Billboard Staffers Remember Aaliyah, 20 Years After Her Death

On Aug. 25, 2001, the music world found out the shattering news that Aaliyah, one of the brightest still-rising stars of the past decade of popular music, had died in a plane crash in the Bahamas. The public grief following the news sent her then-recently released self-titled third album — soon to be acclaimed as her masterpiece, and one of the century’s most essential R&B releases — to No. 1 of the Billboard 200 albums chart. In the 20 years since, Aaliyah has remained at