Alicia Keys

Alicia Augello Cook was born in January 25, 1981, in Manhattan, New York, USA. She is better known by her stage name Alicia Keys. Alicia Keys is an American recording artist, musician, song writer and actress. Alicia Keys was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. When she was 7 years old, Alicia Keys began to play classical music on the piano. She decided to attend the Professional Performing Arts School and she graduated when she was just 16 years old as valedictorian. Later on, she attended Columbia University but she dropped out to follow a musical career. Not long after this, Alicia Keys released her first album with J Records.

Her debut album titled "Songs in A Minor" was a true commercial success, and it was sold in over 12 million copies worldwide. Alicia Keys became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. "Songs in A Minor" earned Alicia Keys no less than 5 Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'. Her 2nd studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.

Alicia Keys made some short appearances on several TV series in the following years, beginning with the TV series "Charmed". Her film debut came with "Smokin' Aces" and went on to appear in The Nanny Diaries in 2007. Her third studio album, As I Am, was released in the same year and sold six million copies worldwide, earning Keys an additional three Grammy Awards. The following year, she appeared in The Secret Life of Bees, which earned her a nomination at the NAACP Image Awards. She released her fourth album, The Element of Freedom, on December 15, 2009 which gave Keys her first number album in the UK.

During her career, Keys has won numerous awards and has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time. On the 11th December 2009, Keys was ranked as the top R&B artist on Billboard magazine's artist of the decade (2000-2009)