Self Care
Alicia Keys Is Deep in Her Grown‑Woman Era
Twenty-five years after Songs in A Minor graced us with new Black Girl anthems, Alicia Keys is choosing intention over grind—making space for creativity, joy, and purpose—and reminding us that evolution doesn’t stop once the legacy is set.
Lyne Lucien
While vacationing in Aruba in 2016, I chatted with a cordial cab driver. Our conversation drifted to American entertainment—especially The Voice.
The cabbie asked the name of the show’s pretty-woman judge. No disrespect to Miley Cyrus, who was also a judge at the time, but I knew who he meant. I replied, “Alicia Keys.” And he nearly sang her name: “Alicia Keys. Wow, she’s a star!”
Most of us can remember when we first heard Alicia sing, and how the room seemed to shift just a little once her voice hit. It was a collective “wait…who is that?” kind of wow. The talent was undeniable, sure, but so was the presence: equal parts gifted and grounded.
Since then, we’ve watched Keys grow from a tomboyish cutie in cornrows, baggy jeans, and construction boots into a self-possessed beauty who switches up her hair—braids one week, sleek and straight the next, then big curls—and wears everything from boho looks to power suits like it all belongs to her.
Now 45, Keys is a 17-time Grammy winner with multiple NAACP Image Awards—and a catalog that’s soundtracked more than one season of our lives. Twenty-five years in, Alicia Keys isn’t rushing for anyone. She seems clear about what she wants to hold in her creative hands now, and what she’s happy to leave alone. Her choices, and her offerings to us, feel intentional and personal, whether it’s Broadway, wellness, fine-art curation, or simply giving herself room to follow an idea all the way through. We love watching a sister who knows she doesn’t have to explain her timing.
Rising after “Fallin’”
“Alicia has been giving us grace, talent, and zero apologies since day one,” music journalist Danyel Smith wrote on social media.
In the early 2000s, my own “wow” moment came when I was introduced to the music of 20-year-old Keys, née Alicia Augello Cook, while I was a music editor at an e-commerce website.
My first listen came via a teaser CD single, “How Come You Don’t Call Me”—a cover of Prince’s sultry, bluesy B-side “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore?”—which Keys infused with sexy, streetwise swagger. But her true star-making moment came when “Fallin’,” the first official single from her dazzling 2001 debut album Songs in A Minor, hit the airwaves.
Back then, Aaliyah was still with us, and Destiny’s Child was everywhere. But Alicia hit different. No big choreography, no extra theatrics—just that East Coast confidence, the piano, and a real round-the-way vibe that made you lean in. Sisters of all ages took notice, fell for “Fallin’,” and sang it like we meant it.
Even Oprah was an early Keys fan.
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“I remember the first time @aliciakeys was on The Oprah Show and she hit that note in “Fallin” and I knew right then and there she was special. She just carries the Light with her and I have deep admiration and love for her,” Winfrey posted on Instagram.
“Fallin’” topped Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for six weeks and was the perfect vehicle to showcase Keys’s raspy vocals and musical sensibility, which seamlessly blends her R&B, hip-hop, and classical music influences.
Her talent tickling the ivories inspired her stage moniker “Keys” (the name also relates to her vision to open doors with her music). In her 2020 New York Times bestseller memoir, More Myself: A Journey, the mother of sons Egypt and Genesis with her husband and music producer Swizz Beatz talks about her early connection with the piano.
“Mommy knew then what I know now: I was put on the planet to play. I’m not sure how much of identity comes threaded in our genes and how much of it is shaped by our environment, but as far back as I can recall, placing my fingertips on the keyboard felt like coming home to myself.”
Her songs, our mirror
Twenty-five years since Songs in A Minor earned Keys her first five Grammys, including Best New Artist, Best R&B Album, and Song of the Year, the native New Yorker continues to provide a soundtrack for our trials and our triumphs. How many times have we hit replay after realizing we’ve been living the hook?
We find solace—and oftentimes reflections of the way things used to be—in her soul-stirring songs like “A Woman’s Worth” from Songs in A Minor; and “You Don’t Know My Name” and “If I Ain’t Got You” from 2003’s The Diary of Alicia Keys. Keys also knows how to hype us up with female-affirming anthems we can feel, like “No One” and “Superwoman” from 2007’s As I Am; the title track from 2012’s Girl on Fire; and “Underdog” from 2020’s ALICIA.
Throughout her career, Keys has leveraged her platform for the culture. She is an art connoisseur, and her touring museum exhibition and accompanying coffee-table book, Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, features more than 100 works of art by 36 Black artists, including Amy Sherald and Jordan Casteel.
Philanthropy is part of her playbook. In 2003, she co-founded the nonprofit Keep A Child Alive (KCA) to raise money and awareness for HIV/AIDS-affected children and families in Africa and India, and in 2018 she co-founded the She Is The Music initiative to increase the number of women working and advancing in the music industry.
Staying power like this is about knowing when to shift. Alicia Keys trusts herself when changing direction, changing pace, or choosing depth over demand. Her grown-woman confidence doesn’t announce itself, but we know it when we see it, because we’ve earned pieces of it, too.
Moisturized, unbothered and unmasked
During her three-season stint as a coach on The Voice, Keys made a statement by sparking the no-makeup movement. Her decision to go makeup-free in photos, television appearances, and on red carpets coincided with the release of her sixth studio album, Here, where she went barefaced on the cover.
“I don’t want to cover up anymore. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing,” Keys wrote in a published essay.
These days, Keys is back to wearing makeup when she wants to, and in 2020 she launched the lifestyle beauty brand Keys Soulcare. Since Keys has been candid about her acne-prone skin, rather than using cosmetics to cover up imperfections, Soulcare’s emphasis is on healthy skin, self-expression, and feeling good from the inside out.
“My skin was a reflection of how I was feeling… I know for a fact that’s what inspired the Keys Soulcare offerings… We have this idea of taking time for yourself and turning routine into ritual. Because you need that time for yourself, you need that space to love on yourself and to also realize what you want and what you don’t want for yourself,” Keys said in an interview with Byrdie.
We love watching Alicia in this season. She’s no longer the fierce baby sis we first loved, and she’s not pretending she has everything mapped out either. She’s adjusting. Protecting her energy. Getting clearer about what deserves her yes. And to those of us at midlife inflection points of our own—reshaping life instead of starting over—it feels satisfyingly familiar.
Multidimensional at midlife—an empire state of mind
At this age, we’re not here to shrink—we’re here to let every gift breathe, bloom, and find its own room. One of the boldest moves during Keys’s creative expansion is Hell’s Kitchen, the Tony Award–winning Broadway musical she produced and wrote the music and lyrics for. The semi-autobiographical show, which ran on Broadway for nearly two years and is touring North America through 2027, is based on her own coming-of-age story as a biracial teen being raised by her single white mom in an artistic New York City community. The crowd-pleasing show mixes hits from her impressive songbook catalog with new music, including “Empire State of Mind,” her Grammy-winning collab with rapper Jay-Z, and the buoyant original song “Kaleidoscope.”
“One of the things I love the most is the way the music is used. … I wanted to surprise people. I wanted the music to take the story and propel it forward … I wanted the songs to be totally unexpected and to be used in ways people had never heard before,” Keys told The Chicago Tribune.
Before stellar Tony winner Kecia Lewis, who played lead character Ali’s piano teacher, Miss Liza Jane, departed Hell’s Kitchen on Broadway, I took myself on a solo date to see the show. And I was brought to tears by Lewis’s plaintive rendition of Keys’s “Authors of Forever” (the song originally appeared on the album ALICIA).
I left the theater thinking about how much of Alicia’s gift has always been bigger than the moment: the way she builds songs you can live inside, and stories you can see yourself in.
And she’s not done yet. In recent interviews, Keys has shared that she’s writing and recording new music—taking her time, following her instincts, and letting the next stanza reveal itself without pressure.
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