In Swahili, the language of East Africa, the name Aaliyah means "highest, most exalted one." Most parents might shy away from burdening their newborn with such a tough name to live up to, but it seems that Michael and Diane Haughton knew from the start that their baby daughter had the makings of a real star. While still a sophomore atDetroit's High School for Fine and Performing Arts, Aaliyah Haughton, known professionally by her first name alone, released her debut album, which created a minor sensation in the recording industry and in time went double-platinum. Her second album quickly went platinum as well, and she later broadened her horizons, adding acting to her resume. Aaliyah's star was burning bright when her life was unexpectedly cut short: Aaliyah and eight others died in a plane crash on August 25, 2001, while returning from a video shoot in the Bahamas.
Born on January 16, 1979, in Brooklyn, New York's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Aaliyah Dani Haughton seemed somehow preordained to get into music. She was practically weaned on rhythm and blues and soul, because the Haughton household was almost always filled with music from her mother's extensive collection of recordings. Aaliyah, showing early signs of a talent that would later blossom into a professional career, just couldn't resist singing along to the records of the Isley Brothers, Whitney Houston, and Marvin Gaye.
When Aaliyah was five years old, the Haughton family left Brooklyn behind and moved to a new home in Detroit. It was in the Motor City that Michael and Diane Haughton, impressed by their daughter's raw musical talent, decided to enroll her in vocal classes. When she wasn't learning singing in the classroom, Aaliyah was singing up a storm wherever possible, including school plays and the church choir. Around the age of nine, she began making the rounds, auditioning regularly for television productions and record companies. But the auditions were her idea, she told Vibe, not her parents's. "I pushed them. I would talk to my mother every day. After school I'd go to her job and be, like, 'Ma, did anybody call me? Anybody call about signing me?' I was into it." It was at about this time that her mother encouraged her to drop her surname and go with just Aaliyah as her stage name