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40 interesting facts about Alicia keys
Alicia Keys is an award-winning singer and songwriter with more than 40 million albums sold worldwide.
This child prodigy has many awards bearing his name and was ranked by VH1 in the list of the 100 greatest artists of all time in 2010.
If you love Alicia Keys, here are 40 fun facts you can't miss!
Her full name is Alicia Augello Cook.
Alicia is 39 years old this year.
At one point, as for her stage name, Alicia considered calling herself 'Alicia Wild' but her mother rejected it and said it was more like a stripper.
Her mother, Teresa Augello, is a legal and part-time actress.
Alicia's mother is of Italian, English, Scottish and Irish descent.
She started playing piano at the age of 7 and she majored in choir at the age of 14.
At the age of 5, Alicia appeared on an episode of ‘The Cosby Show‘ in 1985.
In 1994, Alicia Keys signed with Columbia Records and was also admitted to Columbia University.
Keys' first studio album "Songs in A Minor" in 2001 debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 12 million copies worldwide.
She made her movie debut as the assassin Georgia Sykes in the 2006 film ‘Smockin’ Aces ‘with Common, the famous rapper.
Alicia Keys performed live music at the opening ceremony of the 2016 UEFA Champions League Final, the first time in the tournament's history.
Keys debuted as a director with the short film 'Project 5' also known as 'Five' in 2011. It tells 5 different stories of 5 different women, all affected by cancer.
Much of Alicia's lyrics are about empowerment, love, and pain for women.
At the NAACP Image Awards, she received a 'Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture' nomination for her role as June Boatwright in "The Secret Life of Bees".
Alicia was the second female artist in a solo performance to win 5 Grammy Awards in one night at the 2002 Grammy Awards. Lauryn Hill was the first to achieve a feat at the 1999 Grammy Awards.
On July 31, 2010, Alicia Keys married record producer Swizz Beatz with a ceremony in French Island of Corsica.
To raise money for those affected by Hurricane Katrina, she performed in two concerts ‘Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast’ and ‘ReAct Now: Music and Relief.’
As a successful pianist since the age of 14, Keys incorporates it in most of her songs.
Alicia Keys is the ambassador and co-founder of the 'Keep a Child Alive ‘non-profit organization that specializes in providing medicines to treat HIV and AIDS in Africa.
‘Songs in A Minor‘ 2001 made Keys a worldwide star, making her the best-selling new artist that year.
Keys collaborated with rapper Kendrick Lamar, producer Pharrell Williams and composer Hans Zimmer for the song ‘It's On Again‘ as the soundtrack for the 2014 movie ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘.
Keys collaborated with husband Beatz, to produce the single ‘Million Dollar Bill‘ for her sixth album ‘I Look To You‘ by Whitney Houston in 2009.
Alicia Keys was criticized by anti-smoking activists when a billboard featuring a tobacco company's logo advertised cigarettes.
Alicia released the first book in a series of children's books entitled ‘Blue Moon: From the Journals of MaMa Mae and Lee Lee‘ on November 11, 2014.
She gave birth to her first child in Egypt on October 14, 2010 and soon after she recorded a song called ‘Speechless’ for her son.
With her Twitter campaign #NoMakeup, Alicia launched a no-makeup campaign saying that women's individuality was lost behind those foundation creams and mascaras.
Her single ‘If I Ain on Got You‘ remained on Billboard's R & B / Hip Hop songs chart for over a year.
After the 9/11 attacks, Alicia Keys performed ‘Someday We Will All Be Free‘, a song from 1973, at the television concert ‘America: A Tribute to Heroes‘.
Her second album ‘The Diary of Alicia Keys‘ won 3 Grammys at the 2005 Grammy Awards and ranked 31st on the list of best-selling albums of the decade!
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment in New York, Alicia Keys was announced as one of the ambassadors alongside Lady Gaga, Robert De Niro, John Leguizamo and Jane Rosenthal.
After a 2-year gap, Keys topped the song charts ‘My Boo‘ with Usher ’in 2004, topping Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R & B / Hip Hop Songs for 6 weeks and 3 weeks.
During the presidential election, Keys recorded a theme song for presidential candidate Barack Obama.
As June Boatwright in the movie ‘The Secret Life of Bees‘ in 2008, Alicia learned to play the cello for four weeks.
Along with writing partner Kerry Krucial Brothers, Keys opened a recording studio called The Oven Studios in Long Island, New York.
She was honored with the 2009 Golden Note Award, by the American Association of Composers, Authors, and Publishers for having achieved such milestones in her career.
Alicia Keys is one of the judges of the US reality television singing competition The Voice season 11 alongside Miley Cyrus, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton.
Keys appeared as a guest in the second season of the Empire TV series ‘Sinned Against‘ as the hit film Skye Summers in 2015.
During an interview with Manny Norte on ‘The Norté Show‘, Alicia Keys revealed that her 5-year-old son Egypt composed and sang a song without a title.
For the shoot for her single ‘In Common‘, Alicia Keys wore only a sweater and a scarf when she got back from the gym.
In 2015, Alica and her husband Swizz sold the 25,000-square-meter home because it wasn't big enough for their huge art collection.
