Aaliyah Dana Haughton † (January 16, 1979 - August 25, 2001 [aged 22])[1] was an American musician, songwriter, dancer, model and actress. She is considered the "Princess of R&B" and "Queen of Urban Pop".
Channel[]
The Aaliyah Youtube channel was made after her death. Her team members created this channel to upload the albums she had released when she was alive. Many fans who missed her came to this channel to listen to her music again.
Personal Life[]
Aaliyah was born in January 16, 1979, in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, the younger child of Diane and Michael "Miguel" Haughton, a warehouse worker. She signed with Atlantic Records in 1996. She worked with Timbaland and Missy Elliott on her second album, One in a Million. This album made Aaliyah a huge star and is a defining moment in Aaliyah's career ,after continued success with her sophomore album, Aaliyah stepped away from public life to focus on graduating from high school. Aaliyah then worked toward starting her film career, making her debut in 2000's Romeo Must Die.
She was of African-American descent. Her name is the feminine form of the Arabic "Ali", meaning "highest, most exalted one, the best." Aaliyah was fond of her name, calling it "beautiful" and saying she was "very proud of it" and strove to live up to her name every day. When she was five years old, her family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she was raised along with her older brother, Rashad. In Detroit, her father began working in the warehouse business, one of his brother-in-law Barry Hankerson's widening interests. Her mother stayed home and raised she and her brother. Her mother enrolled her in voice lessons at an early age. Eventually, she started performing at weddings, church choir, and charity events. Aaliyah attended a Catholic school, Gesu Elementary, where in first grade she was cast in the stage play Annie which inspired her to become an entertainer.[2]
Death[]
On August 25, 2001, Aaliyah was aboard a Cessna 402 with other members at the Marsh Harbour Airport in Abaco Islands, Bahamas.[3] She and her crew were set to travel to the Opa-Locka Airport in Florida, after they completed filming a music video for "Rock the Boat".
They had a flight scheduled for the following day, but with filming finishing early, Aaliyah and her crew were eager to return to the U.S. and made the decision to leave immediately. Just as the plane was about to take off, it crashed and caught fire after running 200 feet on the runway.
Aaliyah was one of nine total individuals on board to die during the impact. She was 22 years old. The passengers were growing impatient after the Cessna was supposed to arrive at 4:30 P.M. EST, but did not arrive until nearly two hours later. Charter pilot Lewis Key claimed to have overheard passengers arguing with the pilot, giving warnings that there was too much weight for a safe flight.
An investigation to Aaliyah revealed that she had suffered severe burns, traumatic shock, and a weakened heart. The coroner theorized that she went into such a state of shock that even if she had survived the crash, her recovery would have been nearly impossible depending on the severity of her injuries. The other bodies were taken to the morgue at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau, Florida, where they were kept for relatives to help identify them. Some of the bodies were badly burned in the crash as well.
For the Cessna, the aircraft was overloaded by 700 pounds when it tried to take off, and was carrying one more passenger than it was certified for. Further investigations revealed that the pilot was not approved to fly the plane. The pilot falsely obtained his FAA license by showing hundreds of hours never flown, and that it may also have falsified how many hours it had flown in order to get a job with Blackhawk International Airways. In addition, a toxicology report indicated that the pilot had significant traces of cocaine and alcohol in their system.
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