By Wendy MillerThe Daily Cougar (U. Houston)
Ritchie Valens. Otis Redding. Stevie Ray Vaughan. Aaliyah.
Last week this grouping would have seemed odd. The tragedy on Saturday changed matters. These four are among the talented performers who have tragically fallen from the sky.
Aaliyah died Saturday at the age of 22. A passenger on a Cessna that crashed shortly after takeoff in the Bahamas, she was returning to Florida after filming a music video in the Caribbean.
The event happened just two days before the anniversary of the death of Texas legend Stevie Ray Vaughan. On Aug. 27, 1990, he was aboard a helicopter that crashed following takeoff.
Aaliyah (Swahili for “highest, most exalted one”) was born Aeliyatt Dana Haughton in Brooklyn in 1979. Her family moved to Detroit five years later. Her gift of voice was uncovered at a young age.
She auditioned for the school play “Annie” at six, the TV show Family Matters at nine, and sang on Star Search at 11. Aaliyah also squeezed in a five-night Las Vegas performance with Gladys Knight before she hit puberty.
At 15, she burst onto the R&B scene with her platinum debut album, Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number. Her second album, One In a Million, followed two years later in 1996, coinciding with her senior year at Detroit’s Performing Arts High School.
In the legendary group that Aaliyah now joins, Ritchie Valens was also in high school when his album was released. He was on tour promoting songs such as “La Bamba” and “Donna” when his plane crashed. He was just 17 when he died.
In the past few years, Aaliyah had flexed her singing muscles on the big screen in two Grammy-nominated singles, “Turn That Page,” from “Music from the heart, and “Are you that somebody,” from “Doctor Dolittle.”
In 2000 Aaliyah added “actress” to her resume with her role in “Romeo Must Die.” The film’s soundtrack produced her third Grammy nomination for the song “Try Again.”
Her sudden death sadly occurred in the same year as the release of her third album, Aaliyah. This year was also going to see her acting career ignite.
She recently finished filming “The Queen of the Damned.” Aaliyah had the title role of “Queen Akasha” in the latest Anne Rice vampire thriller.
She also had secured the role of Zee in the sequels to the blockbuster “The Matrix,” “The Matrix Reloaded” (2003) and “The Matrix 3” (2004).
The questions of “what if” will continue to haunt the family and fans of Aaliyah. She was a talented performer with a promising future. The same can be said of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ritchie Valens and Otis Redding.
Otis Redding’s death at age 26 came on the verge of his greatest triumph. Days before his death in 1967, he recorded “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.”
The song rose to the top of the pop charts in early 1968. Aaliyah’s third album will probably be awarded similar posthumous recognition.
Entertainers taken before their time are the ones that fans cannot get enough of. They remain in a weird version of limbo. Their images are etched forever young in our hearts.
It is a fan’s way of refusing to let go. The actual person is lost, but their music lives on.
And that is how a legend is born.
