Alicia Keys Accomplishments

Alicia Keys is a singer-songwriter, actress, and producer, born Alicia Augello Cook in
New York, 1981. Born an only child, Alicia Keys parents Divorced when she was two years old, after which she was brought up by her mother, Teresa Augello in a one-bedroomed apartment in "Hell’s Kitchen" neighborhood in Manhattan. At the time this was no place to raise a child, it was a boiling pot for the negative, a place where prostitution, drugs and gang violence strived. Despite all the struggles her mom was persistent in wanting her daughter to succeed and did all she could for her to progress. Teresa Augello was Keys' pillar and inspiration, working as a paralegal until midnight most nights and then heading back to work after just a couple hours sleep

In 2003 after her very successful debut, Keys released a follow-up album The Diary of Alicia Keys. This album was also a success debuting at number one giving credibility to her previous award for the best brand new artist in the year before. This recent album once again had Alicia Keys taking over the R&B genre of the Grammy awards. Alicia Keys took the music industry to places it had yet to go. Her career seemed like a force of nature, unstoppable. In 2007, she released another album "As I Am" also debuting at number one, selling more than 740,000 copies in its initial week, breaking a record for the best productivity of initial release of an album. Alicia's key's records proceeded to rip the charts through 2008 alongside some collaborations. In 2009, Alicia Keys asked Clive Davis to allow her to write a song for Whitney Huston sixth studio album I Look to You. She later was featured in Jay-Z song “Empire state of Mind” which needless to say was a huge hit, entering the Billboards top 100 as the number one song. Also, during this year she collaborated with Hispanic singer Alejandro Zans in a track called Looking for Paradise, this was her first time at number one on all the charts. Later in 2009, she released her fourth record, The Element of Freedom, although not her most successful album, it is an excellent album, to say the