Alicia Keys
Twelve-time Grammy award winner Alicia Keys was born Alicia Augello Cook on January 25, 1981. As early as age 7, she already began playing classical music on piano. She attended music institutions where she trained, including Professional Performing Arts School and Columbia University.
Alicia Keys’ claim to fame was her debut album, Songs in A Minor, released in 2001 under J Records. This particular album sold over 12 million copies all over the world, earning her the citation as the best-selling new artist as well as best-selling R&B artist of that same year. From this record alone, Keys won five Grammy awards.
Two years later, The Diary of Alicia Keys was released, with similarly chart-topping singles, such as “Karma”, “You Don’t Know my Name” and “If I Ain’t Got You.” This album similarly became a commercial success, selling eight million copies and turning 7-time platinum. Four of Keys’ Grammy awards came from this record. A little later, she released Unplugged, her very first live album, debuting at #1 in the US charts. This produced the single “Unbreakable” which was part of the Billboard Hot 100, and “Every Little Bit Hurts.”
As I Am was Alicia Keys’ third studio album, selling six million copies and getting her another three Grammy awards. Barely 10 hours of being serviced to radio, has the track “No One” has become the fastest moving single on the Billboard Hot R&B charts. With this album, she gained her largest first week sales in her entire career, with 742,000 copies sold. After “No One,” Alicia Keys released “Like You’ll Never See Me Again”, “Teenage Love Affair” and “Superwoman.” She is set to release her next record entitled The Element of Freedom by the end of 2009.
After three studio albums, Alicia Keys has won 12 out of her 24 Grammy nominations, and has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. She has built an unparalleled repertoire of hits, incorporating her brilliance with piano into a majority of her songs. Some of the recurring themes and topics in her compositions are love and female empowerment. Her musical influences include Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand and Prince. Apart from classical piano, she uses bass and programmed drumbeats to come up with primarily R&B but with a hint of soul and jazz, and a little bit of pop and rock, into her signature musical style. Supplementing this piano mastery is her melodious voice and wide vocal range that spans three octaves.
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