Aaliyah was born on January 16, 1979 in Brooklyn, New York. Her birth name is Aaliyah Dana Haughton and she is the youngest child of Diane and Michael Haughton. When she was five years old, her family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she was raised along with her older brother, Rashad. She attended a Catholic school, Gesu Elementary, where she received a part in the stage play Annie in first grade and from that point on, she was determined to become an entertainer. Aaliyah’s uncle, Barry Hankerson, was an entertainment lawyer who was previously married to Gladys Knight. As a child, Aaliyah traveled with Gladys Knight and worked with an agent in New York to audition for commercials. At the age of nine she would go on to appear on the variety show Star Search. After Barry Hankerson signed a distribution deal with Jive Records, he signed Aaliyah to his Blackground Records label at the age of twelve. She released her debut album, Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number on June 14, 1994. The album peaked at number 18 on the Billboard 200 and sold two million copies in the United States. After her debut album, Aaliyah left Jive Records and signed to Atlantic Records. She then released her second album, One in a Million. It features the singles,"One in a Million", "Hot Like Fire", "The One I Gave My Heart To", "If Your Girl Only Knew", and "4 Page Letter" and has since sold over two million copies. In 2000, Aaliyah landed her first major movie role in Romeo Must Die. A loose adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. She then went back to the studio and released her third album Aaliyah on July 17, 2001. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and sold over 20,000 copies it’s first week. The album sold nearly 3 million copies in the United States, and 12 million copies worldwide to date. On August 25, 2001, at 6:45 PM (EST), Aaliyah and various members of her record company boarded a twin engine Cessna 402B at Abaco Island, Bahamas. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing Aaliyah and all members on board.
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