Alicia Keys Biography

Raised by her Irish-American mother (her father, a Jamaican, had left when she was very young), Alicia Keys was taught valuable lessons about independence and personal strength by her - she stated in later interviews that her mother's struggle against her circumstances taught her from the very start to take nothing for granted and to be self-reliant. Keys's first musical mentor was the piano tutor Margaret Pine, who instructed her in classical piano, but also in the jazz work of Oscar Peterson and Fats Waller. It is certain that the tender age at which she was exposed to classical music and piano jazz, as well as the urban sounds she would have listened to with her friends, were of huge importance in her career, informing her deftness at deploying a wide array of styles. Upon enrolling in the Professional Performing Arts School, she was then taught by Miss Aziza (who sounds far more like some kind of French burlesque dancer than a piano teacher, but then what do I know...), who opened her student's eyes to composition and production techniques. The young talent was spotted and signed at the age of 14 by manager Jeff Robinson, and she performed around various New England venues until she graduated from the Performing Arts School at 16. Keys did receive a scholarship to New York's Columbia University, but after a brief stay there the lure of a professional career in music proved too strong and she left.

If rumours are to be believed, Keys's management persuaded CBS Records to fork out an amazing $400,000 to sign her, but the relationship with her first label was as short-lived as it was unhappy. Columbia envisaged her being the next big R&B sensation, whereas Keys wanted something a bit broader, her classical background perhaps pushing her more towards the realm of ballads. Whatever the reason, keys had something of a false start to her career: 'It was a hard, depressing, frustrating time. The record label had the wrong vision for me. They didn't want me to be an individual. They just wanted to put me in a box.'

Keys managed to defy these limitations with the help of Clive Davis, a well-respected veteran in the record industry who had recently set up his own J label, and was looking for someone with the same sort of mass, cross-over appeal as one of his earlier singers, Whitney Houston. And although Keys's style is markedly different to that of Houston, Davis instantly recognised her ability and her potential. Crucially, he also recognised the need to let keys explore her talents, rather than dictate what her material was to be, and her first album, 2001's 'Songs in A Minor', was a fitting showcase of what the young artist was capable of doing. Making the most of her ability to write socially-conscious lyrics, and to perform them with soul and conviction, the album was a huge smash, garnering five Grammy awards, selling nearly quarter of a million units in its first week (easily securing the number one spot in its debut week), and going on to exceed sales of eleven million worldwide.

The first single 'Fallin'' was equally high-achieving, reaching number 3 in the UK and number one in the US, Belgium, Holland and New Zealand. By and large an old-school soulful ballad, the arrangement of the song was clearly based on James Brown's 'It's a Man's Man's Man's World', but this familiarity bred record sales rather than contempt. This was followed by 'A Woman's Worth', an anthem to female empowerment (NB not 'girl-power'!), and then a toe-tapping cover of the Prince B-side, 'How Come You Don't Cal Me?'.

Various collaborations were taking place too, as if to eradicate any lingering doubt there may have been that Keys had well and truly arrived, and hers was the name on many peoples' lips. Appearing with Eve on Angie Stone's 'Brotha part II', and again with Eve on her 'Gangsta Lovin' would have kept her well-known on the R&B scene too, and that coveted crossover popularity was in the bag.

Even amidst the hot-selling singles, Keys did not see fit to bite her tongue or to compromise her beliefs - for example, when asked to record a message of support for the American troops in Iraq, she did so, but not so as to compromise her anti-war stance. She later said to an interviewer: '...I definitely don't want to lie. So I told them 'Keep your heads up and search for the Truth.'

Backed by her team, comprising Robinson, Davis producer Kerry 'Krucial' Brothers and and A&R executive Peter Edge, Keys also managed to ensure that her musical integrity remained intact, as seen by her second album effort, 'The Diary of Alicia Keys' (2003). Recorded after having extensively toured its predecessor, the album was another massive success, notching another four Grammys, but more important than that, Keys was really satisfied with her work, and when looking back on the work she had done on the record, she reflected: 'When the album was complete I was ecstatic, because I really felt the energy of the songs and hearing them as one piece of work, I was finally able to say 'This is who I am right now'.

Keys followed up in 2005 with an 'Unplugged' album, which featured new material, and collaborations with artists such as Mos Def, Damian Marley, and Adam Levine (Maroon 5). Further creative avenues opened up, and within a short space of time Keys was also a published author, with 'Tears For Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics' (an anthology of new poetry and some lyrics from her first two albums) entering the bestseller list in the states. This was also in addition to the publication in the New York daily News of her tour diaries, making her a singer, songwriter, musician, foreign correspondent, author...now what else was there...?

The acting for which keys is becoming incrasinglyfamous was not actually that much of a recent development. Keys had studied dance and drama as well as music from a young age, and even had a small part as a child actress in the classic sitcom, 'The Cosby Show', when she was only four. However, as an adult Keys has now broken into Hollywood, landing a part as an assassin in the 2007 action movie 'Smokin' Aces', alongside such film heavyweights as Andy Garcia and Ray Liotta, and followed this with a part in the Scarlett Johanssen movie, 'The nanny Diaries'. She has also set up her own production company, Big Pita Lil' Pita, with which she is going to co-exec a drama series centred on the growing pains experiences of a bi-racial teenager - the more eagle-eyed may have noticed that this bears many similarities to her life, and although she acknowledges that the show is autobiographical in part, it is 'slices of my life', rather than an out and out life-story.

Fans of her music will be relieved that the transition to on-screen and off-screen media work has not meant that Keys will stop releasing albums, as seen by the 2007 LP 'As I Am', scheduled for release in November.

• Alicia Keys Discography