Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook, known by the pseudonym Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records. Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth25 January 1981
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I dream about speaking in big forums about issues that need to be spoken about. I dream about helping others who I know and love, helping them realize their dreams. I dream about being able to express myself through acting and writing, definitely. I dream about bringing more realism into the world. Sometimes I just feel like certain things are so glossed over and covered up and swept under the rug and I just want to bring them out.
I've always expressed myself best through writing. I've gotten out all of my deepest feelings that way for as long as I can remember.
Writing in my journal keeps me focused on my spirit and what I need or feel.
When I was younger, my mother and I, we'd have these crazy, crazy fights. Everyone would storm out mad, and the only way that I'd be able to express myself was to write her. We would write letters back and forth for days. When I'm writing, I feel uninterrupted. I write what I'm going through and how I see it.
When I was first learning songs, I'd have a favorite song, and I'd take the chords and twist them around. I'd learn the chords and then play them backward. That was my first experimenting with writing a song.
If I want to be alone, some place I can write, I can read, I can pray, I can cry, I can do whatever I want - I go to the bathroom.
When I perform in front of large audiences, I'm much more comfortable, because I've already performed in front of tiny audiences - which is much harder, honestly. The smaller you strip things down, the more you depend on the songs and yourself, as opposed to arrangements.
I personally feel that acting is not totally different from singing and being a musician.
Here's my pet peeve: The not-so-unstated rule that all women are only to be treated as sexual objects and gawked at-you know, sitting up against a car, washing something, bending over, licking something. That just drives me crazy.
A lot of people, they've been saying to me, oh don't get married. It ruins everything. And I'm like, damn.
I learned the cello , but I would still need a massive amount of practice. But I do play classical music, so I understand where that comes from.
You don't know what will happen from one minute to the next.
The most important thing is to be proud of the work that you put into something, and put the ego aside.
I think it's the ego in us that screws us up.