Fallin’ for Alicia!
Alicia Augello Cook (born
January 25, 1981), better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an
American recording artist, musician and actress. She was raised by a
single mother in the Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City.
At age seven, Keys began to play classical music on the piano. She
attended Professional Performing Arts School and graduated at 16 as
valedictorian. She later attended Columbia University before dropping
out to pursue her music career. Keys released her debut album with J.
Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then
Arista Records.
 Keys was the daughter and only child of Teresa Augello, a paralegal
and part-time actress, and Craig Cook, a flight attendant. Keys’ mother
is of Scottish, Irish and Italian descent, and her father is African
American; Keys has expressed that she was comfortable with her biracial
heritage because she felt she was able to “relate to different
cultures”.
Her parents separated when she was two and she was subsequently
raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell’s Kitchen,
Manhattan.
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 and Song of the
Year for “Fallin’”. Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys,
was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling
eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy
Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live album,
Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States.
She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut
at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.
Keys made guest appearances on several television series in the
following years, beginning with Charmed. She made her film debut in
Smokin’ Aces and went on to appear in The Nanny Diaries in 2007. Her
third studio album, As I Am, was released in the same year and sold six
million copies worldwide, earning Keys an additional three Grammy
Awards.
The following year, she appeared in The Secret Life of Bees, which
earned her a nomination at the NAACP Image Awards. She released her
fourth album, The Element of Freedom, in December 2009, which became
Keys’ first chart-topping album in the United Kingdom.
Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards and has sold over
30 million albums worldwide. Billboard magazine named her the top R&B
artist of the 2000–2009 decade, establishing herself as one of the
best-selling artists of her time.
Her studio albums include Songs in A Minor (2001), The Diary of
Alicia Keys (2003), As I Am (2007), The Element of Freedom (2009) and a
live album called Unplugged (2005). |
