Alicia Keys

A gifted and skilled singer and songwriter, Alicia Keys was born in the City of Dreams - New York in 1981, in the family of a father flight attendant and a mother - lawyer. 

Being raised in the criminal poor district of the city, the girl experienced her parent's divorce at the tender age of 2. Despite poverty and сonstant financial stress, the only child in the family, Alicia always knew she would achieve success and set goals since her early childhood. A 4-years old girl appeared on the screens in “The Cosby Show” TV series. The young talent did not fit her environment and society, as far as she never knew what is illegal occupations, such as drug trafficking.  

Alicia’s mother took her daughter to the Performance Arts School of Manhattan, where the latter started acquiring the piano and performing Mozart’s, Beethoven’s and Chopin’s music works. As an excellent student, Alicia became the pride of her school and, in addition, having demonstrated amazing playing on the keyboards, she sang in the local choir and composed her own melodies. There are rumors that her single “Butterflyz'' was composed by a 14-years old Alicia. Thus passion for music became a turning point of a career beginning of a future R&B and pop star. After finishing school Alicia entered Columbia University and dropped it after 4 weeks of studying, aiming to become a famous singer. 

Alicia Keys signed her first ever professional contract with a producer Jermaine Dupri and “So So Def” label, which was the part of Columbia Records correspondingly. The first result of their collaboration was “Dah Dee Dah” song, which was the reason for the first signs of Alicia’s popularity. The song was used as a soundtrack to the science fiction action comedy movie “Men in Black”.  

Another acquaintance of Alicia - producer Clive Davis helped her to record and promote her debut solo album. Moreover, he managed to sell some of her songs to several big Hollywood companies.  

“Songs in a Mirror”, which is the first studio album of Alicia Keys, was released in 2001 and had a big effect in the US. Alicia has been granted 5 Grammys for it. 

Over 10 million copies of the album were sold, and it was just the beginning. Another album of the singer, “The Diary of Alicia Keys”, saw the world in 2003 and repeated the fame of the previous one and got platinum certification. 

Alicia received 4 Grammys again in various categories: Best R&B Album, Best Female  R&B Vocal Performance and Song, etc.  

In 2006 Alicia Keys released her first live album “Unplugged”, which showed impressive results: almost immediately, it peaked the Billboard 200 music chart and repeated the success of a rock band “Nirvana” in 1994.  

The 3rd studio album of the star “As I Am” was presented in 2007 and sold over million copies during the first 2 weeks of its release. Among such hits as “Superwoman”, “No One”, “Like You’ll Never See Me Again” and “Teenage Love Affair”, a prominent place takes “Another Way to Die” song, which became the lead single of a spy film “Quantum of Solace”. The interesting thing is that the song is the only duo consisting of Alicia Keys and White Stripes band in the history of the James Bond series.  

2007 was noticeable for Alicia Keys fans, as she tried a new experience -starring in the films as a professional actress. The first film the R&B star was seen in is “Smokin Aces” with Ben Affleck. After such a successful debut, the artist’s list of films she starred in became longer and longer: “The Nanny Diaries”, “Iconoclasts”, “The Secret Life of Bees”, “Here in Times Square”, etc. 

Though having received positive acclaims from the film critics, Alicia missed a lot of her singing activity. She made a powerful comeback in 2009 with her 4th studio album “The Element of Freedom”.  

3 years later, the singer and actress got married to an American hip hop artist Kasseem Daoud Dean with the pseudonym Swizz Beatz. The private wedding ceremony took place on the French island - Corsica. A few months later, Alica gave birth to her firstborn - Egypt Daoud Dean. Besides her son, she also raised 3 more children from the previous relationships of her husband.  

Apart from singing and starring in films of various genres, such as fantasy drama, sketch and dance comedies, documentary TV series, The R&B diva is an active member of different charity events and campaigns, such as breast cancer campaigns and African protests against poverty.