Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys

Alicia Augello Cook, known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter. She has sold over 50 million albums and 40 million singles worldwide. Keys is also acclaimed for her humanitarian work, philanthropy and activism. Her seventh studio album, Alicia, was released on September 18, 2020.

About Alicia Keys in brief

Summary Alicia KeysAlicia Augello Cook, known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter. She has sold over 50 million albums and 40 million singles worldwide. Keys has received numerous accolades in her career, including 15 competitive Grammy Awards, 17 NAACP Image Awards, 12 ASCAP Awards, and an award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and National Music Publishers Association. Keys is also acclaimed for her humanitarian work, philanthropy and activism; she co-founded and serves as the Global Ambassador of the nonprofit HIVAIDS-fighting organization Keep a Child Alive. Her seventh studio album, Alicia, was released on September 18, 2020. Keys’ father left when she was two and she was raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City. 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 is of Italian, Irish, and Scottish descent. Keys said her parents never had a relationship, and her father was not in her life. Her mother lived in a one-room apartment and often worked three jobs to provide for Keys. Living in the rough neighborhood, she was exposed to drugs, violence, and uninvited sexual attention. She was named by Billboard the top R&B artist of the 2000s decade. 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 2005 and 2017.

Keys was born on January 25, 1981, in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York city. Her father is African American and her mother is of Irish, Scottish, and Puerto Rican descent; her mother’s paternal grandparents were immigrants from Sciacca in Sicily. She lives in New York with her husband and three children. She currently lives in Los Angeles and has a son with her longtime boyfriend, rapper Jay Z, and a daughter with her ex-boyfriend, singer/songwriter/producer/actor/actor Travyon Martin. Her son is also a musician, and the couple have a son, Travon Martin Jr., who is a rising star in the music industry. Her daughter, daughter-in-law, and step-daughter are also musicians. Keys and her husband have two sons, both of whom are in their 20s and 30s, and they have a daughter, Madison, who lives with her mother in California. Her husband is a former NFL player and former New York Mets player. She and her son have two step-daughters, Madison and Mackenzie, who live in California and New Jersey, and she has two sons with ex-NFL player Travolta, who plays for the New York Yankees. Keys had her first number-one single in 2001. Her second album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was also a critical and commercial success, spawning successful singles \”You Don’t Know My Name\”, \”If I Ain’t Got You\”, and \”Diary\”, and selling eight million copies worldwide.