While still only nine years old, she appeared on the national television talent show, Star Search. Interviewed by Details magazine, Aaliyah recalled her TV debut: "It was really, really cute. I sang 'My Funny Valentine,' and I had on a white dress my grandmother made with a little bolero jacket, and special curls in my hair." Unfortunately, Aaliyah didn't win first place, but she gained much-needed experience working in front of a large audience. That experience came in handy a couple of years later when she was signed to perform for a week in Las Vegas with Gladys Knight. Although in the end it was Aaliyah's talent that won her the job with Knight, it didn't hurt that her uncle, Barry Hankerson, who was also her manager at that stage in her career, was Knight's ex-husband. During the week she performed with Knight, Aaliyah sang a solo midway through the show and closed the show in a duet with Knight on "Believe in Yourself."
At the age of 14, Aaliyah signed her first record contract when Hankerson founded his own recording company, Blackground Enterprises. She was the first act to sign with the Blackground label. At about the same time, her uncle introduced Aaliyah to R&B singer/songwriter R. Kelly, who was also managed by Hankerson's Midwest Entertainment Group. Kelly, impressed with Aaliyah's vocal ability, signed on to produce her debut album. Of her first meeting with Kelly, Aaliyah told Vibe : "He came to my house, and I sang for him, and from there we went into the studio." Her debut album, entitled Age Ain't Nothing But a Number, was released in 1994 and eventually went double platinum. Aaliyah was overjoyed at the success of her first recording venture but less pleased at widespread rumors that she and Kelly were secretly married. She consistently denied that she was married to Kelly, but the rumors persisted. Documents were revealed years later that confirmed the couple married when Aaliyah was 15 and had the marriage annulled shortly thereafter. Not surprisingly, the gossip helped to call attention to Aaliyah's debut recording and in the end gave sales an extra lift. "Back and Forth," the first single released from the album, spent three weeks at number one on the R&B charts, while her second single, "At Your Best (You Are Love)," managed to climb its way to number two.
In support of her first album, Aaliyah spent nearly a year touring in the United States as well as several foreign countries, including Japan, South Africa, and most of Western Europe. In the wake of her debut album's success, she received a number of movie soundtrack and video contracts, including Low Down Dirty Shame in 1995 and All That and Sunset Park in 1996. What was perhaps most amazing was teenaged Aaliyah's ability to juggle her new-found success, concert appearances all over the globe, and interviews while still maintaining a 3.8 grade point average at Detroit's High School for Fine and Performing Arts. Her mother, a school teacher herself, insisted that a tutor accompany Aaliyah whenever she traveled away from Detroit or was otherwise unable to attend school.
