RIGHT, so we’re all sad that Aaliyah is dead, and no one begrudges her a proper send-off. But a traffic-snarling, horse-drawn cortege in honor of a pop singer most people have never heard of? Give us a break!
Something like that is due a public figure of great distinction. President John F. Kennedy received this honor, as did Princess Diana and Mother Teresa of Calcutta – all deserved, by virtue of their position in society, extraordinary service to humanity, or both.
Great artists can merit such high distinction. In 1824, Lord Byron had 40 empty carriages in his funeral cortege from London to Nottingham, a sign of high respect from the British aristocracy.
Byron was, of course, one of the greatest poets of his age. One of his most famous verses could be recited by an admiring eulogist as tribute to Aaliyah: “And thou art dead, as young and fair /As aught of mortal birth; /And form so soft, and charms so rare, / Too soon return’d to Earth!”
Byron shares with the Brooklyn-born songbird an interest in the agonies of romantic loss. On her latest album, Aaliyah trills, “Hey sexy baby / Why’d your girl leave you in pain / To let a fine man like you go / She must be insane.”
That quatrain, is, alas, unlikely to win Aaliyah a place alongside Byron among the immortals.
To her fans, though, the young woman who once declared, in song, “I’m-a make it hot like fire, oooh-oooh,” is already a secular goddess. Declares the Aaliyahonline.com site: “She’s like Princess Diana to our hip-hop community.”
Well, that explains a lot. Diana’s funeral, the horses drawing her coffin wading through tears up to their bridles, was the epitome of modern celebrity worship, which manifested itself in a ghoulish saturnalia of sentimentality.
But it doesn’t explain everything. Diana was the future queen of England, mother of a future king, and one of the most recognized women in the world.
And Aaliyah? Most people – including, I would wager, 99 percent of those whose holiday-weekend travel will be delayed by her slow-moving equine hearse – first heard the singer’s name in connection with her death.
A public funerary gesture as dramatic as a horse-drawn cortege befits the dignity of very few people in anyone’s lifetime. The family of Aaliyah, a beloved daughter but undistinguished singer of forgettable pop songs, does the poor woman’s memory no favors with this tasteless gesture.