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Cover Story
  H  E  R    V O  I C  E 
 m e s s a g  e  o n  m y  p  h o n e  i s  t  h r o a t y  w i t  h  a   h i n t  o f   l a u g   h t e r,  “  R  u t  h,  t  h i s  i s  A  l i c i a   K  e y s,  w e  a r e  s u p p o s e d  t o  t a  l  k.   I ’  l  l  c a  l  l  y o u   b a c  k  i n  f i v e  m i n u t e s. ”  O u c  h.   I ’ m  i n  t  h e  m i d s t  o f  a   h e  l  l i s  h  s c  h e d - u  l e  o f  t a p i n g   e  l e v e n  o n e -  h o u r  t v  s  h o w s  i n  f o u r  d a y s  a n d  w e ’ v e  a r r a n g  e d  a  p r i v a t e   h a  l f   h o u r  t o  t a  l  k  a n d   I ’ d  m i s s e d   h e r.   I  m u t t e r e d  a   h a  l f  p r a y e r  t  h a t  s  h e ’ d  s o o n  c a  l  l,  g  r a  b  b e d  a  s e c  l u d e d  c o r n e r   b a c  k s t a g  e  i n  t  h e  f a m o u s  o  l d  A p o  l  l o   T  h e a t r e  a n d  s t a r e d  a t  m y  c e  l  l - p  h o n e  w i  l  l i n g   i t  t o  r i n g . 
 P l e a s e.
   R  i g   h t  o n  t  h e  f i v e  m i n u t e  m a r  k,  s  h e  c a  l  l e d  a n d   I  s e t t  l e d  i n  t o   l e a r n  a  b o u t   h e r  n e w  a  l  b u m  a n d   h e r   l i f e  t o  d a t e,  s o o n  r e a  l i z i n g   t  h i s  w a s  g  o i n g   t o   b e  a n  e x c e p t i o n a  l  i n t e r v i e w. 
 S U P E R
 S I N G E R, 
 S U P E R
 P LA Y E R, 
 S U P E R
 W O MA N
A S  S H E  I S
 B Y 
 R U T H A D K I N S  R O B I N S O N
  E v e r y t  h i n g   a  b o u t  A  l i c i a  i s  e x c e p t i o n a  l.   W  h e n  y o u  s e e   h e r  u p  c  l o s e  y o u  a r e  s t r u c  k   b y   h e r   b e a u t y  w  h i c  h   h a s   b e e n  s p  l a s  h e d  a  l  l  o v e r   h u n d r e d s  o f  m a g  a z i n e s  f r o m 
 R o l l i n g  S t o n e
  t o 
 V a n i t y  F a i r
,  m o v i e s,   b i  l  l  b o a r d s  a n d  t v  s e t s  (   I m a g  e  A w a r d s,   B  E  T  A w a r d s,  S o u  l   T r a i n   h o n o r s  )  f o r  t  h e   l a s t  s i x  y e a r s. 
 P e o p l e  M a g a z i n e
  s e  l e c t e d   h e r  a g  a i n  t  h i s  y e a r  f o r  t  h e  s e c o n d  t i m e  a s  o n e  o f  i t s  “ 5 0  M o s t   B e a u t i f u  l   P e o p  l e ”  t o u t i n g    h e r   b e a u t y  a s  m y s t e r i o u s  a s  i n  w  h o   k n o w s  w  h a t  s  h e ’  l  l  d o  n e x t.
 c o n t i n u e d  o n  p a g e  2 4
 
www.B R E  ma  gaz i    ne.c om
october 2007
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She is a young renaissance woman. 
She writes music; she arranges music, she produces music.But there’s more than that, much more than that. She touches people’s hearts and souls. Her music is honest.Her music is pulsating. Her music is melodic. Walk down the street of any city in the world and you’re apt to hearsomeone singing one of her songs. She is also a poet of the streets and already one of the best ambassadorsto the world that music has ever had. I would venture to say that if you took a poll of people all over the worldto choose what musician under 30, no under 40, best exemplifies the highest quality of contemporary music, shewould be the choice by a landslide. She’s learned to give back from the day she had anything to give back. Her“Keep A Child Alive” charity exemplifies what is clearly her mantra: Aim as high as you can and make sure youdeliver and hit the target.
—Clive Davis presented Keys at the 2007 NY Recording Academy Honors on September 26
 
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Yet her lifestyle doesn’t play into thepaparazzi-feeding frenzy like so many otherstars of her generation. She’s no doubt moreaccomplished than the bald headed, druginfluenced celebutantes who find themselvesin the eye of those special kinds of hur-ricanes. For Keys, the difference is simple.“You look in the mirror and check yourself.You choose how you want to be.”Certainly Alicia’s choices have been fueledby monumental talent, and she’s chosenexactly who she wanted to be, using the tal-ent to expand emotions and awareness onmany levels. She has not used it for selfishor self-indulgent ends. Sayng that her wholelife had been in preparation for the last sixyears, this bi-racial child in a single par-ent urban household grew up with a strongrole model mother. Her mom recognizedAlicia’s musical gifts by the time she was fiveyears old. She was enrolled in Manhattan’sProfessional Performance Arts School,graduating valedictorian. A full scholarshipat Columbia was there, but she had to leaveearly—the music called as it had done herwhole life.With seven years of classical piano trainingbehind her, Alicia had already begun writ-ing songs at age 14. Early in her perform-ing career, she often opened shows playingTchaikovsky and has always had a particularfondness for Chopin. She seemed to breathein both the darkness and the light of thegreat classical composers, permitting themto give her extraordinary flavor as her owngifts grew.Her musical breadth was smartly usedas a marketing tool during the promotion of her first album, and her gifts have shown upclearly on all her subsequent albums. Now
october 2007
it’s time for the much-anticipated third stu-dio album
 As I Am
. “This one,” Alicia says,“really expresses who I am.” But she hastensto add that description can be said “of all myalbums.” They represented where she was atthe moment.Where she was in 2001 was an unknownwith a debut album. Under the wise tutelageof J Records founder Clive Davis, Alicia wasabout to be discovered. Somewhat unusualfor the man who’s been correctly telling art-ists what to do with their music for moredecades than can be remembered, Daviswisely left Alicia to her own devices for thatfirst album.
Songs in A Minor 
, released in 2001, sold10 million copies and won five Grammys, anunprecedented feat for a new artist. In thespace of a few months she went from beingminor to major in the pantheon of recordingartists.Where she was in 2003 was smack underthe microscope of an industry waiting to seeif she’d face the horrific ‘sophomore slump’that often follows a brilliantly successfuldebut album. It was also the first productof Alicia’s that the label tried to protectfrom the Internet invasion of file sharingand piracy.
The Diary of Alicia Keys
didn’tdisappoint anyone waiting to see what theprodigious writer, producer had to say thistime around. The album was hailed by criticsand debuted at #1 in the U.S., selling morethan 618,000 copies its first week of release.At last count, it has sold eight million copiesworldwide. At the 2005 Grammy Awards,she performed the album’s second single, “If I Ain’t Got You,” and then joined Jamie Foxxand Quincy Jones in a rendition of “Georgiaon My Mind,” in tribute to Ray Charles whohad died the previous year. That evening, shewon four Grammy Awards including “BestR&B Album” for
The Diary of Alicia Keys
,“Best Female R&B Vocal Performance” for“If I Ain’t Got You” and “Best R&B Song”for “You Don’t Know My Name.”Falling under the category of breakingrecords, she stayed on the charts for morethan a year and went on to become the best-selling female R&B artist of 2004. The liveCD/DVD
Unplugged 
appeared in 2005, fol-lowing the course of her previous releasesthat went straight to the top of the charts,giving her a three for three track record. It’sa stat not only rare but not likely to be dupli-cated.The wait is nearly over for the entiretyof her third studio album,
 As I Am
, set fora worldwide release on November 13 on JRecords. The reaction to the first single waswild. “No One” jumped all over the chartsand she knocked any other female’s statsinto the forget-about-it-bin. “No One” waswritten and produced by Keys, longtimecollaborator Kerry “Krucial” Brothers andDirty Harry. The Justin Francis/The SalineProject-directed video for “No One” recentlypremiered on national video outlets likeMTV’s “Big 10,” BET’s “Heavy Rotation,”
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