Alicia Keys, a singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress, originally name Alicia Augello
Cook was born and raised in Manhattan. She recognized a numerous amount of influences including her supportive mother, born aware of her old soul yet living in New York's inner city amidst the dominance of Biggie and Jay Z. Alicia's talents formed into a rare mix of hip hop and a soul full blend. At age 16, Alicia's outstanding grades allowed her to finish high school early. "I was so deeply involved in music, I had already outgrown all the pressure of high school cliques and gossip."
Right out of high school, Columbia University accepted Alicia Keys and though she gave it a whirl, the desire to focus on music was the driving force over all else.

When Alicia's mother and father divorced it took a toll on her mother financially. Her mother was juggling her piano lessons and the bills she had to pay as well. Alicia decided to make a decision to take a little weigh off of her mother's shoulders by no longer taking piano lessons but her mom sat her down and told her "you can quit anything else but you can never give up on your piano lessons". Alicia's mother had a lot of faith in her and always pursued her to do anything she set her mind to, her teacher at the Performing Arts School in Manhattan was also a influence on her as well when she was majoring in choir she also got cretic for her voice. When Alicia was young she has a big dream about the music industry and how it was going to turn out. Everything that she imagined never turned to the outcome she expected, people didn't like her music it was crushing for her. She doubted herself due to the negative feedback about her music Columbia Records tried to clone her, they wanted her to be the next
"powerhouse". She didn't like the idea of wearing high heels, dresses and not being herself in the process. They tried to change her but she didn't want to be everyone else. Clive Davis knew she was different the first time he listened to her sing. Once Alicia got settled into the music industry there was confusion and a lot of negativity which made her go to Egypt for a week. She proceeded to find