Alicia Keys Biography Facts
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Born 25 January, 1981 (43 years old).
What is the zodiac sign of Alicia Keys ?
According to the birthday of Alicia Keys the astrological sign is Aquarius .
Career of the Alicia Keys started in 1996 .
Alicia Keys Wiki
American singer-songwriter
| Alicia Keys | |
|---|---|
| Keys in 2013 | |
| Born | Alicia Augello Cook January 25, 1981 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Other names | Lellow |
| Occupation | Musician singer songwriter actress philanthropist |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Organization | Keep a Child Alive |
| Spouse | Swizz Beatz |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Full list |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | R&B soul pop hip hop |
| Instruments | Vocals keyboards |
| Labels | Columbia Arista J RCA |
| Associated acts | DJ Dirty Harry Jermaine Paul Kerry Brothers Jr. Swizz Beatz |
| Signature | |
Alicia Augello Cook , known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter. A classically-trained pianist, Keys began composing songs by age 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Columbia Records. After disputes with the label, she signed with Arista Records, and later released her debut album, Songs in A Minor, with J Records in 2001. The album was critically and commercially successful, producing her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single "Fallin'" and selling over 16 million copies worldwide. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002.
Her second album, The Diary of Alicia Keys , was also a critical and commercial success, spawning successful singles "You Don't Know My Name", "If I Ain't Got You", and "Diary", and selling eight million copies worldwide. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards. Her duet "My Boo" with Usher became her second number-one single in 2004. Keys released her first live album, Unplugged , and became the first woman to have an MTV Unplugged album debut at number one. Her third album, As I Am , produced the Hot 100 number-one single "No One", selling 7 million copies worldwide and earning an additional three Grammy Awards. In 2007, Keys made her film debut in the action-thriller film Smokin' Aces. She, along with Jack White, recorded "Another Way to Die" . Her fourth album, The Element of Freedom , became her first chart-topping album in the UK, and sold 4 million copies worldwide. In 2009, Keys also collaborated with Jay Z on "Empire State of Mind", which became her fourth number-one single and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Girl on Fire was her fifth Billboard 200 topping album, spawning the successful title track, and won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album. In 2013, VH1 Storytellers was released as her second live album. Her sixth studio album, Here , became her seventh US R&B/Hip-Hop chart-topping album. Her seventh studio album, Alicia, was released on September 18, 2020.
Keys has received numerous accolades in her career, including 15 competitive Grammy Awards, 17 NAACP Image Awards, 12 ASCAP Awards, and an award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and National Music Publishers Association. She has sold over 50 million albums and 40 million singles worldwide and was named by Billboard the top R&B artist of the 2000s decade. She placed tenth on their list of Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years. VH1 included her on their 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and 100 Greatest Women in Music lists, while Time has named her in their 100 list of most influential people in 2005 and 2017. Keys is also acclaimed for her humanitarian work, philanthropy and activism; she co-founded and serves as the Global Ambassador of the nonprofit HIV/AIDS-fighting organization Keep a Child Alive.
Life and career
1981–1993: Early life
Alicia Augello was born on January 25, 1981, in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. She is the only child of Teresa Augello, who was a paralegal and part-time actress, and one of three children of Craig Cook, who was a flight attendant. Keys' father is African American and her mother is of Italian, Irish, and Scottish descent; her mothers paternal grandparents were immigrants from Sciacca in Sicily. Named after her Puerto Rican godmother, Keys expressed that she was comfortable with her multiracial heritage because she felt she was able to "relate to different cultures". Keys' father left when she was two and she was subsequently raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell's Kitchen. Keys said her parents never had a relationship, and her father was not in her life. Although she did not like to speak about her father in order to not feed stereotypes, Keys remarked in 2001: "I'm not in contact with him. That's fine. When I was younger, I minded about that. made me angry. But it helped show me what a strong woman my mother was, and made me want to be strong like her. Probably, it was better for me this way." Keys and her mother lived in a one-room apartment. Her mother often worked three jobs to provide for Keys, who "learned how to survive" from her mother's example of tenacity and self-reliance.
.mw-parser-output .quotebox.mw-parser-output .quotebox.floatleft.mw-parser-output .quotebox.floatright.mw-parser-output .quotebox.centered.mw-parser-output .quotebox.floatleft p,.mw-parser-output .quotebox.floatright p.mw-parser-output .quotebox-title.mw-parser-output .quotebox-quote.quoted:before.mw-parser-output .quotebox-quote.quoted:after.mw-parser-output .quotebox .left-aligned.mw-parser-output .quotebox .right-aligned.mw-parser-output .quotebox .center-aligned.mw-parser-output .quotebox cite@media screen and } "I grew up in the middle of everything. I walked the streets alone, I rode the trains alone, I came home at three in the morning alone, that was what I did...The city had a huge influence on me because it's such a diverse place. As hard as , I always felt very blessed about being able to recognize different cultures and styles, people and places. I feel like the concrete alone just gave me a certain drive. I really saw everything: every negative I could possibly see from the time I could walk until now; and also every positive, every bright future, every dream that I could possibly see. So growing up around this big dichotomy definitely influenced my music."
From a young age, Alicia struggled with self-esteem issues, "hiding" little by little when her differences made her vulnerable to judgement, and later uninvited sexual attention. Living in the rough neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, she was, from an early age, regularly exposed to street violence, drugs, prostitution, and subjected to sexual propositions in the sex trade- and crime-riddled area. "I saw a variety of people growing up, and lifestyles, lows and highs. I think it makes you realise right away what you want and what you don't want", Keys said. Keys recalled feeling fearful early on of the "animal instinct" she witnessed, and eventually feeling "high" due to recurrent harassment. Her experiences in the streets had led her to carry a homemade knife for protection. She became very wary, emotionally guarded, and she began wearing gender-neutral clothing and what would become her trademark cornrows. Keys explained that she is grateful for growing up where she did as it prepared her for the parallels in the music industry, particularly as she was a teenager starting out; she could maintain a particular focus and not derail herself. She credits her "tough" mother for anchoring her on a right path as opposed to many people she knew who ended up on the wrong path and in jail. Keys attributed her unusual maturity as a young girl to her mother, who depended on her to be responsible while she worked to provide for them and give Keys as many opportunities as possible.
Keys loved music and singing from early childhood. She recalled her mother playing jazz records of artists like Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong on Sunday mornings, early musical moments Keys considers influential in kindling her interest in and emotional connection to music. In preschool, Keys sang in her school's production of the musical Cats and was cast as Dorothy Gale in a production of The Wizard of Oz. Keys discovered she had a passion for the piano by age six, as she loved the sound and feel of the instrument and desired to play and learn it. When Keys was ten,neighborhood friend, who was moving home, gifted her family, an old upright piano, this proved pivotal for Key's musical development, allowing her to practice, to play and fully benefit from music lessons at an early age. Keys began receiving classical piano training by age seven, practicing six hours a day, learning the Suzuki method and playing composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and Satie. She was particularly drawn to "blue, dark, shadowy" and melancholic compositions, as well as the passionate romanticism of "blue composers" like Chopin. Inspired by the film Philadelphia, Keys wrote her first song about her departed grandfather on her piano by age 12. The scene in the film where Tom Hanks's character listens to opera on a record player notably affected Keys, who "never showed emotion very well". After seeing the film, Keys, "for the first time, could express how felt through the music."
Classical piano totally helped me to be a better songwriter and a better musician...I knew the fundamentals of music. And I understood how to put things together and pull it together and change it. The dedication that it took to study classical music is a big reason why I have anything in this life I think. ... was a big influence on me. It opened a lot of doors because it separated me from the rest. And it did help me structure my songs.
Keys' mother had encouraged her to participate in different extracurricular activities, including music, dance, theater, and gymnastics, so she could "find her muse". Her extracurricular activities gave her focus and drive, and helped keep her out of trouble. Keys remained so occupied with her various pursuits that she experienced her first burnout before adolescence. Before her 13th birthday, she expressed to her mother that she was too overwhelmed and wanted to disengage, at which point her mother took some time off with her and encouraged her to keep focusing on piano. Keys would continue studying classical music until the age of 18. Keys regards her education in classical piano and dedication to classical music as vital for her stability in her youth and her development as a musician and songwriter. Keys later said of her classical background:
That type of studying, that type of discipline...after a while, I realized what it provided me – focus, the ability to pay attention for a long enough period of time to make progress; the work ethic; the actual knowledge of music, that then unlocked the ability to write my own music, put my own chords and things I heard in my own head to different lyrics that I maybe felt, and I never, ever had to wait for anybody to write something for me.
Keys enrolled in the Professional Performing Arts School at the age of 12, where she took music, dance, and theater classes and majored in choir. In her preteen years, Keys and her bass-playing friend formed their first group, though neither "knew too much about how pop songs worked". Keys would continue singing, writing songs, and performing in musical groups throughout junior high and high school. She became an accomplished pianist, and after her classical music teacher had nothing left to teach her, she began studying jazz at age 14. Living in the "musical melting pot" city, Keys had already been discovering other genres of music, including soul music, hip hop, R&B, and taken affinity to artists like Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield. Keen on dissecting music, Keys continued developing her songwriting and finding her own 'flow and style" through her exploration of the intricacies in different music.
Keys spent more time in Harlem during her teenage years. She connected with the cultural and racial diversity in the neighborhood, where she expanded upon her musical exploration, and her character was also solidified. "Harlem raised me in a lot of ways," Keys remarked. " taught me how to think fast, how to play the game...taught me leadership, how to get out of bad situations when you need to, how to hold my own." During this period, she met her friend and future collaborator Kerry Brothers Jr.
Personal life
Keys had a low-profile relationship with her long time friend and collaborator Kerry Brothers Jr. until 2008. Keys later dated hip hop artist-producer Swizz Beatz. Keys and Beatz, who have known each other since they were teenagers, announced they were engaged and expecting their first child in May 2010. They held a Zulu ceremony to bless their unborn child in the Illovo suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. They were married on July 31, 2010 in a private ceremony near the Mediterranean Sea. Keys gave birth to son Egypt Daoud Dean in October 2010. She gave birth to their second son, Genesis Ali Dean, in December 2014.
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