Aaliyah

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Aaliyah Dana Haughton  January 16 1979 August 25 2001 who performed under the mononym Aaliyah was an American recording artist actress and model She was born in Brooklyn New York and was raised in Detroit Michigan At an early age she appeared on the television show Star Search and performed in concert alongside Gladys Knight At age 12 Aaliyah signed with Jive Records and her uncle Barry Hankersons Blackground Records Hankerson introduced her to R Kelly who became her mentor as well as lead songwriter and producer of her debut album Age Aint Nothing but a Number The album sold three million copies in the United States and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America RIAA After facing allegations of an illegal marriage with Kelly Aaliyah ended her contract with Jive and signed with Atlantic Records Aaliyah worked with record producers Timbaland and Missy Elliott for her second album One in a Million it sold 37 million copies in the United States and over eight million copies worldwide In 2000 Aaliyah appeared in her first major film Romeo Must Die She contributed to the films soundtrack which spawned the single Try Again The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 solely on airplay making Aaliyah the first artist in Billboard history to achieve this feat Try Again earned Aaliyah a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female RampB Vocalist After completing Romeo Must Die Aaliyah filmed her part in Queen of the Damned She released her third and final album Aaliyah in July 2001 On August 25 2001 Aaliyah and eight others were killed in an airplane crash in The Bahamas after filming the music video for the single Rock the Boat The pilot Luis Morales III was unlicensed at the time of the accident and had traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system Aaliyahs family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Blackhawk International Airways which was settled out of court Since then Aaliyahs music has continued to achieve commercial success with several posthumous releases Aaliyah recorded several number one RampB hits and five top ten Billboard Hot 100 singles She has been credited for helping redefine RampB and hip hop earning her the nickname Princess of RampB She is listed by Billboard as the tenth most successful female RampB artist of the past 25 years and 27th most successful RampB artist overall Description above from the Wikipedia article Aaliyah licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia