Alicia Keys has a net worth of $150 million and is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. She and her husband, producer Swizz Beatz, have a combined net worth of $80 million.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
On January 25, 1981, Alicia Augello Cook was born in New York City’s Manhattan. Alicia Keys is her given name.
Teresa Augello’s lone kid, Keys, is one of Craig Cook’s three children. Her father abandoned her when she was two years old, leaving her mother to raise her alone in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen.
She started singing at a young age, even appearing in preschool musical events. Keys started taking lessons as a kid when a friend gave her an old piano. She started classical piano lessons at the age of seven.
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She would study classical music until she reached the age of eighteen. She also began taking studies in music, dance, theatre, and chorus at the Professional Performing Arts School when she was twelve years old.
The youth group Teens in Motion introduced Keys to manager Jeff Robinson when she was 13 years old. He became a mentor to her, bringing her to meetings with lawyers and record label discussions to demonstrate and educate her about the music business.
Robinson connected her to A&R executive Peter Edge, and the two of them worked together to put together some song demos for label executives to hear.
Columbia Records finally triumphed after giving her a $26,000 white baby grand piano in the subsequent bidding battle.
Keys maintained her schooling after signing with Columbia, finishing as valedictorian of her high school class at the age of 16. Following that, she received a scholarship to Columbia University.
She opted to drop out of college after a month to concentrate on music full-time after trying to reconcile the hard time schedule of her university course load with working in the recording studio.
She was, however, enraged by her lack of control over her music, as Columbia attempted to project a specific image for her and forced her to collaborate with producers she disliked. In late 1998, Keys negotiated her way out of her Columbia contract with the aid of Robinson and Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records.
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Her album was again put on hold when Davis was fired from Arista in 2000, but he created his own company, J Records, and signed her to it right away.
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Music Career
Alicia Keys started promoting her impending debut with appearances on programs like “The Tonight Show” and “The Oprah Show,” now that she is signed to J Records. In April 2001, she released her debut song, “Fallin’,” which went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In June 2001, she released her first studio album, “Songs in A Minor,” to great acclaim.
It debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 chart and went on to sell over 6.2 million copies in the US. Columbia Records had previously rejected material on the record, therefore it was included on the album.
The record was nominated for six Grammy Awards as a result of Keys’ refusal to give in to Columbia. Song of the Year, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song, Best New Artist, and Best R&B Album were among the five Grammys Keys won at the 2002 Grammy Awards.
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Her subsequent albums, “The Diary of Alicia Keys” (2003) and “As I Am” (2007), both charted well, and she was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2008 for the song “No One” (from the album “As I Am”).
“The Element of Freedom” was released in 2009, followed by “Girl on Fire” in 2012, “Here” in 2016, and “Alicia” in 2017. (May 2020).
Acting and Television Career
“Smokin’ Aces” (2007) was Keys’ feature debut, followed by “The Nanny Diaries” (2007) and “The Secret Life of Bees” (2008). (2008). She has also appeared on “Saturday Night Live,” “Empire,” and “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” among other series. Keys has also been on various reality music competition series as a judge, coach, or musical guest, including “The X Factor Australia” (Season 4), “The Voice” (Seasons 7, 11-12, 14, and 14), and “The Voice Germany” (Season 6).
Other Projects
Keys has worked on a variety of ventures outside of music. “Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics” was her first book, which she published in 2005.
It included previously unpublished poetry and songs from her notebooks, and it was a New York Times bestseller that year.
In March 2020, she published her book, “More Myself: A Journey.” Along with her production and songwriting partner Kerry “Krucial” Brothers, Keys is a co-owner of The Oven Studios, a recording facility on Long Island.
KrucialKeys Enterprises, a production and songwriting partnership that works on Keys’ albums as well as collaborations with other artists, was co-founded by Keys and Brothers.
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Over the years, Keys has also served as a brand ambassador for a number of companies. She appeared in a Dove ad micro-series promoting the Go Fresh range in 2008. She also appeared in an American Express ad and secured a sponsorship contract with VitaminWater.
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Personal Life
Prior to 2008, Keys was married to Kerry Brothers, a longtime colleague, and friend. She then started dating Swizz Beatz, a rapper and record producer.
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In May 2010, Keys and Beatz announced their engagement, married in July, and had their son in October of that year. In December of 2014, she became the mother of their second son.
Real Estate
Swizz and Alicia spent $12.1 million on a massive property in Englewood, New Jersey, in 2013. Eddie Murphy used to own the 25,000-square-foot, 32-room mansion on 5.4 acres.
They previously had a New York condominium, which they purchased for $12.75 million from Lenny Kravitz in 2010 and sold for a little loss in 2013.
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Alicia and Swizz spent $20.8 million for an extravagant property in La Jolla, California that had been offered for $30 million in September 2019.