Aaliyah’s music is coming to streaming. Here’s when you can listen to everything and why it’s taken 20 years for this to happen.
On Friday, August 20, 2021, Aaliyah ’s fans woke up to a wonderful new day: her album, One In A Million, was finally available on streaming platforms. Considering the impact that Aaliyah had during her short life – she sold millions of records, influenced style and fashion, and helped define R&B’s sound in the 1990s — her absence on these platforms was a glaring omission. Now, thanks to some efforts behind the scenes (and ahead of the twentieth anniversary of her tragic death), Aaliyah’s discography has been given new life, allowing a whole new generation of fans to fall in love with “The Princess of R&B.” For those unfamiliar with her, and unsure why her music is now suddenly available, here’s what you need to know. Born Aaliyah Dana Haughton on Jan.17,1979, in Brooklyn, New York. At age 5, her family relocated to Detroit, Michigan. From an early age, she found a love for music, performing in church choirs and at weddings. Aaliyah spent her youth traveling between New York and Detroit, thanks to her uncle, Barry Hankerson, an entertainment lawyer and music mogul credited with launching the careers of not just Aaliyah but R. Kelly, Ginuwine, Timbaland, and Missy Elliott, per Complex. Barry had also been married to Gladys Knight. Thanks to her uncle, she auditioned for commercials and television programs and eventually competed on Star Search in 1989 as a preteen. Though she didn’t win the competition, she continued to sing and landed a five-night stint performing with Gladys Knight in Las Vegas when she was just eleven years old. With Aliyah’s parents giving permission, Hankerson began to manage her and signed Aaliyah to a recording contract with Blackground Records, his label that had a distribution deal with Jive Records. Hankerson also served as an executive producer on all of her albums, including her 1994 debut, Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number. The album marked the first time that Aaliyah worked with R. Kelly, who wrote and produced most of the songs on the album. The working relationship turned romantic. R. Kelly was 27. Aaliyah was 14. The couple was secretly married on Aug.31,1994, but after Vibe published a story – including the alleged fraudulent marriage certificate that claimed Aaliyah was 18 – the marriage was annulled. Aaliyah denied the union, per Biography, and Hankerson, reportedly furious at the relationship, separated his niece from R. Kelly. Hankerson replaced him with emerging songwriting/production duo Timbaland and Missy Elliott for Aaliyah’s next album, One In A Million. The album went double platinum with radio hits “If Your Girl Only Knew” and the title track. Her third album, Aaliyah, arrived in July 2001. It went platinum twice, thanks to singles, “Rock The Boat” and “More Than A Woman.” Aaliyah’s music also appeared on some noteworthy soundtracks in the 1990s.
