Music / Film & TV
Aaliyah
1979–2001 · singer, actress, dancer
Brooklyn-born R&B star raised in Detroit, who graduated from the city's performing-arts high school while already releasing hit albums.
- Born
Brooklyn, New York- Died
Marsh Harbour, Abaco Islands, Bahamas
aged 22- Birth name
- Aaliyah Dana Haughton
- Also known as
- Princess of R&B · Baby Girl
- Detroit years
- 1984–1997
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Aaliyah's family moved to Detroit when she was five, and her father went to work in the warehouse business of her uncle, the music manager Barry Hankerson. She attended Gesu, a Catholic elementary school in the University District, where she won a part in a first-grade production of Annie. At ten she appeared on the TV talent show Star Search and soon performed in concert alongside Gladys Knight. She auditioned for the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts by singing "Ave Maria" in Latin and majored in drama there. She kept up her studies while releasing Age Ain't Nothing but a Number (1994) and One in a Million (1996), and graduated in 1997 with a 4.0 grade-point average. After she died in a plane crash in the Bahamas in 2001, the school renamed its recital hall in her memory.
Highlights
- Debut album Age Ain't Nothing but a Number (1994) went double platinum
- "Try Again" was the first song to top the Hot 100 on airplay alone
- Graduated from Detroit's performing-arts high school in 1997 with a 4.0 GPA
- Starred in Romeo Must Die (2000) and Queen of the Damned (2002)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1980s
Gesu Catholic School
Catholic elementary school in the University District where she first acted on stage, in a first-grade Annie.
Studied here · 1993–1997
Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts (Wilbur Wright School building)
Demolished · 1929–2005
The arts high school met in the 1929 Wilbur Wright School building in Woodbridge when she studied drama here; the school moved out in 2005 and the old building was later demolished.
Memorial · 2001–
Detroit School of Arts
The successor school, in Midtown since 2005; after her death the school named its recital hall the Aaliyah Memorial Recital Hall.