SHE'S BEEN IN THE INDUSTRY FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES, BUT THE MUSIC SUPERSTAR IS JUST GETTING STARTED
By RACHEL DESANTIS
Photograph by ERIK CARTER
Alicia Keys is many things. She’s a 15-time Grammy winner and an entrepreneur, having launched the beauty brand Keys Soulcare in 2020. She’s also a Broadway producer, an author, a wife and mother. But regardless of how many hats she wears, Keys, 44, knows how to stay grounded. “If there’s something I’m really proud of, it’s being who I am,” says the star, who shot to fame with her single “Fallin’ ” in 2001 and just performed at the Super Bowl with Usher. “No matter how you meet me, whether it’s in the studio or at school picking up my kids, you’re going to meet the same person.” Here the star reveals her keys to having it all.
You’ve been in the music industry now for more than 22 years. How did your experiences as a musician inform your work as an entrepreneur?I started so young in the music business. You have to be a self-starter. You have to be able to take the bruises and the bumps and the hard times, and you can’t let it knock you off your feet. I think that all of that energy and that ability to keep pushing and forging forward and believing . . . Ultimately you have to believe. No one’s going to believe for you. You have to make them believe. That’s the spirit of an entrepreneur.
You launched Keys Soulcare with Dr. Renée Snyder as a connection between skin and soul. What does that mean to you?If you’re not connected to your inner, then you can’t present [yourself ] most confidently outwardly. Beauty is a word we associate with a physical presence, but I think beauty is actually your spirit.
How has the meaning of beauty changed to you over the years?I had big skin challenges growing up, like constant breakouts. I definitely felt completely insecure. I didn’t feel like myself. I felt like I had to conform to everybody’s expectation of what they thought I was or should be. It took quite a lot of discipline and time before I got to the place where I realized that I didn’t have to fulfill other people’s dreams of me, I could actually just be who I am. But it’s hard to be that!
How did you learn to live life on your own terms?I thought I had to represent myself in a way that made other people happy, and I didn’t under stand that I needed to check in to myself and say, “What makes you happy? What’s going to bring you joy? How can you release the things that don’t serve you?” Reading makes me really happy. I realized that being in nature does give me a certain joy. I love silence.
‘You have to be able to take . . . the hard times’—ALICIA KEYS
Your sons Genesis, 9, and Egypt, 13 [with husband Swizz Beatz], are growing so fast. How do you encourage them to find their own passions in life?I really take their lead in a lot of ways. I ask them, “What do you think? What do you want? What feels right for you?” We’re big on conversations and communication. I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time not fully understanding or not trusting what I felt, so I want to teach them to trust their instincts. They’re doing really good, and they’re really smart. I really love watching them grow.
You and Swizz celebrated 13 years of marriage last July. What’s your secret to a successful relationship?We’re both very easy to speak to—I don’t worry about speaking to him, even about the hard things, and I think he feels the same. We laugh a lot—he’s really silly, I’m really silly. And time alone together [is a] key! Even though Genesis does not want us to have it. I’m like, “Genesis, you cannot come in the bed every night.” “But why?” I had to break it down. I said, “Listen, when Mommy and Daddy are happy, whole family happy. Not happy, whole family not happy.”
Your jukebox musical Hell’s Kitchen, inspired by your New York City roots, opens in April. What has it been like to watch it come to life?I can’t even believe this. Hell’s Kitchen is something I’ve been working on for the past 13 years. And so to see it come to fruition... Ultimately it’s a love story between a mother and daughter. My mother left Toledo, Ohio, to come to [New York University]. She is the one that came to chase the dream, which is what allowed me to create a dream. This is such a dream come true; not only for me, but it’s her dream come true
HER NEXT BIG MOVES
HAIR: TANYA MELENDEZ; MAKEUP: AYAKO; STYLIST: JASON BOLDEN; RIGHT PAGE, BOTTOM LEFT: JOAN MARCUS