Aaliyah

Actor / Singer
Date Of Birth:
16 January 1979
Date Of Death:
25 August 2001
airplane crash
Place Of Birth:
New York City, New York
Best Known As:
Pop singer and actress who sang "Try Again"

Name at birth: Aaliyah Haughton

Aaliyah was an actress and pop singer on the verge of superstardom when she was killed in a 2001 plane crash. Aaliyah sang professionally as a child and released her first album, Age Ain't Nothin' But A Number (1994), when she was 14. She released the album One in a Million in 1996, and by the end of the decade she was working in the movies as an actress and composer. She co-starred with Jet Li in Romeo Must Die (2000), and her song from the movie, "Try Again," was a hit single. At the time of her death she had released three albums and had agreed to appear in two more films: Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned (2001) and the sequel to the 1999 Keanu Reeves film The Matrix. Aaliyah was one of nine people who died when their twin-engine Cessna crashed on takeoff from Marsh Harbour on Abaco Island in the Bahamas; the group was returning to the U.S. after filming a music video. An investigation revealed the plane was overloaded by several hundred pounds, and an autopsy showed traces of cocaine and alcohol in the pilot’s bloodstream. Aaliyah’s parents later filed a wrongful death lawsuit and settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.
Extra Credit:

Aaliyah said her name means “highest, most exalted one” in Swahili… She was the niece of singer Gladys Knight, who married Aaliyah’s uncle Barry Hankerson… Aaliyah was discovered by hip-hop producer R. Kelly, who worked on Age Ain’t Nothin’ But A Number. The two were allegedly married in secret for a brief time in 1994, even though Aaliyah was underaged; Vibe magazine later published a marriage certificate for the two, but the parties involved have consistently refused to comment on whether the marriage took place.

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