It has been years since the saddening death of famous pop music singer Aaliyah. Aaliyah Dana Houston was just 22 when she died in a plane crash in the Bahamas, but at the time of her death, she'd already been famous for seven years. She was among the few music artists known simply by her first name - a Swahili word meaning, "the highest, most exalted one." Aaliyah was also known for being one of the music artists to bring R&B into pop music culture.

She was in the Caribbean shooting the video for 'Rock the Boat,' the next single from her third music album released shortly before her death. The music artist and seven friends, including record company executives, stylists and a bodyguard, chartered a twin-engine Cessna to return to Florida. The crash happened shortly after takeoff at 6:50 PM. Witnesses say that the plane banked sharply to the left, then plunged down into swampy scrubland 200 meters from the end of the runway, where it burst into flames. Aaliyah was among the six passengers killed instantly; the remaining three died within hours.

The pop music artist was born in Brooklyn but raised in Detroit, and she signed her record deal when she was 12. Rap music singer, R Kelly, produced and wrote much of her first music album, Age Ain't Nothing But A Number. In 1994, long before Britney and other pop music artists made it into the teen-pop business, the 15-year-old took her first music single "Back and Forth" to number one on the US charts.

Aaliyah dressed in baggy Tommy Hilfiger clothes and was marketed as "street yet sweet." She was a middle-class, A-student at Detroit's most prestigious stage school. She made her stage debut in Annie at the age of six, and within five years was performing in Las Vegas with her aunt Gladys Knight. Her parents were her managers, and she employed her older brother Rashad as her creative director. Aaliyah recorded for Blackground, music labels owned by her uncle and run by her cousin. This family support seemed to allow her to push boundaries and succeed in the entertainment world.

On her second album, One in a Million, released in 1996, she worked mainly with Missy Elliot and Timbaland. These music artists say that she took chances with her music. She made R&B part of the pop music culture by opening up the music world to her brand new style.

"I can't say I had a specific plan," the young music artist told Mixmag before her death. "From childhood I knew I wanted to be an actress and a dancer, a total entertainer. I would sit in a movie theatre thinking that one day I'd be on that silver screen. Sometimes I look where I am in life and what I've achieved at this age, and I think, wow."

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