Aaliyah Dana Haughton Biography

Aaliyah Dana Haughton (January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001), who performed under the mononym Aaliyah (pronounced /əˈliːə/) was an American R&B and pop singer and actress. 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. She found success with her debut album Age Ain't Nothing But a Number, while introducing a "street but sweet" style which would become her trademark throughout her career followed by two more albums, One In a Million and the eponymous Aaliyah.

In addition to Aaliyah's commercial success, collaborations with Timbaland helped shape the sound of R&B in the later half of the 1990s. She also modeled for Tommy Hilfiger, appeared in a Victoria Secret ad and starred in three motion pictures, Romeo Must Die, Queen of the Damned and Matrix Reloaded, before she and eight others died in a plane crash in the Bahamas on August 25, 2001 after filming the music video for the single "Rock The Boat". Since then, Aaliyah has achieved commercial success with the singles "Miss You" and "I Care 4 U". She has had more than 10 Top 25 singles and has also topped the Billboard Hot 100 with "Try Again", becoming the first song in history to hit number one based on airplay alone.

Biography

Early life and career

Aaliyah Dana Haughton was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, New York to Michael and Diane Haughton. Her maternal grandmother, Mintis L. Hicks Hankerson, gave her the middle name Dana. Her first name, Aaliyah means "Highest, Most Exalted, The Best" in Arabic. She was of predominately African-American descent. Aaliyah was raised as a Roman Catholic with her older brother Rashad Haughton. Diane Haughton, Aaliyah's mother, was also a vocalist and encouraging of her daughter's career and has been cited as the biggest influence and inspiration to Aaliyah.

At age 5, Aaliyah and her family moved to Detroit, Michigan. At age 6 she appeared in the stage play Annie and in 1989, she appeared on the TV talent show Star Search at age 10, singing her mother's favorite song, "My Funny Valentine". Although she did not win, she continued to perfect her skills. Aaliyah traveled with Gladys Knight, and worked with an agent in New York and auditioned for TV shows, including Family Matters.

Aaliyah attended the Detroit School of Arts and graduated in 1997 with a 4.0 GPA.

1993-1995: Age Ain't Nothing But A Number

After signing with her uncle Barry Hankerson's Blackground Records label in 1993 at the age of 14, Haughton was putting the final touches on her debut album with rapper and producer R. Kelly, when she was 15. Kelly became Aaliyah's mentor and was a leading songwriter and producer on her debut album, which went platinum within months. As the newcomer's first outing, the first single "Back and Forth" reached gold status. The song subsequently scored Aaliyah her first number-one hit on Billboard’s Hot R&B Singles chart, where it remained three weeks atop. The second single "At Your Best (You Are Love) was a big booster in sales of Aaliyah's album reaching number two on Billboard’s Hot R&B Singles chart". Her debut album Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, a collection of hip hop soul-oriented jazz tunes, reached number 18 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and number 3 on the Top R&B Albums chart. It eventually sold more than two million copies domestically, and although the album's success was limited elsewhere, it produced also the album title-track "Age Ain't Nothing but a Number".

The singer continued to soar the following two years, teaming up with Kelly again for the A Low Down Dirty Shame, "The Thing I Like" was released overseas. While not her biggest hit, the single did peak at number 33 on the UK chart.

1996-1999: One In A Million

In 1996, Aaliyah found a new hometeam which included rapper and producer Tim "Timbaland" Mosley and Missy Elliott. The upcoming producers contribute to Haughton's second album when she was 17 years old, One in a Million, which was released on August 27, 1996 internationally. Elliott and Mosley co-wrote and produced majority of the album which yielded her second number-one song on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, "If Your Girl Only Knew,". The single spent two weeks on top of the Billboard charts, and eventually garnered the pair a World Music Award for "World's Best Selling Female R&B Artist".

The album was a landmark in Aaliyah's career, garnering her mass critical acclaim and introducing the singer more mature side. It embarked on the newfound chemistry of Aaliyah and Timbaland. The album's success was equally widespread, and following extensive airplay of the single overseas, the label released it globally following it success. One In A Million eventually became Aaliyah’s biggest album, with certified double-platinum within a year selling over two million copies in the U.S. alone.

Hilfiger gave Aaliyah her first endorsement deal. The singler was signed onto print campaigns, runway shows, and a commercial. During this period, Aaliyah would also make guest appearances on albums by artists such as Missy Elliott, Timbaland & Magoo, Ginuwine and Playa. Timbaland and Playa's frontman Static Major remained Aaliyah's principal collaborators for the duration of her career. To date, One in a Million has sold over 2 million copies in the U.S. and over 11 million worldwide to date.

2000-2002: Aaliyah

"We Need a Resolution", the first single from Aaliyah's highly-anticipated junior studio album, was released in April 2001. The self-titled Aaliyah was released four months later on July 17, 2001. The album was a critical success, introducing a darker and edgier side to Aaliyah's music, and was noted as having showcased her growth as an artist. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, selling nearly 200,000 copies in its first week, was certified gold within four weeks and platinum in six weeks. In the Summer 2001, Aaliyah filmed the video for Aaliyah's intended second single, "More Than a Woman". After the video was completed, another song started to receive heavy reviews and airplay; then became finalized and decided that "Rock The Boat" should be the second single instead, and the "More Than a Woman" video was temporarily shelved and confimed the third single. Most of its tracks were written by Steve "Static Major" Garrett, with Missy Elliott contributing the album's fourth single, "I Care 4 U".

Film, television and soundtracks

Early in her career, she appeared as herself on a 1994 episode of the gritty cop drama New York Undercover. She appeared on the Nickelodeon original series All That performing "Age Ain't Nothing But a Number" in 1995. She then returned again in 1997 to perform her hit "One in a Million".

She also garnered much success from her songs being featured on movie soundtracks. In 1997, Aaliyah appeared on the soundtrack album for the Fox Animation Studios animated feature Anastasia, singing the pop version of "Journey to the Past". The song was nominated for an Academy Award, and Aaliyah performed the song at the 1998 Academy Awards ceremony, becoming the youngest singer to perform at the ceremony. On The Anastasia DVD, Aaliyah is featured as a Host in the special features.

In 2000, Aaliyah landed her first major movie role in Romeo Must Die, which was a smash debuting at number one at the box office. A loose adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Aaliyah starred opposite martial artist Jet Li, playing a couple who fall in love amid their warring families. In addition to acting, Aaliyah and Timbaland executive produced the film's soundtrack album and she contributed four songs: "Are You Feelin' Me?", "I Don't Wanna", "Come Back in One Piece," a duet with DMX which landed at #10 on "BET: Notarized" Top 100 videos of 2000, and the international number one hit "Try Again."

Aaliyah made history when "Try Again" became the first song to ever reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 based solely on the strength of its radio airplay, without any single sales factored in. After the huge success of "Try Again" on radio, a 12" maxi single was released for consumer purchase. "Try Again" landed at #7 on "BET: Notarized" Top 100 Videos of 2000. The radio-only single, "I Don't Wanna", (which was also featured on the soundtrack for the film Next Friday) peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles & Tracks chart. In 2001, Aaliyah went to Australia to co-star with Stuart Townsend in the classic vampire film Queen of the Damned, an adaptation of the Anne Rice novel of the same name.

Looking ahead, Aaliyah had a supporting role in the two sequels to The Matrix as Zee, the wife of Harold Perrineau Jr.'s character, Link. The directors initially tried to find a way to incorporate her footage into the movies but decided against it due to lack of material available. The role was recast with Nona Gaye playing the role. In 2004, The Matrix was released to DVD, tributes and footage of Aaliyah were found inside the special features. She was once supposed to work with musician Trent Reznor but their schedules (Post production of Aaliyah's sophomore movie Queen Of The Damned and Nine Inch Nails' The Fragility Tour) conflicted with each other and the collaboration never scheduled.

Other films in which Aaliyah was signed to appear were Honey (which was recasted to Jessica Alba), a role in the movie State Property 2 (which was recasted to Mariah Carey) and a Whitney Houston-produced remake of the 1976 film Sparkle which was later announced cancelled as well as Some Kind of Blue which was cancelled as well due to Aaliyah's death. Aaliyah was also offered a role in Ice Cube's film Next Friday but due to a busy schedule and promotion of her debut film Romeo Must Die, she could not commit to the role and was later scrapped.

Death

On August 25, 2001, at 6:45 pm (EST), just after finishing filming of the music video to "Rock the Boat", 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 since the video wrapped early, Aaliyah and her entourage were eager to return to the US. Aaliyah's entourage was in a rush to get back to New York so they demanded that their heavy equipment from the shoot be on the plane rather than leave it behind which resulted in the aircraft being well beyond the standard weight and balance tolerance provided by Cessna.

The plane crashed shortly after takeoff about 200 feet (60 m) from the runway. Aaliyah, pilot Luis Morales III and the seven other passengers, including her hair stylist Eric Forman, 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) died.

According to findings from an inquest conducted by the coroner's 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.

Aaliyah's funeral was held on August 31, 2001 at Saint Ignatius Loyola Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan, New York City.

The NTSB report stated "The airplane was seen lifting off the runway, and then nose down, impacting in a marsh on the south side of the departure end of runway 27."

It also indicated that the pilot, Luis Morales III, was not approved to pilot the plane he was attempting to fly. Morales falsely obtained his FAA license by showing hundreds of hours never flown, and he may also have falsified how many hours he had flown in order to get a job with his employer, Blackhawk International Airways. Additionally, an autopsy performed on Morales revealed traces of cocaine and alcohol in his blood.

Further investigations determined the plane was over its total gross weight by several hundred pounds. Eddie Golson, president of Pro Freight Cargo Services at Opa-locka Airport, said workers carted "a pickup truck of freight" from the crash site. Two of the passengers weighed in the region of 300 pounds and sat in the rear of the plane, where the baggage was also stored.

The NTSB report stated that "the total gross weight of the airplane was substantially exceeded." In addition, with heavy passengers and cargo in the back, the center of gravity was pushed too far aft. This caused an uncontrollable nose-up attitude, leading to a stall.

The day of the crash was Morales' first official day with Blackhawk International Airways, an FAA Part 135 single-pilot operation. In addition, Luis Morales III was not registered with the FAA to fly for Blackhawk. As a result of the accident, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Aaliyah’s parents and was later settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

Barry & Sons, Inc., a corporation formed in 1992 to develop, promote and capitalize on the musical talents of Aaliyah and to oversee the production and distribution of her records, tapes and music videos, brought an unsuccessful lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York against Instinct Productions LLC, (a company hired by Barry & Sons, Inc. in August 2001 to produce the "Rock the Boat" music video). The case was dismissed since New York State's wrongful death statute only permits certain people to recover damages for wrongful death.

Aaliyah Dana Haughton Pictures ( 16 Pictures)