"BBC News"
Alicia has keys to stardom (01/04/2002)
Alicia has keys to stardom
Singer Alicia Keys, who has received five nominations for the American
Music Awards, is on the verge of superstardom on both sides of the
Atlantic - but she is still relatively unknown in the UK. BBC News
Online charts her rise to stardom.
When Alicia Keys sang at the Scala in London on 24 October, she could
have travelled to the Kings Cross venue by Tube without being noticed.
Not any more. A lot has happened in three weeks and a more likely
scenario would be a blacked out limousine en route to Wembley stadium.
The 20-year-old R&B singer is being tipped for great things after
the American Music Awards nominations were announced on Tuesday.
Keys is the early favourite to sweep the board at the prestigious
ceremony in Los Angeles on 9 January.
London Evening Standard
And she is currently in the top 10 in the UK album and single charts.
The New Yorker, who recently topped the US charts with her debut album
Songs in A Minor, was nominated in five categories in the American
Music Awards.
Such acclaim would not surprise those who did see her concert in London.
Afterwards, London's Evening Standard newspaper said: "She slipped
from Beethoven to blues and Gershwin to gospel without dropping a
stitch.
"Her influences include Roberta Flack, with whom she shares the
ability to tumble through chord sequences most divas don't touch.
"Lauryn Hill just got herself some serious competition."
Keys is a musical prodigy who was born in Manhattan, where hip-hop
was the most common music heard from the street corners in her neighbourhood.
But her mother arranged for her to have piano lessons at an early
age.
"My mum didn't force me, " Keys told Wales on Sunday.
"I've loved the piano ever since I was young and I begged to
learn it.
She has already sung to a British audience
"My mum just helped me stay focused because you can lose focus
as you get older, you want to hang out and meet boys and all that.
"So I'm thankful for that support."
Keys is also thankful for a teacher at the Professional Performance
Arts School in Manhattan who gave her valuable instruction on her
voice.
Outstanding
Aged 16, Alicia's outstanding grades allowed her to finish high
school early.
She went straight to Columbia University, but soon left to focus
on music full-time.
With her classical musical education, plus her own songwriting talent
which she developed in her teens, Keys has been compared with a
young Roberta Flack by her record company J Records.
But the firm nearly missed out on the young star.
Sony won a bidding war for her signature in 1998 but she disliked
the direction in which they wanted to take her.
So she followed record company impressario Clive Davis when he left
in 1999 to head a new label J Records, where she found she had more
creative freedom.
And she continued writing, producing and recording the debut she
had begun aged 14.
Songs in a Minor topped the American charts with 235,000 copies
sold in its first week in June.
The single Falling followed it to the top of the charts in the States
and reached number three last week in the UK.
The long gestation of the album was, she thinks, a blessing because
it meant the music could develop in the face of any adversity.
"Fortunately for me different situations happened in my life
that weren't always perfect, especially when it came to the release
of my album.
"It didn't happen immediately so I had time to really develop
my patience and develop my skills and confidence.
Nerves
"So when the time came there wasn't a lot of pressure.
"In the beginning though when we were doing intimate shows
for certain high profile people I did get a bit nervous.
"I'm not a very nervous person normally but those nerves were
good for me."
Further evidence of Keys's stature emerged when she was picked to
write the theme song for Will Smith's film The Greatest.
It is about legendary boxer and black power icon, Muhammad Ali.
Š BBC News
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