Full Name: Aaliyah Haughton, Aaliyah is Swahili for "highest, most exalted one" Born: January 16, 1979. Location: Detroit, she moved there when she was 5 years old.She was born in Brooklyn.
She's true to style. Ever since defining the look and sound of street-but-sweet over two years ago, Aaliyah has personified originality with her enigmatic, smooth vocal delivery, sophisticated musical sensibilities, and a masterful sense of independence. The New York-born singer's 1994 debut album, "AGE AIN'T NOTHING BUT A NUMBER," went platinum and spawned a pair of gold singles: "Back & Forth" and "At Your Best (You Are Love)". "I still remember how nervous I was right before 'Back & Forth' came out," says the charismatic vocalist, who recorded her debut album at age fourteen. "It was my first single, and I kept wondering if people would accept it. When it went gold, I had my answer, and it was just such an incredibly satisfying feeling." She spent much of a whirlwind '94-'95 on the road, with tours that took her across Europe, Japan, and as far as South Africa.
The release of "ONE IN A MILLION," her second album (and her first for Atlantic), comes just as Aaliyah begins her senior year as a student at Detroit's Performing Arts High School. "School is a big priority for me," says the dance major. "My principal hasreally been there to help me keep my goals as a student in hand as I work to grow as an artist."
Aaliyah began performing at a young age, and by the time she was eleven, she was singing on stage in Las Vegas for a five-night stand with Gladys Knight's troupe. From there, the dedicated singer would emerge from a non-stop vocal training regimen with a sound and vision completely her own. "It came out of nowhere, yet it felt totally natural," recalls Aaliyah. "I was tripped out. As that first album was coming to a finish, I waslistening back to the tracks thinking, 'Wow, that's really me. This is how I am and how Isound.'"
RELEASE TITLE: One In A Million RELEASE BLURB: On Aaliyah's new album, "ONE IN A MILLION," the now seventeen-year-old artist steps out into "the new world of funk," delivering a fresh set of soulful romantic ballads and dope up-tempo tracks. She offers a solid nod to hip-hop inspiration in duet fashion, with the help of mic rockers Treach on "A Girl Like You" and Slick Rick on a playfully bad house party take on Marvin Gaye's "Got To Give It Up."
