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Her official website says she possesses an "old soul," and the hard facts seem to back up the implied claim of wisdom and experience that transcend Alicia Keys' youth. Barely in her twenties, Keys was responsible for an extremely hot debut, Songs in A Minor. The release, which she wrote and produced for Clive Davis' J Records, blends diverse influences, including R&B, hip-hop, classical, and jazz. The day the album went on the market, it sold more than 50,000 copies. Label executives confidently predicted similarly favorable numbers for the first week's tally.
Around the time that Songs in A Minor was released, Keys was popping up everywhere, including an Associated Press story. Where had she been before then? Her entire life, it seems, had been an accelerated learning experience, preparing her for a career in music. A Manhattan native, her musical gifts became apparent when she was five years old. As a choir major enrolled in Manhattan's Professional Performance Arts School, she further developed her vocal talents with extra help from a teacher. By the time she was 16, Keys graduated and entered Columbia University. Music beckoned, however, and she quickly left Columbia behind.
Keys was writing songs when she was 14, with seven years of piano lessons under her belt by that time. In later years, she appeared on movie soundtracks, including Shaft and Men in Black. In 1998, she signed a deal with Arista Records when the company triumphed in a bidding war over other labels. When Davis left the company for J Records in 1999, Keys went along. Davis promoted the careers of such artists as Carlos Santana and Whitney Houston, and part of his launch strategy for Keys was to secure exposure on BET and MTV, as well as on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Her 2001 major-label debut, Songs in A Minor, hit number one, went multi-platinum, and was followed in 2003 by another chart-topper, The Diary of Alicia Keys, which became a Grammy winner. The live CD/DVD Unplugged appeared in 2005, following her previous releases to the top of the charts. ~ Linda Seida, All Music Guide
Dylan name-checks Alicia Keys
On the title track of upcoming Modern Times album, rock icon gives shout-out to soul singer and her Hell's Kitchen upbringing.
Bob Dylan may have just made Alicia Keys blush.
Bob Dylan
The title track of the rock icon's upcoming album, Modern Times, name-checks the young-but-acclaimed soul singer, according to The Observer, which scored a preview of the album, which hits stores August 28.
"Modern Times" is said to contain the lyric, "I was thinking about Alicia Keys, couldn't help from crying/When she was born in Hell's Kitchen, I was living down the line/I'm wondering where in the world Alicia Keys could be/I been looking for her even clean through Tennessee."
Informed of the lyrical shout-out, Keys, who was indeed raised in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York, told the paper, "I just knew somebody had to be playin' with me! How could such a legend know me? And bigger than that, want to write about me? I haven't heard the song yet - it's top secret. But I'm crazy excited about it and I'm honored to be on his mind."
Modern Times is the 65-year-old Dylan's first studio album in five years. His last, Love and Theft, was released in September 2001.
The Observer speculates that Dylan and Keys met at the 2001 Grammy awards, when Keys' debut album Songs in A Minor garnered a whopping five awards while Dylan won Best Contemporary Folk Album for Love and Theft.
The album also contains the song "Workingman's Blues," a tribute of sorts to the album of the same name by country legend Merle Haggard. The song contains the lyric, "I got a brand new suit and brand new wife," a line that some may link to Dylan's vague marital status.
The 10-song album also includes the tracks "Netty Moore" and "Ain't Talkin', Just Walkin'." Dylan is set to embark on his third annual tour of minor league baseball parks August 12 at Comstock Park in Michigan. A baseball-themed episode of his fledgling show on XM Radio, Theme Time Radio Hour, was recently added to the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library archive.
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