One of the few things Aaliyah Haughton, who died on August 25th aged 22, had in common with other young American R&B singers was the regal custom of using only her first name. But in a musical sense, it was impossible to confuse her with the fluffy Brandys and Monicas. While they churned out the anodyne party tunes beloved of every teenage mall-rat, Aaliyah was a different proposition. A cutting-edge stylist with an aloof, sparse sound, she often forgot that the point of making pop music is to sell 10 million copies per album, and erred instead on the side of artistry.
Her meteoric rise from a 15-year-old talent to new artist-to-watch was built on her sultry voice, sexy attitude and film star looks. Two singles on her first album went gold: Back and Forth, which rose to No 1 on Billboard's rhythm and blues chart, and At Your Best (You are Love), which reached No 2 on the R&B chart and the US Top 10 on the pop chart.
Her early career became mired in scandal, however, amid media reports that she had secretly married her producer, R. Kelly. Aaliyah, who was 15 at the time, denied the reports and dropped out of the limelight before re-emerging in 1996 with her second album, One in a Million, which went double-platinum and featured cameos by rap artists Treach and Slick Rick.
Recorded when she was just 17 (she had already released the aptly titled Age Ain't Nothing But A Number two years before that), it was the first big R&B album to experiment with minimalism inspired by hip-hop. If female soul stars had previously tended toward the Janet Jackson model of characterless big tunes, the album's self-containment gave them much to think about. It's now difficult to find an R&B record, even those by Brandy and Monica, that isn't in some way influenced by it.
This year she released her newest album, Aaliyah. She was also known for her recordings of motion picture songs. She performed a soulful rendition of her best song nominee Journey to the Past, from the film Anastasia at the 1998 Academy Awards. Her other soundtrack credits include a single for the movie Dr Doolittle, starring Eddie Murphy.
Making the transition to acting, she made her film dΘbut playing the love interest of Chinese martial arts master Jet Li in the action film Romeo Must Die. More recently, she was scheduled to appear in two sequels to the science fiction film The Matrix.
As an artist who wrote little of her own material, Aaliyah was at least partly the creation of male producers, who included the maverick Chicago singer R. Kelly and hip producer Timbaland. It was Timbaland, along with Rodney Jerkins (credited with bringing Whitney Houston up to date), who saw the young singer's potential and matched her voice with understated beats on One In A Million.
But to attribute her success to them misses the point that what they did was nurture an already distinctive talent. Her best known song, Try Again, nominated for a Grammy this year, is a bewitching trinity of voice, melody and a lyric that urges, "Pick yourself up and try again".
She was born Aaliyah Haughton (Aaliyah, which is pronounced Ah-LEE-yah, means exalted one in Swahili) in Brooklyn, and raised in Detroit. At 11 she performed in Las Vegas with her aunt, Gladys Knight. She sang at her church, performed in school plays and earned straight As a dance major at the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts.
She had notched up seven hits before she turned 18. For whatever reason, however, she didn't capitalise on that early success. Rather than following standard R&B practice by bringing out another album quickly, she waited five years.
When rock bands dawdle beyond reason, there's usually a drink or drug-fuelled explanation, but the dynamic, drug-free Aaliyah seemed an advert for clean living. It's likely she was simply busy with other projects, including the films Romeo Must Die and an Anne Rice vampire potboiler, The Queen Of The Damned.
The gap between One In A Million and Aaliyah, cost her sales. The former sold two million, but despite contributions from Timbaland and rap potentate Missy Elliott, the latter has had a slower start.
Aaliyah was in the Bahamas filming a video for her new single, Rock the Boat, when she died.
Aaliyah Haughton: born 1979; died, August 2001