She was born Aaliyah Haughton (Aaliyah, which is pronounced Ah-LEE-yah, means "exalted one" in Swahili) in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised in Detroit. She sang at her church, performed in school plays and earned straight A's as a dance major at the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts.
Recognizing her vocal ability, Aaliyah's mother enrolled her daughter in voice lessons and sought advice from Aaliyah's uncle, Barry Hankerson, an artistic management company executive and ex-husband of legendary Gladys Knight.
Aaliyah began singing professionally at the age of 9, auditioning for television pilots and record companies. At 11, she performed with the Gladys Knight troupe in Las Vegas.

U.S. singer and actress Aaliyah, whose 1994 solo debut album, "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number," sold more than a million copies and catapulted her to fame, was killed in a plane crash Aug. 25 on an island in the Bahamas. She was 22.
Eight others aboard the twin-engine Cessna, all U.S. citizens, were killed when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff at Marsh Harbour International Airport, on the island of Abaco, authorities said. There were no survivors, and the cause of the crash remains under investigation, said Sgt. Ernest Rahming, of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
Aaliyah, a New York resident, had been on the islands, which are about 170 miles east of south Florida, filming a music video and was bound for an airport in Opa-Locka, Fla., Rahming said.

In addition, Morales entered a plea of no contest to crack cocaine possession and three other felonies only 12 days before the accident, according to the Miami Herald. Under FAA guidelines, he had 60 days to report the plea to aviation officials who could have revoked his license

As the ongoing investigation promises to turn up more facts about the tragic incident, many of the recording industry biggest stars have publicly expressed their grief. Recently LAUNCH spoke with rapper Ludacris about Aaliyah's untimely demise. "Man, I'm one of those people where I heard it, and I'm still hearing it, and reality still has not set into me that she's gone, man," he said. "I just seen her like a week before she passed and I mean it was devastating to me. I just know she's such a good person. I mean who deserves something like that? Nobody deserves anything like that, but it really just makes you think about your life and like I was saying sometimes you just gotta live life like every day might be your last one 'cause you never know when you gonna go."

Veteran Bahamian charter pilot Lewis Key told The Post he overheard a heated argument between the pilot and Aaliyah's video crew about the weight of the equipment loading the plane down. "He tried to convince them the plane was overloaded, but they insisted they had chartered the plane and they had to be in Miami Saturday night," Key said. Aaliyah was in the Bahamian Abaco Islands finishing a music video.

Another possible cause of the tragedy, Keys said, could have been engine failure. Several people who witnessed the crash said the plane lost an engine on takeoff.