, where they were spotted together and Dash was seen escorting her to a bathroom. Addressing this, Aaliyah stated that she and Dash were just "very good friends" and chose to "keep it at that" for the time being. Just two weeks before her death, Aaliyah traveled from New Jersey to East Hampton, New York to visit Dash at the summer house he shared with Jay Z.

The couple were separated for long periods at a time, as Dash recalled that Aaliyah continuously shot films and would be gone for months often to come back shortly and continue her schedule. Dash was also committed to "his own thing", which did not make matters any better. Despite this, they were understanding that the time they had together was special. Dash remembered they would "be in a room full of people talking to each other and it felt like everyone was listening but it would be just us. It would be like we were the only ones in the room". Dash always felt their time together was essential and Aaliyah was the person he was interested in being with, which is why, as he claimed, they had begun speaking about engagement. The relationship was mentioned in the lyrics of Jay-Z's remix to her song "Miss You", released after her death.

Friend:

Kidada Jones

References

• Aaliyah Dana Haughton: Amazing Biography