This Day in Black History: Aaliyah performs for the last time on ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’
Written by ABC Audio All Rights Reserved on July 25, 2023
On July, 25, 2001, R&B singer Aaliyah appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to perform her hit song “More Than a Woman,” marking her final performance before she died.
The Tonight Show was one stop of the singer’s promo run for her self-titled third studio album; she also performed the song on Live with Regis & Kelly before being interviewed by the hosts.
With writing and producing credits by Aaliyah’s longtime collaborator Timbaland, the critically acclaimed hit received a 2003 Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B vocal performance and peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
A sample itself, (Syrian singer Mayada El Hennawy‘s “Alouly Ansa“) “More Than a Woman” was later sampled by a few songs, including Solange‘s “Borderline (An Ode to Self Care)” and “Is There More” by Drake.
After shooting the accompanying music video in August 2001, Aaliyah traveled to the Bahamas to film another video for “Rock The Boat.” While on a flight back to the U.S., she and a few others died as a result of a plane crash.
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