The 29-year-old singer-songwriter-pianist opened her concert on Saturday night at the Oracle Arena with a recorded message. She spoke with passion to the packed house in Oakland about all the naysayers that once said she'd never make it in show business. The unspoken morale to the story, we were left to assume, is that good things happen to people that don't give up on themselves.

Assuming the underdog role was an odd choice for Keys. Were we really supposed to buy that this lovely, multitalented musician, who had a record contract in her pocket before she was 20, faced the same type of odds in her road to success as this article does in competition for a Pulitzer Prize? If anything, the opposite seemed to be true - when she made her debut in 2001, with the eventual Grammy-winner "Songs in A Minor," Keys seemed destined for stardom.

Still, she continued to beat the downtrodden drum when she finally made her entrance to the stage. The R&B/soul singer appeared in a cage, one that she'd finally free herself from by bending back a bar and slithering out the opening. The star would then hustle through some "Thriller"-style moves, accompanied by three other dancers, while her nine-piece band pumped up "Love is Blind."

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