Alicia Keys: You Will Know My Name Poem by Paula Glynn

Alicia Keys born Alicia Augello Cook
January 25 1981 the day Alicia won with the looks
Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan
Welcoming the tough and resilient Alicia
An only child of Teresa Augello
A paralegal and part-time actress
Keys' father African American knowing that piano well spent
Her mother of Italian and 'Irish or Scottish' descent.

Keys comfortable with her multiracial heritage
Feeling able to 'relate to different cultures' in spite of vultures
Keys' father leaving when she was two years old
She was subsequently raised by her mother learning to be bold
During her formative years at Manhattan Plaza in Hell's Kitchen
Keys has stated that her parents never had a relationship
Her father was not in her turbulent life with a heart that was cold
But with a mother who had a heart of gold.

Alicia Keys remarking in 2001 with sad comments about her father:
'I'm not in contact with him. That's fine.
When I was younger, I minded about that. It made me angry.
But it helped show me what a strong woman my mother was
And made me want to be strong like her.'
Her mother working three jobs to provide for Keys
Who 'learned how to survive' Alicia taught to value and love life
Her mother's example of tenacity and self-reliance teaching Alicia to thrive.

Loving music and singing from early childhood
Keys recalled her mother playing jazz records
Of artists such as Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday
Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong on Sunday mornings
—early musical moments Keys considers influential
In kindling her interest in and emotional connection to music
In preschool, Keys sang in her school's production of the musical Cats
Cast as Dorothy Gale in a production of The Wizard of Oz.

Discovering she had a passion for the piano
Age six when she loved the sound and feel of the instrument
Desiring to play and learn it and when Keys was ten she was zen
A neighbourhood friend moving home giving her family an old upright piano
This proved pivotal for Keys' musical development loving lyrical confessions
Allowing her to practice, to play, and to benefit fully from music lessons
Keys beginning to receive classical piano training by age seven
Practicing six hours a day Alicia dedicated to the craft loving a musical draft.

Learning the Suzuki method and playing composers
Such as Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and Satie
She was particularly drawn to 'blue, dark, shadowy' melancholic compositions
And passionate romanticism of 'blue composers' like Chopin
Inspired by the film Philadelphia Keys wrote her first song about grandfather
On her beloved piano by age 12 music theory was at a Mozart level for Alicia
After seeing the film 'for the first time, could express how felt through the music'
This resulting in commercial legendary music that would dominate the charts.

The Professional Performing Arts School at the age of 12
Welcoming a talented Alicia: learning dance, music
Theatre classes and majoring in choir
Becoming an accomplished pianist loving soul music, hip hop, R&B
According to sources after her classical-music teacher had nothing left to teach her
She began studying jazz at age 14 the teenage years dramatically tough
Alicia dedicated to her musical practices and never having enough
Exploring these genres in her own musical compositions.

Signed by Columbia Records at the age of 15
She had disputes with the label and signed with J Records
To release her debut studio album, Songs in A Minor
Met with critical acclaim and commercial success
The album sold over 12 million copies worldwide with a lot of pride
Winning five awards at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards.
It contained the Billboard Hot 100-number one single 'Fallin'.'
The music industry always Alicia's calling.

Her second album, The Diary of Alicia Keys
Met with continued success, selling eight million units worldwide
Spawning the singles 'You Don't Know My Name'
'If I Ain't Got You', and 'Diary' earning an additional four Grammy Awards
An album matching its predecessor
2003 the year this second album did make Alicia free:
To compose music that she chose for herself:
Not just what the record label wanted
Alicia's classical training allowing her to compose pop classics.

Her third album As I Am (2007) Alicia never working a seven/eleven
Selling seven million units worldwide Alicia in musical heaven
Yielding her third Billboard Hot 100-number one single, 'No One'
Her fourth album The Element of Freedom (2009) a divine sign
Peaking atop the UK Albums Chart
Selling four million copies worldwide and supported
By the singles 'Doesn't Mean Anything', 'Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart'
and 'Un-Thinkable (I'm Ready) ' The video awesome.

Alicia's legacy continuing with albums 'Girl On Fire' 2012
'Here' in 2016, 'Alicia' 2020 and 'Keys' 2021
Alicia to also travel the world and become a mother
Alicia Keys a woman that doesn't run for cover
Her 2023 Broadway musical 'Hell's Kitchen' showcasing a life confessed
An upbringing as difficult as it was blessed
For Alicia Keys is the ultimate Greek muse
Where musical notes and singing are never confused.