Pop star Aaliyah died nine years ago on August 25th 2010 in an airplane crash whilst travelling back to the US from the Bahamas. A child prodigy, Aaliyah recorded her first album at just 14-years old, entitled 'Age Ain't Nothing But A Number' which was released in 1994. She subsequently released two further albums, 1996's 'One in a Million', and the 2001 record 'Aaliyah'. However, on August 25th 2001, after filming the video for her single 'Rock the Boat', the singer was killed when the plane she was travelling on crashed shortly after take-off - many of her entourage were also killed in the accident.
Aaliyah is regarded as an influence by many hip-hop and R&B artists, most notably the GRAMMY AWARD winning singer Missy Elliot, who told MTV this week, "There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of [Aaliyah] or watch a video or play her music. I miss her every day." Messages of tribute have also been pouring in on social networking site Twitter - the rapper Talib Kweli tweeted, "RIP Aaliyah, who we lost exactly 9 years ago. We learned so much from you, you are forever missed."
As well as being an award winning singer, Aaliyah was also an actress, and starred in the 2000 action movie 'Romeo Must Die', alongside martial arts legend Jet Li.