Who Is She?

Alicia Keys

A true musical prodigy whose multi-dimensional gifts emerged at age five, the beautiful Alicia will soon take modern R&B soul to a whole new level at the tender age of nineteen.

Alicia Keys grew up in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York.  Alicia composed her first love song at the tender age of fourteen.  At age 16, Alicia’s outstanding grades allowed her to finish high school early. "I was so deeply involved in music, I had already outgrown all the pressure of high school cliques and gossip." Right out of high school, Columbia University accepted Alicia Keys and though she gave it a whirl, the desire to focus on music was the driving force over all else.  In 1998, at age 18, she ignited a fierce major-label bidding war.  When the smoke cleared, it was Arista that came out the winner, and in late 1999 she followed Arista founder Clive Davis to become one of the first artists on his new label, J Records. Her debut, The Life, debuted at Number One on the Billboard charts and established Keys as the brightest R&B star of the new millennium.

Alicia Keys always knew she wanted a career in music and was signed briefly to Jermaine Dupri's So So Def label while still a teenager.  For years she navigated the tough industry waters, cutting demos and recording cuts on both the Men in Black and Shaft soundtracks.

Keyes didn't know who Clive Davis was when she met him, she recalls their meeting:

"I remember just walking into this big office with thousands and thousands of pictures on the wall. I've never seen so many pictures in all my life, of so many people that I've admired," Keys says. "Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire, Bruce Springsteen, Janis Joplin. And, just in that moment, when I walked in, I realized exactly who he was. Prior to that, you know, I knew what the news said, and I knew [his protégé] Monica, but I knew that I didn't know how deep or far, and how serious it really was. And so that just gave me a whole deeper understanding of the whole situation. So, we talked, and he played my music, and he told me what he thought. He told me that he loved my individuality and encouraged that, and asked what I saw myself doing, and I mean it was completely a two-sided road in conversation, which sometimes is rare in the music thing. And that just gave me an even deeper respect [for the situation]. And that was where I started."

The stunning, bi-racial Alicia Keys recognizes a number of influences including her ultra-supportive mother who told her "You can quit anything else but you can never give up on your piano lessons." Alicia also sites a teacher at the Professional Performance Arts School in Manhattan who, while she was majoring in Choir, gave her valuable instruction on her voice. "This teacher spent so much time with me, she became the closest thing to vocal training I received," Alicia recalls.

Now the time has come for this crooning honey to charm the world over with her own debut album, Songs in A Minor. Quite impressively, Keyes serves as writer and producer on much of the project, which is a collection of deep, passionate tunes. 

In the current edition of Sister2Sister Magazine, Publisher Jamie Foster Brown interviewed Alicia Keys and asked her about the current rumors regarding her being gay.  Alicia flat out states "it's a lie." 

Also in the article, Alicia talks about how she handled a very embarrassing moment, gives an open account of trials she experienced in the beginning of her career and talks about her feelings about being biracial. 

Alicia Keys Behind The Scenes At The Bottom Line High Bandwidth Low Bandwidth