UK: SINGER ALICIA KEYS PERFORMS IN LONDON AS HER DEBUT ALBUM CLIMBED TO THE TOP OF THE US ALBUM CHARTS

Record ID: 391849

  • Title: UK: SINGER ALICIA KEYS PERFORMS IN LONDON AS HER DEBUT ALBUM CLIMBED TO THE TOP OF THE US ALBUM CHARTS
  • Date: 10th August 2001
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALICIA KEYS SAYING "I try not to label it too much because I think that people draw their own conclusions, I don't want to limit the mind of an individual. But I personally would describe it as classical, Beethoven meets Buteng with a lot of soul. That's what I like to say!" WHAT DO YOU THINK BEETHOVEN WOULD MAKE OF WHAT YOU DO WITH HIS MUSIC? "I hono
  • Embargoed: 25th August 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5LPVC32S8066DSV9K96Z9ESP
  • Story Text: She's just twenty years old but R&B diva Alicia Keys has not only made a debut album that has climbed to the top 10 of the US album charts, but one that is refusing to budge.
    Not bad for a girl brought up on Beethoven.
    It took just five weeks for this girl's debut album to certify double platinum, so hungry were the US audience for Alicia Keys' sound. Which is hard to nail, changing as it does from the opening bars of Beethoven's Fur Elise or Moonlight Sonata into a soulful hip hop number. Keys discovered what she wanted to do when singing at the age of 4 in the Wizard of Oz.
    A few years later she started learning the piano and decided it was time to "spruce him up a bit". Beethoven that is.
    "I always knew it in my heart that this is what I was suppose to, this is what I wanted to do, this is what I could only do. So although there are definitely times when you get a little frustrated and things don't quite go your way and you're like "Woa, come on now!". I still held onto the fact that this was the direction I was going to follow and the path I was going to follow so I can say that I always knew somewhere that as long as I was going to work hard, it would come."
    Born in New York City to an Italian mother and African-American father, Keys started writing songs six years ago. Former Arista Records chief Clive Davis snatched her away from Columbia last year and signed Keys to his new label, J.
    People have already started calling her the new Roberta Flack.
    Her mother should be proud, even if Keys' London gig was one of the few performance she was not there to share in. "I miss her. She's not here with me but she usually comes with me, so she's at home right now waiting for me to come on back, telling me to do my thing and do a great job."
    Alicia Keys will be performing at the MTV Video Music Awards, at New York's Metropolitan Opera House in September.
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