Born in 1981 in New York, Alicia Keys began piano lessons at age 7. After graduating from the Professional Performance Arts School, she signed a deal with Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records. Davis left Arista to start J Records, and Keys followed. Her debut album, Songs in A Minor (2001), went platinum five times over and earned her five Grammys. She followed up with hit albums such as The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003), As I Am (2007), and Girl on Fire (2009), all of which won the artist Grammys.

 Musician and actor Alicia Keys was born Alicia Augello Cook on January 25, 1981, in New York, New York. Keys was raised by her mother, Nikki Augello—a part-time actress and paralegal. She began piano lessons at age 7, and Augello’s dogged insistence that her daughter sticks with the instrument led Keys to attend Manhattan’s prestigious Professional Performance Arts School, where she majored in choir. Having excelled academically, Keys was allowed to graduate at 16.

Keys had already attracted the attention of record company executives. At the same time, in high school, and after what amounted to a bidding war for her talents, she signed with Arista Records in 1998. While she was accepted to Columbia University on a full scholarship, Keys departed to devote herself entirely to her music after a four-week stint at the school.

Life was tough for Keys. Her mother struggled to make a living as a paralegal and actress. The two lived in a tiny one-bedroom apartment. However, Keys’ mother wanted her daughter to learn the piano. A family friend gave them an old upright, and Keys began taking lessons. Keys saw how much her mother struggled to make ends meet and begged her mother to let her quit, but Augello refused. 

At an early age, Keys learned to play classical music. She composed her first musical piece in tribute to her grandfather; at eleven years old, she wrote her first song. She told Toure of Rolling Stone, “I’ve had a deep love for music since I was four. Music came before Everything, Everything, Everything. It just meant more than anything ever meant. I would risk Everything for it. Then, I’d mess around and get kicked out of school for it or out of my Momma’s house.

 After that, there was nothing more important to me.” Her influences included classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the rock group Led Zeppelin, soul singer Nina Simone, and rapper Notorious B.I.G.

Keys entered the Professional Performance Arts School in Manhattan, majoring in voice. She saw a future as a singer and quickly found a manager to help her get started immediately. Manager Jeff Robinson began grooming Keys, helping her put together a demo, and placing her in showcases where people in the record industry could hear her.

 He also convinced her to join a girls’ choir through the Police Athletic League in Harlem. Keys and Robinson decided she did not need backup singers or a live band, just a piano, and she would get a contract.

 Once the executives heard her sing, a bidding war broke out. In the end, Keys signed with Columbia Records because they included a baby grand piano in the contract; she was just 15.

In addition to signing with Columbia, Keys graduated two years early from high school. She was the valedictorian as well. She was accepted at Columbia University, but it only lasted four weeks. She told Rolling Stone it was too much handling class during the day with studio sessions at night. She also moved into her own apartment at 17.

But what was once Keys’ most enormous opportunity turned into her worst nightmare. Columbia Records had an idea of how they wanted to proceed with her career, but she had differing opinions. Keys wanted to create music from the soul that touched people’s hearts; the record company wanted either another pop teen sensation like Britney Spears or a beautiful balladeer like Mariah Carey.

 They brought in several big-name producers to help her write and produce the music for her debut album, but she battled with Columbia to allow her to write and make her music herself. Finally, the company relented, but they disapproved of the music she created. Columbia also wanted to give Keys an image makeover. Though she was already thin and a natural beauty, the company wanted her to lose weight, straighten her hair, and shorten her skirts. However, Keys refused to change from her jeans-and-braids style.

Because of all the battles with the record company, Keys never released an album for Columbia Records. Instead, she began talks with legendary record company mogul Clive Davis, who helped launch several superstars’ careers, including Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, and Whitney Houston.

 Instead of looking at Keys as a commodity, Davis wanted to make her dreams come true. So he bought out Keys’ contract from Columbia and brought her to Arista Records. With creative control, Keys began putting together her debut album, Songs In A Minor.

 Davis told Toure in Rolling Stone, “I knew she was unique, I knew she was special, I knew she was a self-contained artist.… So few new artists can be showcased this way and blow people away.… Unfortunately, as she added the finishing touches to her debut, Davis was forced out of Arista, the company he founded, by parent company Bertlemann AG. As a result, Keys’ album’s release seemed unlikely.

 However, Davis created a new record label, J Records, and quickly signed Keys. In June of 2001, Songs In A Minor was released, debuting at number one.

 The first single off of her new album was “Fallin’.” The single was number one on the charts for six weeks as radio stations with differing formats played the tune nonstop. To help it along, both MTV and B.E.T. placed Keys’ videos in heavy rotation.

 Fallin’,” a song mixing an old 1970s soul music feel with today’s hip-hop, is a song many can relate to. With little sampling, many thought the piece was fresh and different from what was usually offered to the masses.

 The music was so popular and well-sung that on shows like American Idol, the song was banned because the judges thought others would ruin it.

Davis put Keys on a media blitz that included stops at The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. This was never done for someone as green to the industry as Keys. She was also scheduled to talk with numerous reporters and broadcasters.

 The blitz paid off as Keys’ album sales soared worldwide. Her second single, “A Woman’s Worth,” also reached the top of the charts. In all, her first album sold ten million copies worldwide.

 Keys performed on America: A Tribute to Heroes, a telethon to raise money for the victims of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, that was broadcast globally and viewed by 90 million people.

The year following Songs In A Minor’s release was a major one for Keys.

 She was nominated for six Grammy awards and won five: Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song, and Best R&B Album.

 Only one other artist in the Grammys’ history had won five awards, and that honor belonged to hip-hop star Lauryn Hill in 1999.

 Keys also won awards from several other entities, including the NAACP Image Awards, the American Music Awards, and MTV Video Music Awards.

Keys toured heavily to promote her album. She first opened for R&B singer Maxwell before headlining her own worldwide tour. She soon returned to the recording studio to begin work on her second album. She also collaborated with rapper Eve on the single “Gangsta Lovin’” in 2002.

In late 2003 The Diary of Alicia Keys was released. The album entered the charts at number one as more than 600 000 copies were sold in the first week of release. The first single, “You Don’t Know My Name,” landed in the top ten. Her second single, “If I Ain’t Got You, “a soulful ballad, also did well.

A review of The Diary of Alicia Keys in America’s Intelligence Wire reflected on her future, “Alicia Keys did a great job bringing us into her musical world with her latest CD, and with her growth and refusal to compromise with weak trends, she will continue to bring originality to the music game.

Keys won numerous awards for her new album. She also joined The Ladies First tour with platinum sellers Beyonce Knowles and Missy Elliott. In addition, she did a duet with R&B singer Usher on the hugely popular song “My Boo.

 The single garnered another Grammy win for the singer. In addition to the awards, Keys was also made an honorary member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in 2004. She also was nominated for several awards in 2005 and was named Songwriter of the Year by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers during their Rhythm & Soul Awards.

Keys wrote most of her songs on both of her albums, so it came as no surprise to anyone when she released a book of poems and her songs’ lyrics titled Tears For Water: Songbook of Poems & Lyrics. Black Issues Book Review’s Samantha Thornhill called the work “a curious amalgamation. And said that while it was a fine first effort, “Keys’ poetic voice needs to be developed more to allow her true phosphorescence to shine.

In addition to releasing her book, Keys helped two charities, From the Ground Up and Keep A Child Alive, which help children living with AIDS.

 She told Oprah Winfrey in an interview printed in O, The Oprah Magazine, “Everything I do stems from something personal, not just because it will look good on paper or be a tax write-off.… These possibilities give my life meaning and something other than the red carpet to look forward to.”

In 2005 Keys was tapped to help MTV bring back its Unplugged series. She filmed her show, which included guest performers Common and Mos Def, in July of 2005. The program was scheduled to air in October of the same year.

 Her performance was recorded, and an album of the concert was released in the fall of 2005. In October of 2005, it was announced that Keys would appear in her first film, an action-comedy called Smokin’ Aces, which was due for release in 2006.

 Keys was also scheduled to make another film appearance in an untitled Philippa Schuyler biopic. Schuyler was a child prodigy who toured the world playing classical music. Keys will portray the classically trained pianist and journalist who died in a helicopter accident while covering the Vietnam War.

Despite her rapid rise to stardom, Keys is still the same girl she was before she became famous. As of 2005, she still had an apartment in Harlem and the same friends and boyfriend. However, for her 24th birthday, she chose to go glow-in-the-dark bowling with her friends, unlike other celebrities who spend millions to celebrate their birthdays.

Keys declared that she hoped her music would stay indescribable. She told Winfrey in O, The Oprah Magazine, “I want my music to fit into any category. I want it to float wherever my heart goes. My music is heart music; giving it any other description is dangerous.” Undoubtedly, as long as Keys continues on her musical journey, her star will continue to rise.

February 2004: Even though they began dating in 2008, Swizz and Keys have been in the same music industry circles since debuting her album. They attended a Pre-Grammy Party hosted by Clive Davis. July 25, 2009: Music industry insiders knew their relationship long before the public did. Here Keys and Swizz attend Jennifer Lopez’s Surprise birthday party in New York.

September 17, 2009: The couple was frequently photographed together by the fall of 2009. They attend the flagship opening celebration at Tommy Hilfiger in New York City. December 18, 2009: They began dating in 2008, and by the end of 2009, Alicia and Swizz were more open about their relationship. They attended her album release party at M2 Ultra Lounge in New York City. December 18, 2009: The happy couple dancing at her album release party. “Alicia is with the man who has inspired so much of her music and album The Element of Freedom. 

January 27, 2010: In Hawaii earlier this year, Keys was spotted wearing what looked like an engagement ring. February 9, 2010: Fresh from their Hawaiian vacation Swizz and Keys flew to Brazil to film a video for her song “Put it in A Love Song,” featuring Beyonce. In Rio de Janeiro.

March 15, 2010: Newly public about their relationship, Keys and Swizz were frequently photographed together on the red carpet. In addition, they attended the Gotham Magazine annual gala in New York City in March. May 12, 2010: Swizz has a son with his ex-wife, singer Mashonda, whom he was married to for four years. He recently brought 2-year-old Kasseem Dean, Jr. to the 2010 SESAC New York Music Awards.

May 21, 2010: Keys kicked off her “Element of Freedom” party in Ottawa, Canada. The first signs of a baby bump were spotted during a stop in Dublin, Ireland. May 22, 2010: Even with a P.V.C. black jumpsuit, many speculated she was pregnant.

May 23, 2010: Pregnancy rumors only worsened when Keys wore a loose black top during a performance at the Gelredome in Arnhem, Netherlands. Alicia Keys performs at The O2 Arena on May 25, 2010, in London, England.

Alicia Keys Performs At The O2 Arena

Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys are seen after Alicia Keys’ concert at the Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy in Paris, France May 26, 2010: After two months apart while she toured Europe. Swizz joined Keys for the British leg of her “Elements of Freedom” tour.

May 27, 2010: Hours before announcing her pregnancy, Keys attended a fundraiser for her charity, Keep A Child Alive, in London. Nassir Dean, Swizz Beatz, and Alicia Keys leave Art For Life East Hampton 11th Annual Benefit at Russell Simmons’ East Hampton Estate in East Hampton, New York.

May 27, 2010: Reps for Alicia Keys confirm that she is expecting a baby with Swizz and that they are engaged to be married later this year. May 27, 2010: Still clad in black, Alicia and Swizz leave her Keep a Child, Alive fundraiser. Alicia Keys performs on the opening night of her U.K. tour at National Indoor Arena on May 19, 2010, in Birmingham, England.

The lovely couple enjoys a night out at dinner. Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz coming off of a luxury yacht in New York City. Swizz Beats and his wife Alicia Keys take a romantic stroll in a draped coral mini.

July 31: Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz are wed on the French island of Corsica. The happy couple will have their first child in November. Alicia Keys enjoys her honeymoon vacation with her husband, Swizz Beatz, on August 5. Alicia and Swizz spend some quality time together. 

The happy couple kicks back and enjoys their honeymoon. Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz show some love on the red carpet at the Keep A Child Alive Black Ball in New York City.

Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz sit courtside to watch the N.Y. Knicks defeat the Miami Heat. Then, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz take their family to see “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” on Broadway in N.Y.C.

Husband and wife Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys arrive at the ‘Keep A Child Alive Ball’ in London. Alicia Keys and her husband, Swizz Beatz, were snapped taking a family stroll in New York City. Their 5-month-old son, Egypt Daoud Dean, was nicely bundled up under mommy while Swizz’s other son, Prince Nasir, walked alongside his superstar stepmom.

Is Alicia Keys an underachiever, an overachiever, or both?

The classically trained pianist, a 15-time Grammy Award winner, is a versatile singer and songwriter who has made a broad impact with — and beyond — her music.

Keys is currently on the North American leg of her 2022 world tour, which was pushed back from 2020 to last year — and then again from 2021 — because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tour includes a sold-out concert on September 9 at the 4,600-capacity Cal Coast Credit Union Amphitheatre at San Diego State University. The venue is about 18 miles southeast of the seaside La Jolla mansion Keys lives in with her husband, noted record producer Swizz Beatz, and their two sons, Egypt, 11, and Genesis, 7.

This will be her first concert in her adopted hometown since Keys moved here several years ago. The New York-born musician has kept a low profile, although she and her husband attended hip-hop dynamo Nas’ concert last summer at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. Keys’ albums have sold more than 65 million copies worldwide. They were propelled by a slew of hit songs that include “Fallin’,” “If I Ain’t Got You,” “No One,” “Girl On Fire,” and — with Jay-Z — 2009’s “Empire State of Mind,” which she subsequently re-did on her own as “Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down.”

In April, Keys’ 2001 debut album, “Songs in A Minor,” was inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. In addition, her candid 2020 memoir, “More Myself: A Journey,” made the New York Times bestsellers list, while this March saw the release of her first graphic novel, “Girl on Fire.

An entrepreneur with her skincare line, Keys’ credits include work as a film, T.V., and Broadway theater producer. In 2003, she co-founded Keep A Child Alive, a nonprofit organization that provides care and support to families with H.I.V. and AIDS in Africa and India.

Keys, 41, is also an ardent social justice champion. Her performance at the 2016 Democratic National Convention included an impassioned plea for peace and solidarity.

“Until we deal with gun violence in this country, we can’t claim ‘home of the brave,” Keys told the D.N.C. audience. “It’s time to stand together and be unified. We must show the world that bigotry and fear will never win ’cause we have so much in common. 

Given her many accomplishments and commitment to the causes she supports, it might seem churlish to even suggest Keys may be an underachiever.

Her many awards and heady commercial success are formidable testaments to what she had accomplished after signing a major record label deal when she was 15. But Keys’ body of work as a musician has only sometimes revealed the full depth of her artistry — and her potential for creating truly innovative work that explores new vistas by digging deeper into her creativity.

By her own account, it was only with her eighth album — 2016’s socially charged “Here” — that Keys essentially cast commercial considerations to the wind. It was then that she let her emotions fully come to the fore.

“Here” is a brave, if uneven, an album that sees her addressing such diverse topics as climate change. (“Kill Your Mama”), addiction (“Illusion of Bliss”), impossible beauty standards (“Girl Can’t Be Herself”), same-sex relationships (“Where Do We Begin Now”), and racial inequities (the Nina Simone-inspired “The Gospel”). Speaking of her “Here” album in a 2020 interview with The Guardian newspaper, Keys said: “That was the first time in my life that I didn’t compromise. I wanted to challenge the status quo and challenge my own self to be truthful. You work so hard to be digestible, something people are not offended by.

“It becomes a habit — especially for women — and starts in childhood. For our whole life, we’ve been trying to figure out how to be the good girl when the bad girl is not bad; they’re just expressing another side or being in touch with anger or frustration. Finally, I turned around, like: ‘I just want to talk about the sh– that makes me mad.’”

It was a sound move, even if “Here” remains the lowest-selling album of Keys’ career.

Her follow-up, 2020’s more upbeat “Alicia,” saw its release date pushed back by half a year because of the pandemic. It sounded like a retreat, musically, to safer, more listener-friendly territory, perhaps in response to the limited commercial success of “Here.”

But the pandemic did more than just delay “Alicia” and Keys’ world tour. It gave her an unplanned period of extended solitude at home here with her family.

With no concert dates or deadline pressures, Keys was free to ruminate and explore making music simply for the sake of making music.

The result was her largely homegrown 2021 double album, “Keys,” which — at 21 songs and about 90 minutes — is her most expansive and ambitious release to date.

The album features two distinctly different discs. The first, the intimate, 11-song “Originals,” puts Keys and her supple singing and piano playing in the spotlight. The second, the 10-song “Unlocked,” reimagines eight of the songs from “Originals,” but in newly mixed or remixed versions that are more beat-conscious and comparatively radio-friendly, if still musically left of center.

For those listeners who want to hear Keys stretching out and taking chances, “Originals” offers many pleasures. They include the bluesy torch songs “Old Memories” and “Nat King Cole,” the jazzy ballad “Is It Insane,” and the gospel-flavored “Dead End Road.”

All four songs are reimagined, some subtly, some overtly, in their “Unlocked” versions. The intertwining nature of “Keys” — which presents two disparate but complementary versions of the same music — is a fascinating creative exploration, if not unprecedented.

Shania Twain simultaneously released three versions of her “Up!” album in 2002, while Taylor Swift has thus far released two versions of two of her albums, “Fearless” and “Red.”

But Swift’s new versions, which were released a decade or more after the original albums came out, were prompted by a legal dispute over the ownership of her songs. And Twain spent several years working on her three versions of “Up!” (one country, one pop, and one fashioned in the style of Bollywood film music from India).

Conversely, Keys put “Keys” together in a much shorter time and made it a double album, not two individual releases. The quiet, fanfare-free release of “Keys” at the end of last year suggests she realized this was not an album that would propel her back to the top of the charts.

And that is precisely the point.

Because what makes “Keys” so enjoyable and commendable is that Keys was willing to take chances and experiment, to stretch at will, without worrying about how listeners might respond.

It’s a move one might expect from a cult artist, not from a high-profile performer who has sold more than 65 million albums. And it’s a move that strongly suggests that the more curves Alicia Keys takes in the future, the better.

Alicia Keys went on a no-makeup journey in 2016, going fresh-faced on red carpets when full-coverage foundation and heavy contouring dominated makeup trends. Keys has opened up about what inspired the decision and her relationship with makeup today. In a new video on Instagram announcing the debut of makeup products in the singer’s beauty brand Keys Soulcare, Keys explains that there was a time when others’ beauty standards influenced her approach to makeup. “I definitely have been on my own self-discovery journey for sure,” she says in the video. “I felt like I had to please people, I had to be perfect — I definitely thought I had to be perfect. So I was holding onto all these kinds of standards of beauty.

She shared additional details about this period of her life, around the time when she first started performing at 16, in a recent interview with People. “I was in a new universe that I didn’t understand,” she told the publication. “It was full of anxiety, pressure, and stress, and my skin worsened. I continued to hide it and did my best to cover it because people can be nasty. After a while, I began to feel that I wasn’t beautiful if I didn’t have makeup.

She switched to her no-makeup lifestyle to let go of those beauty standards. “As you may have seen, I definitely have rebelled, and I had to go all the way over there to just find my voice,” she says in her recent video, gesturing to a distant space off-screen. “To discover who I wanted to be and how I wanted to be. And you get to decide what makes you, you. I get to create my own beauty standards. So that might be fresh-faced, that might be full-wattage — whatever that is, whatever feels good for you.

Now, Keys has returned to wearing makeup, using it in ways that feel right to her. In her recent Instagram post, she demonstrates a natural look with the products from her new collection: a cheek tint, tinted lip balm, and brow gel — all of which she describes as “the bridge between skincare and color.” At the opposite end of the spectrum, her makeup artist Ayako Yoshimura incorporated each into Keys’ 2022 Met Gala makeup, pairing them with rhinestone-studded winged eyeliner.

Keys’ hope is that Keys Soulcare customers will also use the products on their own terms, according to her post. “You can build it up, break it down,” she says in her video. “However you’re feeling, don’t forget you do you.