Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys Biography

Alicia Augello Cook, singer, pianist, actress, record producer and American composer of R & B and Soul, known as Alicia Keys. She was born on January 25, 1981, in Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan. Daughter of Craig Cook, an African American flight attendant, and Teresa Augello was raised by her mother since her parents separated when she was two years old.

In the year of 1985, at the age of four, she played a role in the television series called The Cosby Show. During her childhood she took music and dance classes, with only seven years old she started to play the piano, starting in the studio of composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin. At twelve years of age, she enrolled in the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan where she excelled as a chorus and started with the first compositions of her songs.

In 1994 she met Jeff Robinson who would be her future manager and who the next year would introduce her to Peter from Arista Records. She graduated at age 16 and enrolled at Columbia University but soon had to drop out to devote herself totally to music.

In 1997 she signed a test contract with Jermaine Dupri and So So Def Recordings, appearing on the cover of the Christmas album playing “The Little Drummer Girl.” At this time she also recorded the song “Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing)” which was part of the BSO of the movie “Men in Black” and was her first professional composition as Alicia Keys.

“Soul is timeless.” Alicia Keys

On June 26, 2001, Clive Davis, who saw her as a special and unique artist, discovered her at Arista Records and released “Songs In A Minor” with which she won five Grammy Awards; encompassing the prized Minor New Artist and Song of the Year for the musical theme “Fallin.”

For the year 2002, she co-wrote the song “Impossible” for Christina Aguilera, a ballad for the album Stripped.

For the year 2003, she presented her second musical work called “The Diary Of Alicia Keys” an album inspired by the American music of the seventies. Thanks to this work, Alicia got eight more Grammy nominations.

For the year 2004, her duet with the singer Usher in the song “My Boo” with which they were worth other nominations to the 2005 Grammy awards, winning in three songs for album material of the album and for “My Boo.”

In October 2005, she released the album “Unplugged” a live album of the discontinued series of MTV acoustic concerts that Alicia Keys brought back to light, debuting in the number 1 of sales in the United States, turning it into the first female singer of R & B to debut consecutively with three albums in number 1.

On November 13, 2007, Alicia published her third studio album called “As I Am” success in sales which gave her the first place in the Billboard Pop 200, meanwhile the single “No One” reached the first position of the Billboard Hot 100 and it has been one of the most watched music videos of the year on YouTube.

For the year of 2008, Keys recorded with duet Jack White the song “Another Way To Die” for the movie Quantum Of Solace of the James Bond movie saga.

At the end of 2009 Alicia Keys released her fifth album, called “The Element Of Freedom” in which she performed a duet with Beyoncé and a DVD with an intimate live recording of three of the most representative songs on the album, as well as her great success “No One” and the clip of Does Not Mean Anything.

By 2010, she married Swizz Beatz, with whom she had Egypt Daud Dean who was born on October 14 that same year. For the year 2012, his studio album Girl On Fire appeared, it was released as her first single on September 4. Her first live performance was on September 6 at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards, in conjunction with rapper Minaj.

For the year 2013, she made her third world tour “girl on fire tour” to promote her album titled in the same way.

In 2014, she celebrated her four years of marriage and the birth of her second son, Genesis Ali Dean, born on December 27.

For 2016 she released her very powerful sixth studio album, named “Here” via RCA Records. This new album talked to the cultural climate of today’s world.