Music helps pull Alicia Keys ‘out of a rut’
Alicia Keys
No longer bound by a yearning to please everyone, Alicia Keys, at 39, has never been more comfortable in her own skin.
“I swear, I wouldn’t go back to being 20 if somebody paid me—it was literally the worst time ever,” the R&B star said in InStyle Magazine’s latest cover story.
“I wanted to fit in so desperately. I was so blind, so dependent on everyone else’s opinions, so uncomfortable, so unclear,” she added.
But the more life experience she gained along the way, the more in tune she became with her own feelings.
Empathy also played a role in her growth. One of the things Alicia remembers fondly about growing up in her family’s old New York apartment was a framed poster of the Golden Rule that her mother hung on the wall.
“I’m coming to the place now where I’m able to live more fully in my skin, my imperfections and my feelings, which are so hard to access,” she related. “Because we want to protect our heart, right? That’s what we’re all doing in some way.”
“And my ability to access that place has brought a deeper connection to other people,” added the award-winning singer songwriter, who cofounded Keep a Child Alive—a nonprofit organization that helps African and Indian communities coping with HIV/AIDS.
Because of her humble upbringing, Alicia, for most of her life, has always made sure to keep her feet on the ground despite her success. And this made it difficult for her to reward herself.
“I began to understand that my humility was sometimes a mask for self-worth issues. I was saying, ‘Oh, I don’t need much! I only need a little bit, and I’m fine.’ I was kind of cutting off my blessings,” she related. “But I started to recognize, ‘Wow, I have this wrong.’”
“I learned that I can totally remain humble, but I don’t have to cut off the wonderful things that I deserve,” Alicia said.The recording artist, who relies on music to pull herself “out of a rut” or from “a place of confusion,” has a new studio album—simply titled “ALICIA”—which she has been releasing track-by-track amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s a time,” Alicia stressed, to “really recognize how much we need each other.” INQ
