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Early Life

Alicia Augello Cook was born January 25th, 1981 in Harlem, New York City, United States. She is the daughter and only child of Teresa "Terri" Augello, a Irish/Italian legal assistant, and Craig Cook, a Jamaican flight attendant. Her parents separated when she was two and was raised in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan by her mother. Alicia began playing the piano when she was seven and began learning classical music. In 1997 she graduated from the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan as valedictorian at the age of sixteen after only three years. Although accepted to Columbia University, she dropped out four weeks later to pursue her musical career. Her first professional recording was a song entitled "Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing)", which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1997 blockbuster, Men in Black. Shortly after she met Clive Davis, who signed her to Arista Records and suggested she perform under the stage name Alicia Keys. In 2000 Davis formed his own record label, J, and immediately signed Keys.

Keys released her first studio album, Songs in A Minor, in June, 2001. It sold over 235,000 copies in its first week and went on to sell over eleven million worldwide, establishing her popularity both outside and within the U.S., where she became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album's first single, "Fallin'" spent six weeks at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The album's second single, "A Woman's Worth", peaked at number three on the Hot 100.The album led Keys to win five Grammy Awards at the 44th Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, and Best R&B Song for "Fallin'", Best New Artist, and Best R&B Album, "Fallin'" was also nominated for Record of the Year. Keys became only the second female solo artist to win five Grammy Awards in a single night, following Lauryn Hill at the 41st Grammy Awards.

Keys followed up her debut with The Diary of Alicia Keys, released in December, 2003. The album was hailed by critics, and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling over 600,000 copies its first week of release. It went on to sell 4.4 million copies in the United States and 9 million copies worldwide, becoming the sixth biggest-selling album by a female artist and the second biggest-selling album by a female R&B artist. The album produced three Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles, "You Don't Know My Name", "If I Ain’t Got You" and "Diary". At the 2005 Grammy Awards she won four Awards: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "If I Ain't Got You", Best R&B Song for "You Don't Know My Name", Best R&B Album, and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "My Boo" with Usher.

In 2005, on the back of the huge success of her first two albums, Keys was asked to perform for the MTV Unplugged series. Her performance was recorded on July 14, 2005 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The session was released on October 11, 2005. Simply titled Unplugged, the album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart with 196,000 units sold in its first week of release and has sold over 2 million copies worldwide to date. The album received four nominations at the 2006 Grammy Awards: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "Unbreakable", Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for "If I Was Your Woman", Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for her rendition of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's classic "If This World Were Mine" with Jermaine Paul, Best R&B Song for "Unbreakable", and Best R&B Album.

In November 2007 Keys released her third studio album, As I Am. As I Am debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 742,000 copies in its first week. It gained Keys her largest first week sales of her career and became her fourth consecutive number one album, tying her with Britney Spears for the most consecutive number-one debuts on the Billboard 200 by a female artist. The albums first single "No One" gave Keys her second # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for five consecutive weeks. The album received two Grammy Awards for the song "No One" at the 2008 Grammy Awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. To date the album has sold over 6 million copies worldwide.