Alicia Keys called Ryan Seacrest this morning to clear up her statements in a latest issue of Blender Magazine. You can listen to the interview here.

She also called into the Tom Joyner Morning show to talk about the Blender article. You can listen to it here.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What’s the overall concept for your tour?
ALICIA KEYS: This is an arena tour. It’s the biggest show I’ve done yet. Because it’s the As I Am tour, we are kind of telling a story through the music. Basically, we take you on a journey from my beginning — where I started, how it was, searching for my dream — to where I am now. It tends to feel like you’re wrapped up not only in great music, but also a whole body of work. When I go to a show I wanna feel like I’m enraptured in the artist, their vibe, and their world, and so it’s been exciting to put this show together because we really wanted to come up with something that was a little bit more conceptual.

What does the set design look like?
The stage is crazy because it’s simple but it’s visually stunning. I always call it my little spaceship. The band is right there — they’re a part of the show, not hidden behind stuff. My piano almost floats in and out of the stage through a magical, gorgeous door, and I have some keyboards that I rock a lot. And then I have a catwalk on the top of the stage that lifts 8 to 10 feet in the air. I have dancers up there and I do my thing up there. There are also screens above the stage that display everything from gorgeous visuals to live footage of whatever we’re doing. It’s very artistic and gorgeous. It’s not only a musical experience, but it’s a visually moving experience as well. And everything just lives together in this way that takes you on a trip. It’s just magical and so beautiful.
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Among today’s young female stars, Alicia Keys — 11-time Grammy-winning singer/songwriter, budding actress, anti-AIDS activist and all-around pop-culture role model — would seem one of the least likely to have a nervous breakdown.

But there was a time, about a year and a half ago, when Keys could have easily imagined becoming a tabloid statistic. Frayed by the whirlwind pace of her multifaceted career and the illness of a close family member she won’t identify (the relative died in 2007), she was feeling “a little confused and out of it,” Keys says.

“I would be someplace, in some situation, and I would say to myself: ‘This is how it happens. This is how people crack.’ I would actually see why some of the greatest artists have gone through crazy things, because of who’s around them or what influences are pushed on them. Or because you’re so overtired that you do that one last thing and end up passing out. (more…)

I have added to the gallery pictures from the Teenage Love Affair video shoot.

On Thursday, April 17 at 7:30 PM ET BET’s Black Carpet will be going behind the scenes of the Teenage Love Affair video.

For its 13th consecutive year, NBC’s TODAY show is bringing together the biggest names in music to rock the Plaza. This year’s “Toyota Concert Series on TODAY” kicks off with a special performance by the Grammy-award winner Alicia Keys on Monday, April 21.

I’ve added beautiful outtakes from photoshoot for Blender magazine.

In order to find herself, she had to leave the music industry, take a trip down the Nile and learn how to tear down the walls she’d spent most of her life building.

It’s early Friday evening in Copenhagen and Alicia Keys is about to emit some deeply bizarre sounds. These trills and jabbers will loosen her vocal cords, exercise her diaphragm and guard against any accidentally bizarre sounds when she takes the stage at the Falconer Salen, an ultramodern concert hall carved into a boxy luxury hotel. Her valet, a skinny guy named Francis, enters her dressing room, adjusts the height of an electric Yamaha keyboard, then disappears to get his boss some potato-spinach soup. The decor suggests a mail-order catalogue called Diva Comfort Depot: Floral-printed scarves enshroud floor lamps; scented candles glow atop ottomans draped with light-purple fabric; dainty white ramekins cradle dried fruits; and in the corner, a humidifier puffs out little steam clouds of calm. The tableau is a portable monument to mood. On tour, every night, this is where Keys goes “to get my head right.”

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When Stephanie Hirsch gave birth to her son, she began to think about the kind of person she’d like him to be: generous, family oriented, loving, courageous, and professionally accomplished—maybe he’d turn out like Steven Spielberg! But what, she wondered, had Spielberg’s mother done so well? What started out as one conversation with Steven Spielberg’s mom became a quest to interview the mothers of some of the most talented artists, brilliant journalists, and dedicated athletes of our time.

Mother Nurture is an inspiring collection of fifty-two stories filled with commonsense advice and memorable personal tales from caring mothers whose children have reached the apex of their fields, from sports, politics, and music to literature, entertainment, and business. If you’re expecting, or a parent, or you just want to thank the woman who raised you, Mother Nurture is both the perfect antidote to piles of contradictory parenting advice and a celebration of the gift of motherhood.

Stephanie interviewed Alicia’s mom Terri for the book. If you want to hear a little bit about what Terri said you can watch an interview Stephanie did with Good Morning America. Fast foward to about 2:18. You can pick up the book over at Amazon.

I’ve finally managed to put up the brand new layout. Many thanks to my dear friend Ryvos for creating it! It’s really fabolous!
We’ve changed our news system to wordpress, so not everything might be working yet. Archives should be updated soon as well as all the sections.
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