But it helped show me what a strong woman my mother was, and made me want to be strong like her. Although she did not like to speak about her father in order to not feed stereotypes, Keys remarked in 2001: 'I'm not in contact with him. Keys said her parents never had a relationship, and her father was not in her life. Keys's father left when she was two and she was subsequently raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell's Kitchen. Named after her Puerto Rican godmother, Keys has said that she was comfortable with her multiracial heritage because she felt she was able to 'relate to different cultures'. Keys's father is African American and her mother is of Italian, Irish, and Scottish descent her mother's paternal grandparents were immigrants from Sciacca in Sicily and Lamezia Terme, in Calabria. She is the only child of Teresa Augello, who was a paralegal and part-time actress, and one of three children of Craig Cook, who was a flight attendant. 2.9 2021: 20th anniversary of debut, Keys Soulcare expansion, KeysĪlicia Augello Cook was born on January 25, 1981, in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, a borough of New York City.2.5 2009–2011: The Element of Freedom, marriage and motherhood.2.3 2003–2005: The Diary of Alicia Keys and Unplugged.2.2 1998–2002: Breakthrough with Songs in A Minor.being awarded Ambassador of Conscience by Amnesty International she co-founded and serves as the Global Ambassador of the nonprofit HIV/ AIDS-fighting organization Keep a Child Alive. Keys is also acclaimed for her humanitarian work, philanthropy and activism, e.g. VH1 included her on their 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and 100 Greatest Women in Music lists, while Time has named her in their 100 list of most influential people in 20. She has received numerous accolades in her career, including 15 Grammy Awards, 17 NAACP Image Awards, 12 ASCAP Awards, and an award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and National Music Publishers Association. She was named by Billboard as the R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Decade (2000s) and placed tenth on their list of Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years. Keys has sold over 90 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. Her seventh and eighth studio albums, Alicia (2020) and Keys (2021), spawned the singles ' Show Me Love', ' Underdog', ' Lala' and ' Best of Me'. Her sixth studio album, Here (2016), became her seventh US R&B/Hip-Hop chart-topping album. Her fifth album Girl on Fire (2012), became her fifth Billboard 200 topping album, and included the successful title track. Keys' collaboration with Jay-Z on ' Empire State of Mind' (2009), became her fourth number-one single in the United States. The album included the Billboard Hot 100 charting singles ' Doesn't Mean Anything', ' Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart', ' Un-Thinkable (I'm Ready)'. Her fourth album, The Element of Freedom (2009), became her first chart-topping album in the United Kingdom, and sold four million copies worldwide. She released the theme song to the James Bond film Quantum of Solace ' Another Way to Die' with Jack White. In 2007, Keys made her film debut in the action-thriller film Smokin' Aces. Her third album, As I Am (2007), sold seven million copies worldwide and produced the Hot 100 number-one single ' No One'. Keys released her first live album, Unplugged (2005), and became the first woman to have an MTV Unplugged album debut at number one. In 2004, her duet ' My Boo' with Usher became her second number-one single. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards. Her second album, The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003), was also a critical and commercial success, selling eight million copies worldwide, and producing the singles ' You Don't Know My Name', ' If I Ain't Got You', and ' Diary'. It spawned the Billboard Hot 100 number-one single ' Fallin'', and earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002. The album was critically and commercially successful, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. After disputes with the label, she signed with Arista Records and later released her debut album, Songs in A Minor, with J Records in 2001. A classically trained pianist, Keys began composing songs by age 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Columbia Records. Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter and actress.

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