Be Better Guys

Alicia Keys - all this AND she plays piano better than Billy Joel!

When word broke about Alicia Keys, what, eight, nine years ago or so, she was this unknown prodigy that Clive Davis had found and was going to push to become the next Aretha (whom he also discovered decades prior).  When her first single dropped, I thought it was whiny, overproduced and overblown; it lacked the soul I was looking forward to.  Then she played a Donny Hathaway tune on the post-September 11 broadcast Tribute to Heroes and I fell way in love.  Alicia was soulful, restrained, and even at a time when it may have not been appropriate (right after the 9/11 attack) – sexily powerful.  She wasn’t even trying to be alluring – she just was. 

 And since that time, I’ve kept an ear and an eye on her and frankly, I thought she’d become as much of a mover and shaker as Beyonce.  But in a way, I’m glad she’s super-successful but still lacking in Beyonce’s ubiquity and “over-dogness.”  Alicia is more beautiful than ever, better and more confident as a singer and writer, and successfully fighting back the industry’s attempts to get her to “diva-it-out.”  She stays out of the taloidbs and just collects royalties and Grammys.  It makes her one endearing-as-hell woman.