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Alicia Keys (born Alicia J. Augello-Cook
on January 25, 1980) is an American R&B and soul
singer, songwriter, musician, composer, pianist, record
producer, philanthropist, and occasional actress and
author. Keys is a renowned artist who has sold
twenty-eight million albums and singles worldwide and
won numerous awards, including nine Grammy Awards,
eleven Billboard Music Awards, and three American Music
Awards.
Early life: Keys was born to an Irish-Italian
mother, Terri Augello, and a Jamaican father, Craig
Cook, in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York
City, New York. Terri was a paralegal and actress, but
Keys was raised in a poor home in the Hell's Kitchen
neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Keys' mother
and father separated during her early childhood, thus
she was raised by her mother during her formative years;
the two shared a one-room apartment with Alicia sleeping
on the couch.
Her mother was the one who most
supported her during the time she was developing her
musical talents. In 1985, Keys and a group of other
girls won the parts of Rudy Huxtable's sleepover guests
in an episode of The Cosby Show called "Slumber
Party", aired on March 28 (the episode became the
only time Keys was credited under her real name). She
began playing piano when she was seven, learning
classical music by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart,
and her favorite, Chopin. The press reported in 2005
that Keys was attempting to reconcile with her father.
However, Keys denied this and said her words were
misinterpreted.
Keys graduated from the Professional Performing Arts
School, a high school in Manhattan, at the age of
sixteen. Although accepted to Columbia University at age
sixteen with a scholarship, she decided instead to
pursue her musical career. Keys signed a demo deal with
Jermaine Dupri and his So So Def label, then distributed
by Columbia Records. She wrote and recorded a song
entitled "Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing)", which
appeared on the soundtrack to the 1997 blockbuster, Men
in Black. The song was Keys' first professional
recording; it was never released as a single and her
record contract with Columbia Records ended quickly.
Keys later met Clive Davis, who signed her to Arista
Records, which has since disbanded. Following her mentor
Clive Davis to his newly formed J Records label, she
recorded the songs "Rock wit U" and "Rear
View Mirror", featured on the soundtracks to the
films Shaft (2000) and Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001)
respectively. Keys then released her debut album Songs
in A Minor in 2001, the title being a reference to both
her classical aspirations and to the fact that she wrote
most of the songs at a very young age.
Songs in A Minor (2001):
Selling over 235,000 copies in its first week (more than
50,000 of those in its first day), Songs in A Minor,
released on June 5, 2001, went on to sell more than
eleven million units worldwide, and established Keys'
popularity both outside and inside the U.S., where she
became the best-selling new artist of 2001 (as well as
the best-selling R&B artist). The album's first
single, "Fallin'", gained radio airplay on
many different radio formats and spent six weeks at
number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Keys performed
Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free"
at the America: A Tribute to Heroes televised benefit
concert following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Another single from Songs in A Minor, "A Woman's
Worth", made the top ten in the U.S. as well. Keys
and the album won five Grammy Awards in 2002, including
"Best New Artist" and "Song of the
Year" for "Fallin'". Later, on October
22, 2002, Keys would release Remixed & Unplugged in
A Minor, a re-issue of Songs in A Minor, which includes
eight remixes and seven unplugged versions of some of
the songs off her debut album.
Critical reviews of the album were mostly positive.
Keys' work had a sound similar to 1970s soul singers
such as Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder
along with hip-hop influences like those apparent in neo
soul artists such as Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, and
D'Angelo.
The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003): Keys followed up
her debut with The Diary of Alicia Keys, released on
December 2, 2003. The album was hailed by critics and
debuted at number one in the U.S., selling over 618,000
copies its first week of release, the sixth highest
album sales by a female and second by R&B female. To
date, it has sold eight million copies worldwide. The
singles "You Don't Know My Name" and "If
I Ain't Got You" both reached the top five of the
Billboard Hot 100 chart, and another single,
"Diary", entered the top ten. The
classical/hip-hop-flavored "Karma" was less
successful, peaking at number twenty on the Billboard
Hot 100 but more successful on Top 40 Mainstream peaking
at number three. "If I Ain't Got You" became
the first single by a female artist to remain on the
sixty-three-year-old Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
chart for more than one year, surpassing Mary J. Blige's
"Your Child" (forty-nine weeks). Keys went on
to become the best-selling female R&B artist of
2004.
At the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards, Keys won "Best
R&B Video" for "If I Ain't Got You"
and also led Lenny Kravitz and Stevie Wonder in their
version of Wonder's "Higher Ground". Also the
following year in 2005, she won "Best R&B
Video" in her second year in a row for
"Karma". At the 2005 Grammy Awards, she
performed the album's second single, "If I Ain't
Got You", and then joined Jamie Foxx and Quincy
Jones in a rendition of "Georgia on My Mind",
Hoagy Carmichael's song made famous by Ray Charles. That
evening, she won four Grammy Awards: "Best R&B
Album" Ricardo walker has help her fulfill her
dreams and owns a record company called rivernile
production. Also for The Diary of Alicia Keys,
"Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" for
"If I Ain't Got You", "Best R&B
Song" for "You Don't Know My Name", and
"Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with
Vocals" for "My Boo" with Usher. She was
also nominated for "Album of the Year" for The
Diary of Alicia Keys, "Song of the Year" for
"If I Ain't Got You", "Best R&B
Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals" for
"Diary" (featuring Tony! Toni! Toné!), and
"Best R&B Song" for "My Boo".
Unplugged (2005): Keys performed and taped her
installment of the MTV Unplugged series on July 14, 2005
at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. During this live
session, Keys added brand-new arrangements to her
original songs such as "A Woman's Worth" and
the funk-driven "Heartburn", and performed a
few choice covers. Part of Keys' audience also included
her guest performers; she collaborated with rappers
Common and Mos Def on "Love It or Leave It
Alone", reggae artist Damian Marley on
"Welcome to Jamrock", and Maroon 5 lead singer
Adam Levine on a cover of The Rolling Stones' 1971
"Wild Horses".
In addition to a cover of "Every Little Bit
Hurts", previously performed by singers such as
Aretha Franklin and Brenda Holloway, Keys also premiered
two new original songs: "Stolen Moments",
which she co-wrote with producer Lamont Green, and
"Unbreakable", which peaked at number four and
number thirty-four on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop and
the Hot 100 respectively. It was more successful on the
Billboard Adult R&B Airplay, where it peaked at
number one for eleven weeks. The session was released on
CD and DVD on October 11, 2005. Known simply as
Unplugged, the album peaked at number one on the U.S.
Billboard 200 chart with 196,000 units sold in its first
week of release. So far the album has sold one million
units in the United States.[9] The debut of Keys'
Unplugged was the highest debut for an MTV Unplugged
album since Nirvana's 1994 MTV Unplugged in New York and
the first Unplugged by a female artist to debut at
number one. It was nominated for four Grammy Awards in
2006: "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance"
for "Unbreakable", "Best Traditional
R&B Vocal Performance" for "If I Was Your
Woman", "Best R&B Song" for
"Unbreakable", and "Best R&B
Album". The album won three NAACP Image Awards:
"Outstanding Female Artist", "Outstanding
Song" for "Unbreakable", and
"Outstanding Music Video" for
"Unbreakable".
New album and recording studio: Keys has already
begun working on her third studio album, which is to be
released in October 2007. Recently Alicia Keys has
talked to MTV about her upcoming album: "It's
coming together incredibly. I am in love with this
album. It's very fresh and new". And about the
album title Alicia said: "I always name my album at
the end. For some reason I find that works better for
me. After I have all of the work together and I feel the
direction, then I know what's the best title".
Rolling Stone magazine reported in December 2005 that
Keys and her long-term songwriting partner Kerry
"Krucial" Brothers would start working
seriously on Keys' third studio album in the later half
of 2006. There are also rumors that she worked with
Linda Perry. Keys has explained that her new upcoming
album has an edgier feel than her first two albums[13]
and she is keen to do strange and unexpected
collaborations outside the R&B and hip-hop worlds.
Keys also plans to collobarate with John Mayer, John
Legend, Timbaland, Drew Lane, Eddie Galan, and Stargate
on her third studio album.
Keys recently opened a new recording studio in Long
Island, New York called The Oven Studios, which she
co-owns with her co-production and co-songwriting
partner Kerry "Krucial" Brothers. The studio
was designed by renowned studio architect John Storyk of
WSDG, designer of Jimi Hendrix' Electric Lady Studios.
Keys and Kerry Brothers are co-founders of KrucialKeys
Enterprises, a production and songwriting team who
assisted Keys in creating her award-winning albums as
well as create music for other artists.
Film and television career: Keys has finished
shooting a film alongside Ben Affleck, Ray Liotta,
Common, Andy Garcia, Jeremy Piven, and Ryan Reynolds
entitled Smokin' Aces, released on January 26, 2007, in
which she plays an assassin named Georgia Sykes. Keys
has received much praise from her co-stars in the film;
Ryan Reynolds said Keys has "natural" acting
ability as he was surprised she had not starred in films
before.
Furthermore, she has finished shooting her second film
The Nanny Diaries alongside Scarlett Johansson, which is
due for release on September 7, 2007. She is playing
Johannson's best friend in the film. The Kingsborough
Community College in Brooklyn, New York was used to film
the college graduation scene for the film.
Keys and her long-term manager Jeff Robinson have signed
a first-look film production deal to develop live-action
and animated projects with Disney, Variety reports.
Their first film, a remake of the 1958 comedy Bell, Book
and Candle, will star Keys as a witch who casts a love
spell to lure a rival's fiance. Keys and Robinson have
also formed a television production company called Big
Pita. Their first project will be a CW Network TV series
inspired by Keys' experiences as a biracial child
growing up in New York, similar to the network's
Everybody Hates Chris. Keys has been tapped to
executively produce an upcoming TV drama. The title and
airing date are presently unconfirmed. Keys and Robinson
said they will develop live-action and animated projects
at their company, Big Pita, Little Pita, with Keys
participating as producer, thesp, banner spearheading
soundtrack, and music supervision. She also played a
voice in the "Mission to Mars" episode of The
Backyardigans.
Keys will also play 1940s biracial piano child prodigy
Philippa Schuyler in an upcoming film entitled
Composition in Black and White. It is based on the 1995
biographical book of the same name by Kathryn Talalay
and follows the story of Philippa Schuyler. "The
challenge, in order to actually be able to play
classical piano as a woman of mixed race, was by far
more than I could ever imagine", Keys said.
"That's what intrigued me about that role".
The biopic will tell the difficult tale of Schuyler's
controversial career, love-hate relationship with her
mother and the black community, her second career as a
writer, and her eventual death in a helicopter accident.
"Her story is very deep, even up to the point where
the relationship between her and her mother gets very
strained and she chooses to go to Europe and pass as a
Spanish woman in order to be able to play, in order to
be able to live a more normal life", Keys said,
adding that she and Halle Berry hope to start shooting
in early 2008. "As of right now, we're still in the
first, second draft of the script", she said.
"So a little bit of time — at least a year".
Philanthropy: Besides being a musician, Keys is
also an active philanthropist. She is a spokeswoman for
Keep a Child Alive, a non-profit organization that
provides life-saving AIDS medicines directly to children
and families with HIV/AIDS in Africa. Keys and U2 lead
singer Bono recorded a cover version of Peter Gabriel
and Kate Bush's "Don't Give Up", in
recognition of World AIDS Day 2006. Keys and Bono's
version of the song has been retitled as "Don't
Give Up (Africa)", to show the two musicians'
support for helping to raise awareness of people living
with HIV and AIDS and acknowledging the twenty-five
million Africans (forty million people worldwide) living
with the disease. Cingular Wireless announced the debut
of an exclusive Music Tone ringtone available only
through the Cingular Sounds music program. One hundred
percent of the proceeds from the ringtone sales will go
to Keep a Child Alive.
Keys has visited African countries such as Uganda,
Kenya, and South Africa to promote care for children
affected by AIDS. Keys, the global ambassador and
co-founder of Keep a Child Alive, will jet in on a
four-day working visit on April 9, to bolster the
HIV/AIDS crusade and give a ray of hope to families and
children devastated by the scourge. Keys will visit
sites funded by the organization "and bring footage
home to the American public to encourage them to do more
to help", according to a KACA statement. Throughout
her visit, a film crew will follow and document the
progress at both of these facilities for American news
outlets.
Keys is also a spokewoman for Frum tha Ground Up, a
charity devoted to inspiring, encouraging, and
motivating American youths to achieve success on all
levels. Keys also participated in other humanitarian
efforts in 2005 by performing at several exclusive
concerts and television shows. On July 2, Keys performed
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as part of the worldwide
Live 8 concerts. The mission of the concerts was to
raise awareness of the on-going poverty in Africa and to
pressure the G8 leaders to take action by doubling aid,
canceling debt, and delivering trade justice for Africa.
In August 2005, Keys performed on ReAct Now: Music &
Relief, a benefit program shown on music video channels
to raise money for those affected by Hurricane Katrina.
The following month, Keys performed at Shelter from the
Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast, another Hurricane
Katrina benefit concert. |
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