There’s a large list of things Alicia Keys is known for: incredible musical talent, charity-work and activism, her beautiful family—just to name a few. But despite accomplishing more in her 40 years than some people ever get to see in a lifetime, Keys is still aiming higher.
In a recent interview with Marie Claire, Alicia gets soul-level deep on what it takes to continue to grow through life, being a present and active parent while working, and building her body and soul-nourishing beauty brand, SoulCare.
Read some of the highlights of the interview below.
On her name jazz album, Keys, taking her back to her roots:
“I created the whole album sitting at the piano. It felt so good to just sit there. I felt so comfortable coming back to my home base, back to that rawness and exploring even more of this kind of jazzy energy I started with.”
Alicia on always creating a healthy work-life balance:
““I don’t want every single minute of every day accounted for,” she says. “My time is important. I want to have time with my family. I want to raise my kids. I don’t want to always be 60,000 miles away. [But when work does pick up, I’ll talk to my sons and say] ‘It’s going to feel like I’m not around as much and you’re going to feel it. I’m feeling it, too. It’s okay. This is a season.’ We have to have these types of conversations.”
On finding her creative footing during the stress of the pandemic:
“Everybody was like, ‘Are you just so creative because you have all this time in the house?’” she remembers. “I was like, ‘No, actually. I do not feel like that at all.’ I didn’t even know how to work. What was I supposed to work on? Where was I supposed to work? And when? It was so much of making sure everything was organized and the kids were good.”
Alicia on black representation, especially in art:
“Every room in this house has a beautiful Black face,” she tells me. “When my kids walk in this house, they look on these walls they see their beautiful Blackness and it is normal. That does give you a certain sense of validation or belonging.”
On her growth in life and in music, and how it’s led her to this very moment:
“As you grow, your trajectory goes higher,” she says. “Then, you get to more of what you were always searching for. You get to do all these things that take you higher and higher, and that’s how I see myself: I’m the best I’ve ever been.”
Read Alicia Keys’ full interview with Marie Claire here.
