Aaliyah Dana Houghton
By Joshua Moore
Special to the AFRO
Aaliyah Dana Houghton was born Jan. 16, 1979, in Brooklyn, N.Y. It has been 20 years, as of Aug. 25, since Aaliyah tragically died in a plane crash alongside the eight others in her music group. She was 22.
Her posthumous album “One in a Million” is currently in the top 10 on the Rolling Stone’s Top 200 albums chart at # 8. In the days leading up to the anniversary of her death, the album has seen approximately 7.7 million album streams in the U.S. Additionally, it has seen about 6,700 digital sales, the second biggest album of the week so far.
To top it all off, the title song “One in a Million” is the fourth biggest song on the top 100 songs chart this week just by digital sales.
Many fans and music lovers are left to wonder what the R&B singer could have been if not for her untimely death. She was destined for stardom at a young age. In 2000, her song, “Try Again” won best female video at the MTV video awards.
Fans of her music like to reminisce of how impactful she was, how relatable her music was and their top favorite songs.
Jabrael Ferguson, 23, from Baltimore, Md., said that Aaliyah had a soothing voice. He said that she was mostly speaking about love in her music. While he wasn’t her biggest, he acknowledged the impact that Aaliyah had on music in general. “I think ‘One in a Million” is my favorite song,” Ferguson said. “I like her songs because I like her voice.”
Ryan Murphy, 21, is a senior Multimedia Journalism major at Morgan State University who believes that if Aaliyah was still alive, she’d be more like a Rihanna figure in the music space. He said that Rihanna keeps to herself for the most part, and he believes that Aaliyah would do the same. “Miss You” is my favorite song.” Murphy said. “It’s just relatable because she was around our age. Also, her music was just catchy!”
Alexis Durham, 21, is a Multimedia Journalism major at Morgan State University. She said that Aaliyah’s voice was one of a kind, and because the singer was so young, a lot of the things she sang about resembled Durham’s real life.
“’4 Page Letter’ has a beautiful melody. It was basically writing a love letter to someone I love, then moving on with my life.” Durham explained.
Younger people could relate to Aaliyah, not just because of her ageonly due to the age factor, but also because of the content of her music. Whether you are a music lover, or just an Aaliyah fan, you have to respect the mark she made on the music industry and in the world.
Romantic love, which is something that a lot of younger people experience nowadays. As a music lover or a personal fan or Aaliyah, one has to respect the mark she left in the music industry.
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