Celebrating Aaliyah’s ‘Red Album’ 21st Anniversary

21 years ago today on July 17th, 2001 in the US, Aaliyah released, what would be her final album, simply entitled “Aaliyah.”

Aaliyah, was a beautiful singer and budding actress, and died tragically in a plane crash at the age of 22. After filming the “Rock the Boat” video in the Bahamas, Aaliyah and seven other members of her entourage were headed to Florida when the twin-engine plane they were on crashed just seconds after takeoff.

Aaliyah Dana Haughton was born January 16th, 1979 in Brooklyn, NY, but grew up in Detroit, where she sang at church and school. Aaliyah, Swahili for “highest, most exalted one,” released her debut, “Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number” in 1994, before she had finished high school. Aaliyah had performed sporadically throughout childhood, making appearances on Star Search and onstage in Las Vegas with Gladys Knight.

“There’s a thing that you see when somebody walks out on the stage, I call it the fire. They got that inner fire, which has nothing to do with the schooling, nothing to do with the teacher, nothing to do with the parents. There is a desire in that person to please the audience. You see enough of it to recognize it. And that’s what I saw with Aaliyah.”
– Ed McMahon (Star Search)

After six hits on from her sophomore album release “One In A Million,” she spent the next years training in acting. Although she was missed on the music scene, she did appear on soundtracks during her hiatus. In 1997 she released “Journey To The Past” for Anastasia, which gained her an Academy Award nomination and in 1998, she released “Are You That Somebody”, for Dr DooLittle.

“I really wanted to give people a break from me after the last album but still keep my face in their heads, and the soundtracks were the perfect way to do that,” Aaliyah stated to Billboard. “It gave them a chance to grow with me. I’m older now. They got to see that transition from a teen to a young adult.”

Aaliyah‘s self-titled (red album) demonstrated a new maturity and confidence. Featuring now classics like “Rock the Boat,” “More Than a Woman” and “I Care 4 U,” most agree that it was her best album yet.

Ernest Hardy of Rolling Stone Magazine compared the album’s musical experimentation to OutKast’s “Stankonia” and Sade’s “Lovers Rock”.

“Of course, there are going to be a lot of love songs. I want it to be upbeat with a few big, beautiful ballads, but I didn’t want to do any songs that really dissed the other sex,” Aaliyah stated. Her favorite track she was the most proud of is “Never No More,” about ending an abusive relationship. “It’s actually exciting to take on a topic. I like what it’s talking about,” she stated. “If it can give women confidence to leave a relationship, that’s wonderful. Music is about giving people joy and making them happy, but it’s about a lot of other stuff, too. I’m a role model, and that’s not always easy, but if I can do something that makes someone change something, that’s great.”

Recording the album was a long process, punctuated by her at the time burgeoning acting career. Aaliyah recorded a few songs, including two with producer Timbaland, before she began filming “Romeo Must Die.” She then resumed recording while in Australia, where she was shooting Anne Rice’s “Queen Of The Damned.”

Aaliyah, who played Akasha the Queen stated, “I’d literally go from the movie studio to the recording studio. I’m like two different people. Once they say, `Cut -it’s a wrap for the day,’ I leave the costumes on the set. I have two different facets to my career. I have to know how to turn it on and off.”

While she knew it had been a long time between albums, Aaliyah said she wanted to get the record right. “We wanted to get it out before 2000 was over, but I couldn’t finish it,” she says. “I wanted to put a lot of time into it. I wanted it to be the best.”

Talk A Trip Down Memory Lane with Aaliyah 21 Years Later!