ALICIA KEYS - Entertainer, Singer, Actress, Wife and Mom

Alicia Keys - Enlarge, Click photo

 Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American R&B singer-songwriter, pianist, musician, record producer, and actress. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records. Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'" becoming the second American recording artist to win five Grammys in one night. Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.

Keys was born Alicia Augello Cook on January 25, 1981, in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan, in New York City.^] She is the only child of Teresa Augello, a paralegal and part-time actress, and Craig Cook, a flight attendant.  Keys' mother is of half Italian and half English, Irish, and Scottish descent, and Keys' father is African American; Keys has expressed that she was comfortable with her biracial heritage because she felt she was able to "relate to different cultures".   Her parents separated when she was two and she was subsequently raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. In 1985, Keys made an appearance on The Cosby Show at the age of four, where she and a group of girls played the parts of Rudy Huxtable's sleepover guests in the episode "Slumber Party".  Throughout her childhood, Keys was sent to music and dance classes by her mother.  She began playing the piano when she was seven and learned classical music of composers such as Beethoven,Mozart and Chopin.   Keys enrolled in the Professional Performing Arts School at the age of 12, where she majored in choir and began writing songs at the age of 14.  She graduated in four years as valedictorian at the age of 16.   Wikipedia.

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Swizz Beatz, real name Kasseem David Dean, is married to singer Alicia Keys, with whom he has a two-year-old son Egypt.

He also has three other children by three women - Prince Nasir, 12, six-year-old Kasseem and four-year-old Nicole.

Grammy winner Beatz has produced for every major name in the record industry, including Beyonce, Chris Brown, Dr Dre and Kanye West.

He has his own record label, Full Surface, which he set up when he was 23.