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Alicia Keys' diary: ELLE Canada interviews Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys is back on track with a new outlook on love, career and the meaning of life.
By Adam Nayman
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The best and worst year of her life
In the liner notes for her chart-topping new album, As I Am, Alicia Keys doles out the requisite thank yous to friends, family and collaborators. She also makes an unexpected statement about the period in which the record was produced: "This year…how can I explain it? It has simultaneously been the best and worst of my life." So, can she explain it?
"It's tough to nail down in a quick, neat package," says the 28-year-old singer-songwriter during an interview on the eve of her performance at the American Music Awards. "I can definitely say that I was forced to learn about myself and the type of woman that I wanted to be. There comes a time in everyone's life when they realize they're following other people's good judgments. At that point, you have to stand up and make your own choices."
It's a surprising admission, since one of the defining aspects of Keys' career thus far has been her almost preternatural sense of self-possession. Her Grammy-winning 2001 debut, Songs in A Minor, was notable not only for its abundance of complex yet radio-friendly compositions (all written or co-written by the then-21-year-old Keys) but also for its creator's beyond-her-years bearing. Whereas so many of her pop-starlet contemporaries suggested label-made creations, Keys struck chords of authenticity as naturally as she elicited melodies from her keyboard. She was poised but not posed. Like her music and her lyrics, her persona seemed to be her own.
But six years and two successful albums later, the pressures of stardom started bearing down on the singer's fragile frame. Onstage or on disc, Keys sounded as empowered as ever, but behind the scenes she was struggling to assert herself. "I'd been touring so much and I was just over-exhausted from the whole process," she says. "I wasn't being clear about what was bothering me and the things that were bringing me heartache. Sometimes you try to ignore them, but it comes to a point where you can't."
Her new album
As I Am is the sound of confidence renewed. Her triumphant first single, "No One" -- which could be caught blaring out of every other car stereo on its release last September -- is an upbeat number with a defiant singalong refrain: "No one can get in the way of what I'm feeling." Old-school Motown grooves power "Wreckless Love" and the infectious "Teenage Love Affair," which has rightly been compared to the bubbly pop of the Jackson 5. Asked if the Motown sound was a guiding influence on the album, Keys implies that its presence runs deeper than mere stylistic homage. "It's a part of me," she says. "It's what I connect to, what I relate to."
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