50 facts about Alicia Keys: studied classical piano from age seven playing composers such as and Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin

Keys has made guest appearances on several television series, beginning with The Cosby Show. Learn 50 interesting facts about singer Alicia Keys.

1. She is known by the pseudonym Alicia Keys, but her full name is Alicia Augello Cook.

2. She is not only a singer but also a songwriter, record producer, and actress.

3. Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide.

4. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. She released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States.

8. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.

9. Keys has made guest appearances on several television series, beginning with The Cosby Show.

10. She made her film debut in Smokin' Aces and also went on to appear in The Nanny Diaries in 2007.

11. Her third studio album, As I Am, was released in the same year and sold five million copies worldwide, earning Keys an additional three Grammy Awards.

12. The following year, she appeared in The Secret Life of Bees, which earned her a nomination at the NAACP Image Awards.

13. She released her fourth album, The Element of Freedom, in December 2009, which became Keys' first chart-topping album in the United Kingdom.

14. She released her fifth album, Girl on Fire, in November 2012, which became Keys' fifth chart-topping album in the United States.

15. Keys released her second live album, VH1 Storytellers, in June 2013.

16. Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards and sold over 35 million albums and 30 million singles worldwide.

17. Billboard magazine named her the top R&B songs artist of the 2000s decade.

18. In 2010, VH1 included Keys on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

19. Billboard magazine placed her number ten on their list of Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years.

20. In February 2012, Keys was ranked 14th on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Music list.

21. Keys was ranked at number thirty-three on VH1's "50 Greatest Women of the Video Era" list.

22. Keys was born in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan, in New York City.

23. She is the only child of Teresa (Augello), a paralegal and part-time actress, and Craig Cook, a flight attendant.

24. Keys' father is African American and her mother is of Italian, English, Scottish, and Irish descent.

25. Keys has expressed that she was comfortable with her biracial heritage because she felt she was able to "relate to different cultures".

26. Her parents separated when she was two and she was subsequently raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan.

27. 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".

28. Throughout her childhood, Keys was sent to music and dance classes by her mother.

29. She studied classical piano from age seven playing composers such as and Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin.

30. She 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.

31. In 1994, Keys met long-term manager Jeff Robinson after she enrolled in his brother's after-school program. The following year Robinson introduced Keys to her future A&R at Arista Records, Peter Edge, who later described his first impressions to HitQuarters: "I had never met a young R&B artist with that level of musicianship. So many people were just singing on top of loops and tracks, but she had the ability, not only to be part of hip-hop, but also to go way beyond that."

32. Edge helped Robinson create a showcase for Keys and also got involved in developing her demo material. He was keen to sign Keys himself but was unable to do so at that time due to being on the verge of leaving his present record company. Keys signed to Columbia Records soon after.

33. At the same time as signing a recording contract with Columbia Records, Keys was accepted into Columbia University. At first, Keys attempted to manage both, but after a month, she dropped out of college to pursue her musical career full-time.

34. Keys signed a demo deal with Jermaine Dupri and So So Def Recordings, where she appeared on the label's Christmas album performing "The Little Drummer Girl".

35. She also co-wrote and recorded a song titled "Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing)", which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1997 film, Men in Black. The song was Keys' first professional recording; however, it was never released as a single and her record contract with Columbia ended after a dispute with the label.

36. Keys almost chose Wilde as her stage name until her manager suggested the name Keys after a dream he had. Keys felt that name represented her both as a performer and person.

37. Songs in A Minor led Keys to win five awards at the 2002 Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, and Best R&B Song for "Fallin'", Best New Artist, and Best R&B Album; "Fallin'" was also nominated for Record of the Year.

38. Keys became the second female solo artist to win five Grammy Awards in a single night, following Lauryn Hill at the 41st Grammy Awards.

39. She collaborated with Christina Aguilera for the latter's upcoming album Stripped on a song titled "Impossible", which Keys wrote, co-produced, and provided with background vocals.

40. During the early 2000s, Keys also made small cameos in television series Charmed and American Dreams.

41. In 2006, Keys won three NAACP Image Awards, including Outstanding Female Artist and Outstanding Song for "Unbreakable".

42. She also received the Starlight Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

43. In October 2006, she played the voice of Mommy Martian in the "Mission to Mars" episode of the children's television series The Backyardigans, in which she sang an original song, "Almost Everything Is Boinga Here".

44. That same year, Keys nearly suffered a mental breakdown. Her grandmother had died and her family was heavily dependent on her. She felt she needed to "escape" and went to Egypt for three weeks. She explained: "That trip was definitely the most crucial thing I've ever done for myself in my life to date. It was a very difficult time that I was dealing with, and it just came to the point where I really needed to-basically, I just needed to run away, honestly. And I needed to get as far away as possible."

45. Keys made her film debut in early 2007 in the crime film Smokin' Aces, co-starring as an assassin named Georgia Sykes opposite Ben Affleck and Andy García.

46. In May 2010, a representative for Keys and Swizz Beatz confirmed that they were engaged and expecting a child together.

47. Keys and Beatz had a wedding celebration on the French island of Corsica on July 31, 2010.

48. On October 14, 2010, Keys gave birth to their son, in New York City. She recorded a song together with Eve called "Speechless", which is dedicated to her son.

49. Keys gave birth to her second child, a son, on December 27, 2014, and Keys performed at the BET Awards 2015 with The Weeknd.

50. In November 2014, Keys announced that she is releasing a series of children's books. The first book released is entitled Blue Moon: From the Journals of MaMa Mae and LeeLee.

Source: Wikipedia.org