Aaliyah Made “Journey to the Past” Feel Like Her Own
Today’s Woman Crush Wednesday belongs to the incomparable Aaliyah — gone far too soon, but still somehow sounding and looking completely ahead of everybody else.
Our stop is October 13, 1997, when Aaliyah appeared on The Rosie O’Donnell Show and performed “Journey to the Past”, her shimmering pop-R&B take on the signature song from the animated film Anastasia.
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Aaliyah, Anastasia and one beautiful late-’90s time capsule.
Revisit Aaliyah’s catalog, the Anastasia soundtrack and the music that helped define one of R&B’s most unforgettable voices.
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And yes, this one hits thee nostalgia button hard. “Journey to the Past” was one of those songs we grew up with, bought on CD and kept coming back to because Aaliyah somehow made a sweeping animated-movie ballad sit perfectly inside her own cool, understated world.
The original song was written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty for Anastasia and performed in the film by Liz Callaway, the singing voice of Anya. Aaliyah was brought in to record a pop/R&B version for the soundtrack and end credits, giving the song a second life outside the movie itself.
By 1997, Aaliyah was already well beyond being introduced as somebody’s promising new act. One in a Million had arrived the year before, her sound had sharpened into something sleek and futuristic, and her partnership with Timbaland and Missy Elliott was helping redraw the lines around contemporary R&B.
That makes this Rosie performance especially sweet to revisit. “Journey to the Past” is not built like an Aaliyah record at all. It is a theatrical ballad about home, family and moving toward an unknown future — yet she never over-sings it or turns it into a vocal obstacle course. She simply lets that soft, controlled tone carry the melody.
The song’s film version would go on to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, and Aaliyah later performed her rendition during the 70th Academy Awards in 1998. That made this daytime-TV appearance part of a much bigger run for a track that started as movie promotion and became one of the most tender corners of her catalog.
And because this is Rosie in the late ’90s, the whole thing has that wonderfully warm daytime-TV glow around it — no giant LED walls, no social-media countdown, no five-camera vertical edit waiting before the applause even ends. Just Aaliyah, the song and a studio audience getting a moment that now feels impossibly far away.
More From Aaliyah’s 1997 Rosie O’Donnell Show Appearance
Additional stills from Aaliyah’s October 1997 appearance, which included her “Journey to the Past” performance along with an interview/game segment.
Nearly three decades later, this performance still feels like exactly what Woman Crush Wednesday is for: a little reminder of the talent, sweetness and effortless cool that made Aaliyah impossible to replace.
Watch Aaliyah Perform “Journey to the Past” on The Rosie O’Donnell Show in 1997
The remastered upload captures Aaliyah’s live performance of her Anastasia soundtrack single from the October 13, 1997 episode.
Sources: The Rosie O’Donnell Show; Anastasia soundtrack; supplied remastered YouTube performance.
