Alicia Keys

Alicia J. Augello-Cook (born January 25, 1981), professionally known as Alicia Keys, is an American R&B, soul, and pop singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress. Keys has sold over thirty million albums worldwide and has won numerous awards, including eleven Grammy Awards, seventeen Billboard Music Awards, and three American Music Awards.

Keys' debut album Songs in A Minor was a worldwide success, selling over eleven million copies,and received five Grammy Awards in 2002, with Keys winning Best New Artist and also Song of the Year for "Fallin'". Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and quickly became another great success worldwide selling about nine million copies and garnered Keys four Grammy Awards in 2005. After the successful Unplugged release in 2005, Keys returned to the music scene with her third studio album, As I Am, released in 2007, which has sold nearly six million copies and established her as one of the best-selling artists of the decade.

Early Life

Keys was born in the Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem, in New York City, New York, the daughter and only child of Teresa "Terria" Augello, a paralegal and part-time actress, and Craig Cook, a flight attendant.

Keys' mother is of Irish and Italian descent, and her father is Jamaican. Keys describes herself as comfortable with her biracial heritage: "I grew up in New York, and thank God, I never had to go through that in regards to, 'You're not black enough, you're not white enough,' the whole kind of white/black-mixture thing. I never had to go through that. I went through prejudices and all, surely. But I never had to battle with those two parts of me."

Keys' parents separated during her early childhood, and she was subsequently raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell's Kitchen, also in Manhattan.

In 1985, Keys and a group of other girls played the parts of Rudy Huxtable's sleepover guests in an episode of The Cosby Show called "Slumber Party".

She began playing the piano when she was seven, learning classical music by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, and her favorite, Chopin.

Keys almost chose Wilde as her stage name at age sixteen until her manager suggested the name Keys after a dream he had. Keys felt that name represented her both as a performer and person.

Keys graduated from the Professional Performing Arts School, a prestigious high school in Manhattan, as valedictorian at the age of sixteen in only three years. Although accepted to Columbia University, she decided to drop out and pursue her musical career. Keys signed a demo deal with Jermaine Dupri and his So So Def label, then distributed by Columbia Records. She co-wrote and recorded a song entitled "Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing)", which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1997 blockbuster, Men in Black. The song was Keys' first professional recording; however, it was never released as a single and her record contract with Columbia Records ended quickly. Keys later met Clive Davis, who signed her to Arista Records, which has since disbanded. Following Davis to his newly-formed J Records label, she recorded the songs "Rock wit U" and "Rear View Mirror", featured on the soundtracks to the films Shaft (2000) and Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) respectively. Keys then released her debut album, Songs in A Minor.

Gallery: