On April 8 at the Santa Barbara Bowl, the Princess of Soul took plenty of them, providing the crowd with elements of drama that showcased her musicianship and exhibited her growth from teen songstress to accomplished performer. Keys started off her 90-minute set with plenty of stage dramatics. Screens were raised to reveal the songstress inside a cage, a songbird eager to break out of her a steel prison as she sang “Caged Bird” from her 2001 debut album “Songs in A Minor.”

Keys then launched seamlessly into “Love Is Blind” from “The Elements of Freedom" and, in quick succession, sang her 2003 song “You Don’t Know” and belted out a nicely arranged performance of her Grammy-award winning song “Fallin' " while playing a small keyboard.

Although known more for her musical skills than her dancing showmanship, Keys stepped things up a notch with a sultry performance of “Another Way,” her rock 'n' roll song with Jack White from the 2008 James Bond movie “Quantum of Solace.” Key’s sexy dancers and talented nine-piece band rocked the stage as the singer made her way down the stairs and belted out the tune. Although the funky, rock-infused Bond track stood out amid the mostly R&B show, the song worked nicely nonetheless judging from the Santa Barbara crowd's enthusiastic reaction.

“I want you to take a journey with me tonight,” Keys told the packed audience early on. “I want you to be Freedom Fighters with me. I want you to be yourselves.” Keys spent most of the show reiterating this theme of freedom of self-expression, a theme that runs through "The Elements of Freedom," which was released in November.

Keys shined during energetic performances of her 2003 song “Karma” and “Like the Sea,” off the new album, and exhibited why she is a standout among other pop princesses as she skillfully pounded on the keyboard during “I Need You.”

The show took a more relaxed tone midway as Keys performed a string of her well-known ballads. Taking position behind a grand piano that lit up the stage, Keys beautifully sang “Like You’ll Never” and “Diary,” which also featured the strong vocals of backup singer Monté Gill.

Keys then stretched out on top of the grand piano and sang “Wait Till You See My Smile” from her latest album. She coyly flashed a smile when the word “Change” shined brightly from the huge screen above her.

One of the highlights of the show included her jam session with guitarist Willie Brown. The two matched skills note for note as Keys played a huge keyboard shaped like - what else? - a key as the audience applauded the musical back-and-forth between the two.

While Keys went backstage for a quick change, backup singer Whitney Keaton of Champaign, Ill., wowed the audience with a stunningly soulful solo performance of “Feeling Good” from the 1965 Broadway musical “The Roar of the Greasepaint - the Smell of the Crowd.”

Keys reappeared on stage in a stunning white dress and belted out her latest hit "Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart," but garnered the most applause as she worked her fingers behind the grand piano for her Grammy-winning song "If I Ain't Got You."

Keys’ “Element of Freedom” tour - complete with an elaborate set, plenty of wardrobe changes and dancing on stage - is a departure from her more straightforward performance during the 2008 “As I Am” world tour. Now 29, the New York City native seems more comfortable commanding the stage and displaying her sultry side. She ended her set with a rousing performance of her version of “Empire State of Mind,” one of her more successful collaborations to date with rapper Jay-Z.

Keys was wise to take risks during this tour and depart from her more simplistic delivery. By expanding her artistic reach, she's found her own freedom of self-expression.

Before Keys took the stage, Canadian R&B singer Melanie Fiona gave a short but sweet 30-minute performance that featured songs from her Grammy-nominated 2009 album “The Bridge.” Fiona showcased her vocal reach with her epic single “It Kills Me” and the catchy “Give It to Me Right,” which heavily samples the 1968 hit “Time of the Season” by The Zombies.

Source

Singer Alicia Keys is all set to launch her own website and has teamed up with Monster.com to find a head blogger for the site IAAS.com -.

Imdb.com reports that site will be an 'inspiring online neighbourhood for super women to check in with what other super women are thinking, wearing and laughing about, and to prompt discussions on things the modern super woman cares about'.

'With IAAS.com, I'll be displaying my voice in a different way and need just the right person to help me express a point of view that I don't think exists yet in the blog world,' Keys said.


Keep Reading?

Musicians dabble in acting all the time, but Alicia Keys is looking to take her film career in a more serious direction. We’ve seen her ditch the mic for Smokin’ Aces, The Nanny Diaries and most recently The Secret Life of Bees, but her next venture in front of the lens is far more demanding.

As reported by The Playlist, Keys is all set to star in and produce the adaptation of Helene Cooper’s book The House At Sugar Beach. Cooper grew up as a member of the upper class in Liberia. When she was 7-year-old, her parents adopted a poor 11-year-old girl, Eunice, and, from then on, she indulged in the same riches Cooper and her sister were blessed with. When Cooper was 14, a group of enlisted soldiers overthrew the Liberian government, executing her cousin, the secretary of state, as well as the president. Her family fled to the US, leaving Eunice behind. The book hits on every element of Cooper’s experience from growing up in Liberia to returning years later to find her long-lost sister.


Keep Reading?

Fallin', A Woman’s Worth, You Don’t Know My Name, If I Ain’t Got You, No One, Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart…since 2001, it has been hit after hit for Ms. Alicia Keys. This woman is a mega talent, mastering the studio, stage and even the silver screen. She puts out the kind of music you buy on the Tuesday it is released - no excuses. Or maybe that’s just me. Either way, Alicia consistently proves her genius as a singer-songwriter-pianist-composer-poet. On this tour, Alicia is sharing music from her newest album, The Element Of Freedom, released December 15th, 2009 on J Records/MBK Entertainment. “The Freedom Tour” stopped last night in Boston, MA at BU’s Agganis Arena.

Keep Reading?

Herald: Why don’t we ever see your name next to Amy Winehouse’s or Lindsay Lohan’s doing bad things? What’s your secret to being so normal and staying grounded?

Keys: My trick to being normal and staying grounded is being normal and staying grounded. It’s the way I like my life to be. I love to have my privacy. Now I love meeting people too, so if I’m out on the street and someone spots me I greet them and thank them for saying hi. But I explain that I’m out with my family and move on without a lot of fanfare. I think it really disarms people. People go, “Wow, she’s just a regular person.” But they also become aware of my boundaries.

You seem to put a lot of effort into charity work. I know your Keep a Child Alive organization is a big part of your life. Have you always been interested in issues of global health and poverty, or is this new for you?

I’ve always been an empathic person. But I hadn’t been outside of America much until I started touring. That’s when I got to know what was going on with Africa’s AIDS pandemic. As I learned about the lack of access to medicines and orphan issues, the problems started to pull at me. So Keep a Child Alive has actually been around for almost 10 years now. We provide the medicine for children and families who have AIDS and wouldn’t be able to afford it.

Keep Reading?

BERLIN, GERMANY, March 23, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Fans of R&B megastar Alicia Keys are likely to be booking Berlin hotels in anticipation of her upcoming performance in the city.

The 29-year-old singer is due to appear at the German capital's O2 World venue on Friday May 7th as part of the Freedom Tour.

People attending the event can expect to hear plenty of songs from Keys' latest album, the Element of Freedom, as well as former hits such as Fallin', If I Ain't Got You, A Woman's Worth and No One.

Having burst onto the music scene in 2001 with her debut release Songs in A Minor, the performer recently teamed up with fellow New Yorker Jay-Z on the smash hit Empire State of Mind.

Keys has also collaborated with Beyonce on the duet Put It In a Love Song, which appears on her new album.

Having made her film debut alongside Ben Affleck and Andy Garcia in the 2007 crime caper Smokin' Aces, she also appeared in 2008's The Secret Life of Bees with Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson.

Keep Reading?