At the tender age of 7, Alicia was introduced to the piano. She studied classical music from Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin (which was her favorite) and delved into such jazz greats as Marian McPartland, Oscar Peterson and Fats Waller.
The road to success wasn't an easy one. Born to a white mo
m, Terri Augello, and a black dad, Craig Cook, she grew up in Hell's Kitchen, New York. "It was kind of a cool spot, but 42nd Street then was no heaven. Prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers," recalls Keys. To cope with the street life, Alicia turned to piano-playing at the age of 7.
When she was 14 she wrote her first song "Butterflyz" which is featured on her latest album "Songs in A Minor." Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone, Donny Hathaway, were all her inspirations as were Biggie, Tupac, Jay-Z and Wu Tang. Alicia Keys took all of those different genres of music and rolled them all into one, to create a style all her own.
She released her first album, Songs in A Minor, in 2001. Alicia Keys was only 20 years old. The album featured the hit singles "Fallin'" and "Girlfriend" and rocketed Keys to stardom. (Her good looks -- she's of African and Italian descent -- helped, too.) She won five Grammy awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'." Keys also has been a prolific soundtrack artist, recording songs for movies such as Men in Black (1997), Shaft (2000) and Dr. Doolittle 2 (2001).
In 2003 she released her second album, The Diary of Alicia Keys.
Music Career
In 1997, Alicia Keys signed a contract with the So So Def label and her first song ‘Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing)’ was recorded. It appeared on the soundtrack of the hit movie ‘Men In Black’. The song was never released as a single. She then moved on to sign a contract with the J Records label and her two songs ‘Rock Wit U’ and ‘Rear View Mirror’ were recorded. They appeared on the soundtracks of the movies ‘Shaft’ and ‘Dr. Doolittle’ respectively.
In 2001, Alicia launched her first album ‘Songs in A Minor’ which went on to sell over eleven million CDs worldwide. She won 5 Grammy Awards in 2002 for songs from that album. The title ‘Fallin’ got her the ‘Best New Artist’ and the ‘Song of the Year’ awards.
In 2003 Alicia released her album ‘The Diary of Alicia Keys’ which was applauded by critics all over the world and has sold over eight million copies to date. In the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards, she won the ‘Best R&B Video’ award for her single ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ and in 2005 won the ‘Best R&B Video’ award for her single ‘Karma’ – both from this album.
In 2005, Alicia Keys recorded an MTV Unplugged series of her performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The CD for that recording was released later that year, and has sold over a million copies worldwide. It gained her 4 Grammy Nominations and won 3 NAACP Image Awards for ‘Outstanding Female Artist’, ‘Outstanding Song’ and ‘Outstanding Music Video’.
Alicia has been working on her next album since 2006, which is slated to be released in 2007.
She is also set to appear in her first movie titled ‘Smokin’ Aces’ co-starring with Ben Affleck, Ray Liotta, and Andy Garcia. The movie is expected to release in 2007 as well.
Another movie release scheduled in 2007 is ‘The Nanny Diaries’ where she stars along with Scarlett Johansson.
She would also be acting in the Disney movie ‘Bell, Book and Candle’.
Alicia Keys would be playing the lead role in the movie ‘Composition in Black and White’ which is a biopic about the 1940s biracial piano prodigy Philippa Schuyler.
Discography :
- 2005 Unplugged [CD & DVD]
- 2005 Unplugged
- 2004 Diary of Alicia Keys [Import Bonus Track]
- 2004 Diary of Alicia Keys [Germany Bonus CD]
- 2004 Diary of Alicia Keys [Australia Bonus CD]
- 2003 Songs in A Minor [2003]
- 2003 Diary of Alicia Keys [Bonus DVD]
- 2003 Diary of Alicia Keys
- 2002 Songs in A Minor [Japanese Bonus Tracks]
- 2002 Songs in A Minor [Expanded]
- 2002 Songs in A Minor [Bonus VCD]
- 2002 Songs in A Minor [Australia Bonus CD]
- 2001 Songs in A Minor.
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