Wywiad z Alicią w UT San Diego - 08.03.2013.

Alicia Keys: This girl is on fire
2013 has already been a banner year for the singer and songwriter, and she's just getting started
By George Varga

06.03.2013.

Alicia is on fire, at least figuratively speaking.
On Jan. 21, she performed two songs at President Barack Obama’s inaugural ball in Washington, D.C.
On Jan. 30, she was named the global creative director for BlackBerry.
On Feb. 3, the 14-time Grammy Award winner received broad acclaim for her sultry voice-and-piano performance 

of the national anthem at the Super Bowl.
On Feb. 10, the 32-year-old singer-songwriter gave a memorable performance at the Grammy Awards, where she sang a duet 

with Adam Levine and Maroon 5.

Thursday in Seattle, Keys kicks off the six-week opening leg of her “Set the World on Fire” tour. It includes a Wednesday, March 13, 

concert here at Valley View Casino Center (formerly the San Diego Sports Arena). Then comes a six-week European leg, which 

concludes June 28 in Portugal.
Could it be that “Girl on Fire,” the title track of her sixth and newest album, is a literal description of Keys herself?
“I do feel that way, and I think that’s the great part,” she said by phone from Los Angeles, where she and her band were rehearsing. 

This will be her first tour since her son, Egypt, now 2, was born.
“The phrase ‘girl on fire’ came from a personal feeling I had,” she continued, “and from growth, change and really finding that inner 

passion, trust and security to claim my own self, at this point in my life. Being a ‘girl on fire’ is about being yourself.”
A classically trained pianist, she credits her chosen instrument as a tool of personal liberation.
“I definitely know that my knowledge of the piano, and my experience of the piano, has totally set me free,” said Keys, 

who cites the genre-leaping singer and pianist Nina Simone as a major inspiration.
Keys' musicality, like her ability to deftly draw from different styles, has earned her some unlikely fans. One of them is acclaimed 

Indian-American jazz saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, a Guggenheim Fellow recipient, who performed in San Diego last weekend.
"I love Alicia Keys!" Mahanthappa said.
"I think she’s really great. I think her hits were good, but when you get inside those albums of hers, there’s lot going on. 

She’s another great example of what doesn't get discussed often in the mainstream media. Her music is very smart. 

It’s not just gut-level R&B riffing. There’s a lot of wonderful thought and complexity that goes into what she does and you can 

tell her musical background is very diverse, and that she’s checked out a lot of different stuff."

Keys sounded understandably delighted to learn of Mahanthappa's praise for her work.
"Wow, that is incredible," she said. "That's beautiful. I'm very grateful for his insight and that it seems to be coming from someone 

who has actually listened to some of my albums. For me, the mixture of music is the most incredible thing. That's where it 

all comes from, mixing and merging different music, people, culture and times. And when you do that, it takes things to 

a new level, a new emotional state."

Only 20 when her first album, “Songs in A Minor,” came out in 2001, Keys became a neo-soul R&B star almost overnight. 

Her single, "Fallin'," topped the charts, while her follow-up, "A Woman's Worth," rose to No. 3. To date, her six albums 

have sold a combined 30 million-plus copies worldwide and Keys has also won enough awards to fill a small house.
With her "Girl On Fire" album, Keys sounds alternately playful and sophisticated. She utilizes an array of intriguingly syncopated 

rhythms on such songs as "When It’s All Over,” “New Day,” “Limitless” and the album's title track. The skittering beats 

that result at times seem almost subversive, at least within conventional pop and soul formats.
"I think it's the result of a lot of experimentation, which is a lot of fun," she said. "That's what I think a lot of this album has been about, 

experimenting and having the freedom to combine new things and bring rhythms to the forefront. With regards to those rhythms 

on the songs you named, some of them were melody-first and piano-first, and that's where the drums would come in, afterwards.
"Like, with 'When It's All Over,' the rhythm of the piano drove the way those two drums styles played with each other. 

With 'New Day,' the rhythm of that song drove the rhythm of the piano, and that was a different way for me to write. 

Because I do mostly write my songs piano-first. 'Girl On Fire' happened simultaneously, piano and rhythm, because it was like 

a vibe session all going on at one time.
The songs all happened in different ways, but the experimentation with different drum styles has been crazy fun, and so has 

the urgency of it. Everything felt new and different, and fresh and triumphant."
Asked if music means any more or less to her today than when she was starting out, Keys mulled the question.
“Hmm,” she said. “It means more to me, because I think I understand just how much it affects people’s lives. … 

There’s not one person that isn’t listening to some type of music, because it lifts them up, gets them through the day 

or makes them want to dance or relax. … So, it means more to me (now), because I understand the depth of it.
“(But) music has changed for me, in the sense of why I chase it. I chase it now more for the beautiful things that happen 

when you’re able to create a song that comes together, and it moves you when you feel like you’re finally able to describe 

what you’re trying to describe.”

And when she was younger?
“(My goal) was still to do great music, but it was more about trying to get somewhere and always about moving forward,” 

Keys replied. “Now it’s about sitting and enjoying the moment.”
Moving or sitting, Keys has attracted the attention of other prominent musicians.
They include Jay-Z (with whom she recorded the celebratory “Empire State of Mind” in 2009); David Bowie 

(with whom she had a duet at a 2006 New York concert that, to date, remains his most recent public performance); 

and Bob Dylan (who wrote an entire verse of his 2006 song “Thunder on the Mountain” to her).

But when Keys sang the national anthem at the Super Bowl last month, she was alone.
Her slow, seductive reading of the notoriously difficult song recalled how Marvin Gaye put his stamp on the anthem at the 

1983 NBA All-Star Game and how Ray Charles turned “America the Beautiful” into an earthy rhapsody.
“When I was working on the arrangement, I actually listened to two of the most famous versions (of the anthem),” Keys said. 

“One was definitely the Whitney (Houston) version, which a lot of people might model their versions on. The other was Marvin Gaye’s, 

which was such a unique, individual expression of the song that non one else could ever do.
“Both inspired me to do my own version. And it definitely began at the piano, creating these different chords — with overtones 

and tension within them — that I could still sing the melody over, but it created a different emotion for me. … I worked at it 

for a long time and changed it as I went along. I even got angry calls from people in hotel rooms, telling me to be quiet! 

I’m really proud of how it turned out.”

Some musicians believe that, in order to write a truly great love song, you must first experience heartbreak. Does does Keys think?
"I agree," she replied. "I think you at last have to understand a deep love. Perhaps your heart hasn't been broken yet 

and you (only) understand hat beautiful side of love. When you do have your heart broken, then you understand all of it...
"Being a mother made me evolve in every way I can think of. I've become smarter, definitely more loving, more patient, 

more determined and more conscious of balancing things, too. I don't know if I understood that before. And in terms of the 

creative process, all these things have been a part of it. And having so much more that I've felt and experienced, it's a a deeper place."

Keying in on Alicia
In his new autobiography, “The Soundtrack of My Life,” legendary record industry executive and producer Clive Davis 

vividly recalls hearing the then-teenaged Alicia Keys audition in his New York office in the late 1990s.

“She sat at the piano and performed the songs that would later appear on (her debut album) ‘Songs in a Minor,’ 

along with some other material. It was a transcendent moment,” writes Davis, who also played a key role in the careers of Janis Joplin, 

Whitney Houston, Patti Smith, former Tijuana guitarist Carlos Santana and others.

“(Keys’) songs were powerful, intimate and personal; her singing was strong and distinctive; and her playing was brilliantly evocative. 

She sounded both absolutely of the moment and yet deeply rooted in the most nurturing traditions of soul music... 

she was the complete package; a totally compelling major talent with absolute star power.”