|
Facts
She does not see herself as a diva. "I hate the word. All of a
sudden every singer who is successful is a diva. I think it's so fake.
I'm not a diva. I am who I am in interviews. It's not a game. It's not a
joke. It's not a marketing scheme. I'm probably the most
low-maintenance, easygoing person ever. I like to have good energy and I
like to call people my friends. And I like to keep it like that".
The New Yorker was once robbed at gunpoint at Harlem. As self-defence,
she, like her fellow girlfriends, carried a knife in the tough neighborhood.
At 17, she moved out of her Mum's place in Hell's Kitchen and found her
own apartment at 137th Street between 5th and Lenox. She installed a
studio in the basement.
As a teenager, she read Ralph Ellison's 1947 novel The Invisible Man - the
story of an African-American misfit - and now considers it a source of
inspiration.
Her debut album was initially called Soul Stories In A Minor, but was
changed to Songs In A Minor. Her label, J Records, felt it might limit
airplay at African-American radio stations.
Expect her second album next year. Keys wants to make a political concept
album, which is going 'to be digging deeper inside of myself'.
At the September telethon, America: A Tribute To Heroes, which raised
US$150 million for terrorist relief organizations, she was the only young
artiste of her generation to be included.
At the telethon, she chose to perform the inspirational Someday We'll All
Be Free by Donny Hathaway. The R&B legend's greatest-hits album is her
'favourite CD every year'.
While she is anti-terrorist, she is 'not entirely a supporter of this war
in Afghanistan'. When asked by a TV station to record a message for the
American troops, she said: 'Keep your heads up and search for the truth.'
Songs In A Minor was among 2001's 10 top-selling discs in the United
States, with 5 million albums sold. The album has shifted 22,000 units in
Singapore.
|
