- Hey I'm Alicia Keys,
and today I'm doing the Wired Autocomplete Interview, yeah.
[hip hop music]
Here we go.
"Who Alicia Keys".
"Who is Alicia Keys?"
That's, honestly it's a really deep question.
I am an artist, I am a mother.
I am a person who is here to bring amazing energy.
I'm a singer, a songwriter, a producer, a creator.
I play piano, and I'm here to take your life
and make you feel good.
That's who Alicia Keys is.
Bang, bang, bang.
[giggles]
"Who is Alicia Keys related to?"
I'm not related to anybody,
although I always said The Black Keys were my cousins,
but they're not really my cousins,
but it would be kinda cool.
I only have one brother, his name is Cole Cook.
He's fire, he's a photographer, DP.
He does visuals, he's amazing, creative too.
"Who is Alicia Keys married to?"
I am married to Kasseem "Swizz Beatz" Dean
and we are complete opposites,
which is why I think it works.
"Who was Alicia Keys' piano teacher?"
My first piano teacher, her name is Margaret Pine
and she actually taught me from seven or six,
when I started first playing piano,
all the way 'til about 18.
She also taught my oldest son piano too.
Two for one.
"What Alicia Keys"?
"What band was Alicia Keys in?"
My first band that I was in was just four of my homegirls
from my neighborhood, and I don't even think
we got to a place where we had a name.
And then my second band that I was in
was kinda like one of these projects
that are put together by people,
and they heard I sang and they were like,
"Oh, maybe you can be a part of it."
It didn't work out with me, but eventually they came out.
Then I think their name was Little Women,
but I was never a part of that 'cause I moved on
and they moved on.
That didn't work out for me.
And then I had another band that we were about 14,
I was in and it was our homegirls from school
and we were always together at the PAL in Harlem
on 124th Street, singing Groove Theory's
"Tell me what you want me to".
♪ Tell me if you want me to ♪
♪ Give you all my time ♪
So that was our song.
We sang it 6000 times a day, trying to prepare for anybody
that would maybe open a door for us.
So nothing really happened with any of the bands
I was in, but that's okay.
I'm grateful for them all.
There was deep sisterhood there.
Eventually, I found my way to realizing
I wasn't meant to be in a group.
"What is Alicia Keys 'No One' about?"
My song right there.
"No One" is just about the real thing
and that no matter what, no one is gonna get in the way
of the real thing.
They can talk about you,
they can think what they wanna think about you
but the truth is, when something is real,
when love is real, no one can get in the way.
That's it.
"What is Alicia Keys New York?"
Alicia Keys is New York!
No what, period!
Alicia Keys is New York, boom!
"What is Alicia Keys 'Unthinkable' about?"
One of my favorite songs.
"Unthinkable" is the first time that I actually wrote
with Drake, which at the time, Drake was just coming up
and just in the game and we wrote this song, "Unthinkable".
I love it so much, it's such a zone.
But it's really just about,
are you ready to do the unthinkable?
Are you ready to go where you never thought you could go?
Are you ready to take the leap, take the chance,
give it a try?
If you do the unthinkable, would it make us look crazy,
or would it be so beautiful?
Either way, if you ask me, I'm ready.
"What is Alicia Keys 'Girl on Fire' song about?"
Y'all know what that's about!
It's in the title.
What you want?
About being damn on fire!
♪ This girl is on fire ♪
And it's about being able to scream at the top of your lungs
and it's about being able to do karaoke.
Honestly, that's all.
[giggles]
Next slide.
"What's Alicia Keys doing now?"
Like, right now?
I'm talking to you.
I'm sitting here on this Zoom.
There's a lot of self reflection going on
and who we are in this world during this quarantine,
during this pandemic, during this time.
So I feel like we're all asking ourselves the same question,
which is basically, what the?
"What is Alicia Keys?"
What does that mean?
What do you mean, what is Alicia Keys?
A human being, beautiful human being.
A beautifully powerful human being.
"What was Alicia Keys childhood like?"
Can you Google that?
'Cause will that even come up?
I grew up in Hell's Kitchen and it is in New York City,
born and raised.
Hell's Kitchen was a really really dark, dark place
at the time that I grew up.
But it was really powerful because it also had elements
of Broadway, it was right there on 42nd Street.
And where it had as much of the dope fiends
and the prostitutes as Broadway and the bright lights,
so I think that's a lot of what's made me who I am.
That balance and that difference and that dichotomy
between the darkness and finding your way through it.
"What is Alicia Keys full name?"
Well duh, Alicia Keys!
But if you wanna really get all up into the business
and the Kool Aid and everything,
that my original original name was Alicia Augello-Cook.
That's my full name, at least when I was first born.
Then Alicia Keys became the performance name,
and now Alicia Dean because I'm married.
"What is Alicia Keys favorite color?"
That's not true, y'all don't ask that stuff.
But my favorite color is purple.
I love purple.
It's just, I don't know, it means something to me.
The royalness of it, the depth of it.
It's so beautiful and there's so many different ways
that it can be.
But purple, that's me all day.
"What is Alicia Keys 'Fallin'' about?"
The song "Fallin'" is the very first song
off of my very first album called "Songs in A Minor".
It was about a relationship that I was in at the time
that was just, sometimes it was great and then sometimes
it was not great and I just could not figure out
what to do about it.
And I kept finding myself falling back in love
with this person, and it was like sometimes I love you,
sometimes you drive me crazy.
And that feeling that we all go through
when we really love somebody but it's confusing.
That was what "Fallin'" was about.
"How Alicia Keys".
"How was Alicia Keys as Grammy host?"
Nervous, stressed out, losing my mind
and then after I figured it all out and got all together,
really proud and excited to be there with y'all.
I hosted it two times and really to bring a feeling
of genuine energy and camaraderie.
"How was Alicia Keys discovered?"
Well, after those 60000 girl groups I told you about
that didn't really work out and didn't go anywhere,
one of them had a vocal coach who is such a beautiful soul
named Conrad Robinson, he had a brother
who was very very much into the music scene
and kinda managed different artists
and he had a production company and the whole thing.
And so Conrad asked Jeff, his name is Jeff Robinson,
to come see our group.
And when Jeff saw our group, he saw something in me.
He said, "You know, you should be a solo artist."
And I was like, "No, nobody wants to be a solo artist."
But that was the beginning of kind of figuring out
who Alicia Keys was.
"How is Alicia Keys related to Diana Ross?"
I wish!
Shoo, who don't wanna be related to Diana Ross?
I mean, Tracy is like a sister to me
and she's related to Diana Ross, so in a way,
I'm Diana Ross' daughter.
"How old is Alicia Keys son?"
Well, I have two sons and one is nine and one is five
and I'm surprised they're not bombarding, busting up in here
and all up in my situation, but they're not yet.
"Does Alicia Keys"?
"Does Alicia Keys act?"
What?
What planet have you been living on?
I do act, and I love it so much.
I've been in some very cool movies.
One that you should definitely watch,
"The Secret Life of Bees", which is a really good one.
And the other movie you should watch that I was in
is called "Smokin' Aces".
That one, cult classic, baby.
"Does Alicia Keys play the piano?"
You know the answer to that.
Hell yeah!
"Does Alicia Keys play the cello?"
That's good.
Actually, I played the cello in "Secret Life of Bees",
the movie that I was telling you about.
The character that I played played cello,
so I had to learn how to play the cello.
I had to practice the whole thing, it was hard.
What?
I'm not even reading that out loud, that's offensive.
[laughs]
Onto the next one.
"Does Alicia Keys write her own songs?"
Yes, I do write my own songs.
Since the beginning, that's been my thing.
I also play them and I also produce them.
"Is Alicia Keys" the best?
Oh.
"Is Alicia Keys a mom?"
Yup, I'm a real good mom too.
Don't you wish I was your mom?
Coolest mom ever.
"Is Alicia Keys a vegetarian?"
Hmm, seriously, you ask that?
I don't eat meat, but I do eat fish.
So pescatarian, fishitarian, but mostly no dairy, so kinda.
"Is Alicia Keys last name really Keys?"
I told you that already.
I don't Google myself, for real.
I think that's really dangerous.
I'm sure all the nasty ones were taken out,
like those nasty people that ask nasty [beep].
[giggles]