Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys built a major pop and R&B career around her voice, songwriting and piano playing, beginning with the 2001 debut Songs in A Minor. Born Alicia Augello Cook in Manhattan on January 25, 1981, she was classically trained on piano and began composing at 12. She signed with Columbia Records at 15, then moved to J Records after disputes with the label. Songs in A Minor sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, won five awards at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards, and introduced “Fallin’,” her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single.

Her 2003 follow-up, The Diary of Alicia Keys, sold eight million units worldwide and produced the US top-five singles “You Don’t Know My Name” and “If I Ain’t Got You.” The album earned four more Grammy Awards. In 2004, her duet with Usher, “My Boo,” became her second US number one. Her live album Unplugged followed in 2005, yielding “Unbreakable” and making Keys the first female artist whose MTV Unplugged project debuted at the top of the Billboard 200.

As I Am arrived in 2007 and sold seven million copies worldwide, led by “No One,” her third Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper. That year, Keys made her film debut in the action thriller Smokin’ Aces. She later joined Jack White for “Another Way to Die,” the theme song for the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Her 2009 album The Element of Freedom reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and included “Doesn’t Mean Anything,” “Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart,” and “Un-Thinkable (I’m Ready).” Also in 2009, she appeared on Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind,” which became her fourth US number-one hit.

Keys followed with Girl on Fire in 2012, her fourth non-consecutive Billboard 200 number-one album, then Here in 2016, Alicia in 2020 and Keys in 2021. The latter two albums included “Show Me Love” with Miguel, “Underdog,” “Lala” and “Best of Me.” Her ninth studio album, the Christmas release Santa Baby, arrived in 2022 as her first independent release. In 2023, she wrote, composed and co-produced her first Broadway musical, Hell’s Kitchen, which won two Tony Awards.

With more than 90 million records sold worldwide, Keys has received 17 Grammy Awards, 17 NAACP Image Awards and 12 ASCAP Awards, alongside honors from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the National Music Publishers Association and the Recording Industry Association of America. Beyond music, she co-founded the HIV and AIDS-focused nonprofit Keep a Child Alive in 2003 and serves as its Global Ambassador.