Alicia Keys Biography and Information

Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys was born on January 25, 1981.Her mother, Terri Augello is white and her father, Craig Cook is black. Alicia grew up in Hell''s Kitchen, New York. (42nd Street ).This was not the nicest part of town, though this did not hold Alicia down. Her talent became obvious from as young as four when she appeared in a school play, though it was not until she was 7 that Alicia was introduced to the piano. She studied classical music from an early age, Chopin was apparently her favourite, though Alicia says that she had many, varied musical influences from jazz greats such as Marian McPartland, Oscar Peterson and Fats Waller, through to Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone, Donny Hathaway, even Biggie, Tupac, Jay-Z and Wu Tang.
In her pre-teens Alicia was part of a girl group calling themselves 'Embish'n, The group was not a great success and it became evident that their manager at the time was more interested in the fact the young ladies all looked good and were there for very marketable than in any real talent that they may have possessed.
At 14 years of age Alicia wrote her first song "Butterflyz" which is featured on her first album "Songs in A Minor."
She attended the Professional Performing Arts High School and it was while studying here that she wrote the previously mentioned "Butterflyz". Out of hours she rehearsed with vocal coach Conrad Robinson at the Harlem Police Athletic League Community center. Alicia was an ''A'' student by day and a performer by night. She played numerous showcases around New York just to get her foot into the door.
Alicia graduated as her high school valedictorian and was accepted to attend Columbia University. Right before starting, Alicia signed her first deal with Columbia Records. This did not work out so well and Alicia soon left, feeling that Columbia were intruding upon her artistic freedom.
Alicia''s career was put back on track when Clive Davis, who headed up Arista Records struck a deal to buy Keys out of her Columbia contract. After being ousted from Arista Records, Clive Davis took Alicia and a handful of other artists with him to his new label, J Records. So by the tender age of 18 Alicia was onto her second recording contract. The setup under J Records suited Ms Keys far more, and she began to build her career in earnest. Her big break came when Oprah Winfrey agreed to have her on the show. After a great performance of Fallin'' with 40 million people watching, the number of albums being shipped for the week of release doubled. In June 26, 2001, while Alicia was still only 20 years old, ''Songs in A minor'' was released and it debuted at number 1 on the charts and after 29 weeks continued to remain in the top 20, eventually going multi platinum worldwide. The first single "Fallin" ended the year at No. 2 on the Billboards Hot 100 chart, spending weeks in the number one spot.
Alicia truly seems like a legend in the making, just check the award list.......
FIVE Grammy's
1 VMA
2 American Music Awards
2 Billboard Awards
2 NAACP Image Award
3 Soul Train awards
2 World Music Awards
1 ECCHO award
(If I missed anything my apologies)

Outside of work Alicia enjoys reading and is said to like in particular the work of authors such as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Toni Morrison, and has also mentioned the autobiographies of musical great Quincy Jones and Assata Shakur, (a political activist).
Alicia still plays piano every day and believe it or not, she also takes piano lessons (As a student rather than a teacher). While her love of soul music is obvious Alicia says she find inspiration in all kinds of music, ranging from classical, jazz to old school hip hop.
Alicia is continually writing and producing for herself and artists with her company, Krucial Keys Enterprise, along with her partner, Kerry "Krucial" Brothers. The plan is to eventually establish their own label but the second album is scheduled for a 2003 release. It will be interesting to see what Alicia pulls out of her multi-talented bag this time round, It seems we have only glimpsed what she has to offer.
Alicia give''s the impression of being a very deep, spiritual and intelligent lady, this is evident just from listening to her music. She also clearly has a great understanding of music. She knows exactly how to manipulate sound, where to take it and when. Its sometimes easy to forget how good music can be, with all of the wafer thin rubbish that is force on you from every direction these days. Thankfully we have Ms Keys to remind us.