 |
||||||
| R&B
singer Alicia Keys released her first album, Songs in A Minor, in
2001. She was only 20 years old then. The album featured the hit singles
"Fallin'" and "Girlfriend" and rocketed Keys to
stardom. She won five Grammy awards in 2002, including Best New Artist
and Song of the Year for "Fallin'." Keys also has been a
prolific soundtrack artist, recording songs for movies such as Men
in Black (1997), Shaft (2000) and Dr. Doolittle 2 (2001). In 2003
she released her second album, The Diary of Alicia Keys. Alicia Keys was born Alicia Augello Cook to Terri Augello, an Italian-Irish paralegal, and Craig Cook, an African-American flight attendant, in 1981. Her parents split when she was just two, and she was raised by her mother in the tough Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York. Singing since she could speak, she started piano lessons aged seven, and within two years was playing Chopin sonatas. Aged 12, Alicia entered New York's Professional Performing Arts School to study voice, dance and - after her classical piano teacher said he had nothing left to show her - jazz piano. In 1996, the aspiring vocalist graduated two years early and first in her class. Despite her youth - she was just 16 - a scholarship to Columbia University followed, but, with a recording contract already under her belt, she dropped out of school after a month in order to pursue a singing career with Columbia Records. Alicia made appearances on the soundtracks for Men In Black and the remake of Shaft, but it was her first full-fledged release, the soulful Songs In A Minor that took her to the top of the charts in 2001. |
 |
|||||
| These
are a few of her favorite things… Favorite drink: the Malibu (cocoanut rum and pineapple juice) Musical Influences: Chopin, Marvin Gaye, Mary J. Blige, Miles Davis, The Notorious B.I.G., Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Beethoven Idols: Stevie Wonder, Maya Angelou Instruments: Piano, guitar Album: Songs In The Key Of Life by Stevie Wonder Secret Talent: Swimming Bad Habit: Cracking her neck |
Did
you know?
|
|||||