ALICIA KEYS FAMILY HISTORY PROFESSIONAL

Oprah: As a girl, when did you know that the music was in you and you were in the music?Īlicia: First I was working on classical music that didn't move me at all. I remember thinking, 'I don't care how difficult it gets, I will never do that.' I saw women on street corners in the dead cold of December. Whoa.Īlicia: My neighborhood was porno hell-prostitutes everywhere. Their skirts are tiny, and their shorts are as short as can be. When I'm walking down the street, I see these 12-year-olds who look 17. If you live in a world where that's the behavior you see, it becomes your reality-and that's how you learn to represent yourself.Īlicia: That's it. Oprah: Years ago I saw my niece sitting mesmerized in front of the TV, watching a music video with the lyrics 'Back that thing up.' These women were shaking their behinds. I've heard you say that music and television have become semipornographic.Īlicia: Absolutely. It kills me to see how some people present themselves. Oprah: That heart comes through in your music.Īlicia: I don't take that gift lightly, especially when I look at TV. Oprah: Do you think you have something others don't have?Īlicia: I definitely feel blessed-with heart. It'll be life changing.Īlicia: Not enough people want to be different from me. I'm not up at night thinking about it-yet it's a vulnerable place. At times that realization is frightening.Īlicia: I do. I believe in the limitlessness of humans. Maybe the reason I stutter over the word chosen is that it's scary. Accept it.' You're different from-not better than-everyone else.Īlicia: Right. You were brought to the planet to do what you came to do. You're not a composer or singer,' he said, 'because that's not your energy field. I go, 'What about 'All men are created equal'?' He said, 'People come into the world with different energies. He said, 'You have to face that you're chosen.' I sat there with the same face you have right now. I struggled with the word chosen until I shared a plane ride with one of my greatest mentors, Sidney Poitier. Oprah: I sense you're where I was until a few months ago. Oprah: I can tell that you use the word chosen hesitantly. I was blessed and, in a way, chosen to experience more of the world.

It's like, 'Oops'-and your reality is completely different. Having a child changes the trajectory of your life.Īlicia: That's why I wonder why one of my simple, silly misjudgments didn't turn my life upside down. The 20s are about discovering who you are. You know why? At 23 you can't manage your own life and the lives of four other people. Oprah: It's nice of you to say, but it isn't fine. I know people who are my age-23-and already on their fourth child. I've just seen how many people live on their blocks and never even go downtown. Many girls never make it beyond that 12-block radius.Īlicia: I've often thought, 'Why me?' Not in the sense that I don't believe it should be me. Oprah: After this interview, you're flying to London, Cannes, and Rome-and you're a girl raised in Hell's Kitchen.

The depth of who she'll become will startle her and the rest of the world. When I was working on The Color Purple, Quincy Jones said to me, 'Your future is so bright it burns my eyes.' I feel the same way about Alicia. Her second album, 2003's The Diary of Alicia Keys, debuted at number one on the charts. She won five Grammys for the album, tying Lauryn Hill's record for the most wins for a female artist in one year. Her first single, 'Fallin',' soared to the top of the Billboard charts.

Later that year, Davis formed his own label, J Records, and promptly signed Alicia. But in 2000, just as Alicia was completing her debut album, Davis was ousted from Arista and Songs in A Minor was put on hold. When her deal with Columbia Records crumbled, legendary music producer Clive Davis, president of Arista, signed her.

ALICIA KEYS FAMILY HISTORY PROFESSIONAL

After graduating as valedictorian from New York's Professional Performing Arts School, she was accepted at Columbia University.įour weeks into her freshman year (at age 16), Alicia traded one Columbia for another, eager to build a career with her record label. At 7 Alicia was learning classical piano, and by age 12, she was writing her own songs. Even with her meager means, Terri insisted that her daughter take piano lessons on a dilapidated upright a friend had given them. Though she was on decent terms with her father, Craig, she lived with her mother, Terri, who scraped by financially as a paralegal. The girl born Alicia Augello-Cook spent most of her childhood in Hell's Kitchen, one of New York's toughest neighborhoods.

Alicia keys family history