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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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This issue of personal expression is especially pertinent given the calibre of collaborators assembled for the record, including ex-4 Non Blondes member Linda Perry, who has penned hits for the likes of Gwen Stefani, Pink and Christina Aguilera. Did Keys have any difficulty making her creative voice heard in the studio? "No," she says. "It's not difficult. Either you connect with the person or you don't. Linda Perry and I connected incredibly well. John Mayer [who co-wrote and performs on "Lesson Learned"] and I also clicked. I didn't have to worry about asserting myself -- my voice comes through."
Personal life
She clams up a bit when asked about another close collaborator-producer, Kerry "Krucial" Brothers, long rumoured to be the singer's boyfriend. "I've never confirmed that we're together, and I never will," she begins, choosing her words carefully. "Obviously, [Kerry and I] are very close, dating back to the first album. When you have a great friendship with somebody, there are always ups and downs and ins and outs, but they enhance the working relationship. It makes it more real and honest. You can't hide from somebody who knows you so well."
Keys knows a little something about hiding; she has never been shy as a writer or performer, but there has always been a guarded quality to her interviews -- and she admits as much. "That's one of the things I learned this year," she says. "Doing interviews, I was private to the point where I was desensitizing myself to my own emotions. It's funny because I'm a very emotional songwriter and a very emotional woman, so it's weird that I would be so emotionless in interviews. I did it to protect myself: I feel like if you let people in, they take advantage of it and abuse it. Now there are some things I still won't talk about -- things that are nobody's business -- but otherwise I have made a conscious decision to be more open, more honest and more verbal about myself."
Her work outside of music
One thing that Keys is happy to talk about is her philanthropic work. The CD jacket for As I Am contains an ad for Keep a Child Alive, a non-profit organization that delivers lifesaving AIDS medicines to children and families with HIV/AIDS in Africa, and Keys has visited the continent as an ambassador for the group. "I do it because I want to and because there's a real way that a large group of people can be helped," she says. "It gives my life a greater purpose." Keys will also dish on her recent move into movies -- and not because her performances in mainstream fare like Smokin' Aces (in which she convincingly portrays a lesbian hit woman) and The Nanny Diaries (in which she plays Scarlett Johansson's character's best friend) have her dreaming of becoming a crossover star. The big news is what she's doing behind the camera. "I set up my own production company through Disney," she says. "It's an incredible opportunity. I have my own unique perspective on the world, and my goal is to find stories that can spread that kind of diverse vision."
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