Alicia Keys Biography
Alicia Augello Cook, popularly known as Alicia Keys celebrated her birthday on January 25th 1981 in NYC, USA and was the daughter of Nikki Augello, an actress and paralegal who brought Keys up alone after her parents separated when she was just a child. Her dad, Craig Cook worked for an airline. She is biracial coming from an African American father and a mother of Irish, Scottish and Italian descent. When she turned 7, Alicia enrolled for piano lessons and stuck to it on her mother’s insistence. Keys later attended the prestigious acting School in Manhattan where she studied choir. She was an excellent student and therefore graduated when she was 16.
Meanwhile Keys had attracted a number of record companies and after high school she signed with Arista Records in 1998. She later chose to pursue music after just four weeks at Columbia University where she had been accepted for a scholarship. In 1999 Alicia was signed to J Records, a newly formed record company owned by the former "top boss" of Arista, Clive Davis who had worked with names such as Aretha Franklin who had gone on to become a big name in the music industry.
At "J Records" she worked on her debut record 'Songs in A Minor’ which included songs she had been working on for years. After a lot of publicity by J Records and appearances on television and various venues her debut album was released in 2004. The album’s quality was praised and well received making it multi platinum after selling more than twelve million records around the world.
Keys scooped 5 Grammy Awards in 2002 for Song of 2002. In 2008 she won four Grammy Awards for her album "Diary of Alicia Keys" which sold 8 million copies worldwide and was certified four times platinum by the (RIAA).
Alicia has appeared in many films such as "Smokin' Aces" where she co-starred with Ben Affleck and Andy Garcia, "The Nanny Diaries", and "The Secret Life of Bees". She also made a guest appearance on the popular series Charmed, on the drama series Cane and also on The Cosby Show at the age of four.
Keys has done extensive humanitarian work in her capacity as Global Ambassador and co-founder for the "Keep a Child Alive" campaign which aims to provide medicines for families living with AIDS and HIV in Africa. A documentary of her work and visit to Africa titled Alicia in Africa, was released in the Spring of 2008. She has also performed in various shows to highlight the suffering in Africa, probably the most well known concert being "Live Earth".
In July 31 2010, Keys married Kasseem Dean, popularly known as Swizz Beatz in a private ceremony on Corsica Island in France. Egypt Daoud Dean, the couple’s first child was born on 14 October 2010. Apart from the piano Alicia plays the cello, guitar, bass guitar among other instruments. She also produces and writes her own music.
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