Aaliyah
American rhythm and blues singer and actress born Jan. 16, 1979, Brooklyn, N.Y.
died Aug. 25, 2001, Abaco Islands, The Bahamas
, was considered on the verge of superstardom after the success of her first two albums—Age Ain't Nothing but a Number (1994), with its hit singles “Back and Forth” and “At Your Best (You Are Love),” and One in a Million (1996)—and her Grammy nominations for her singles “Are You That Somebody?” (1998) and “Try Again” (2000), as well as her starring role in the movie Romeo Must Die (2000); she recently had released a third album, Aaliyah, had finished work on the film Queen of the Damned, and was beginning two sequels to the movie The Matrix (1999) when she was killed in a plane crash as she was leaving The Bahamas after filming a music video.
