 Aaliyah was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 16th, 1979 as Aaliyah Dana Haughton. She was moved to Detroit when she was five years old. I think her first acting role was as an orphan when her elementary school performed the play, "Annie." she wasn't the main orphan. At 10 years old, she performed on Star Search, which was a very popular talent show at the time. She lost. When she was 11 years old, she performed with Gladys Knight. Aaliyah's uncle, Barry Hankerson, was Gladys' ex-husband. It was at age 12 that the things happened, which caused her music career to soar.
Aaliyah's debut album, Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, was released in the summer of 1994 and quickly became a platinum-selling hit on the strength of two smash singles, "Back & Forth" and "At Your Best (You Are Love)" (the latter an Isley Brothers cover). Both songs hit the pop Top Ten and went gold, and "Back & Forth" went all the way to number one on the R&B charts, while "At Your Best" fell one spot short. |