Last week, Cort Theatre, “Stick Fly” opened. Original music by co-producer Alicia Keys. So, what’s this big-time singer know from Broadway?

“It’s my first time composing music for a show. You start out as an innocent. Sitting in on rehearsal. Then putting ideas together. I asked myself how I’d feel as an audience member then followed it. I’d sit at the piano, next I added a melancholy percussion feeling and in my studio put in some guitar strings.

“This tried out in Boston. Two women I know saw it and said something’s special about it so I should get involved. Because I wanted to become more interested in TV production, the idea interested me.

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Alicia Keys first appeared on the cover of Dazed a decade ago, alongside the release of her now legendary debut LP, ‘Songs in A Minor’. Tens of millions of albums sold and multiple Grammys later, Keys is one of the most successful recording artists of all time.

Dazed & Confused: You first appeared on the cover of Dazed ten years ago. Were you familiar with the magazine at the time?
Alicia Keys: I wasn’t actually. I was so young and naïve when I started out, and then all at once I was exposed to all these super cool magazines and forms of media that I had never heard of before. Learning about everything was so much fun. But Dazed has remained one of the coolest magazines out there. I love that they explore artists and musicians from all across the spectrum. (Read more… )

Alicia Keys still can’t shake some of the things she saw while visiting AIDS-ravaged communities in Africa.

Ms. Keys, a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, is the co-founder of Keep a Child Alive, a nonprofit that offers support to children and families affected by HIV and AIDS in Africa and India. To help publicize the organization’s work, Ms. Keys is appearing in a new documentary for which she took five young Americans on a tour of places in South Africa that have been hit hard by HIV and AIDS.

During the trip, Ms. Keys and her guests met with children who were forced to head households because their parents had been incapacitated or killed by the disease; they also visited communities that had banded together to try to deal with the health crisis. The special, “Keep a Child Alive with Alicia Keys,” will air on Showtime on Dec. 1.

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*As previously reported, Alicia Keys moves from behind the piano to behind the camera for Lifetime’s forthcoming original movie “Five,” which is comprised of five short films about breast cancer directed by five different directors.

In the exclusive bonus audio below, executive producer Marta Kauffman gushes over Keys’ debut as a director and explains “Lili’s” specific story line.

Alicia Keys quickly got her toehold in the music world, when her debut, Songs in A Minor, was released in 2001. The album established the then-20-year-old as one of the most influential artists of her generation. She was a gritty, cornrow-wearing R&B singer who was a brilliant, classically trained pianist with a stunning voice and beauty.

The album was just rereleased with special editions that include new tracks and video footage. Keys, who married music producer Swizz Beatz and gave birth to a son last year, also was performing songs from the album Saturday night at Zo’s Summer Groove’s benefit dinner and gala at the Hard Rock. (Read more… )

So this is what the backstage dressing room of someone who’s won 14 Grammys looks like. It’s smaller than expected, lit by bare fluorescent tubes and furnished with a table and folding chairs. A platter of chopped vegetables and dip sits on a countertop and a lone burning candle emits a faint whiff of vanilla. Occupying this spartan cubbyhole in London’s Roundhouse is Alicia Keys, who seems to have been born without the chromosome that makes others in her league (35m albums sold in the past 10 years) demand champagne and rose petals backstage.

She’s here to host the Black Ball, an annual bash held in both London and New York to raise money for her charity, Keep a Child Alive, which cares for people with HIV/Aids. Keys co-founded KCA in 2003, and the Black Ball, first held in 2004, has become one of the more prominent music-based fundraisers. That’s mainly because Keys has used her celebrity clout to make it so: each year she reels in a string of artists to perform alongside her (to her disappointment, tonight’s star guest, George Michael, has cancelled owing to toothache), and sponsors to donate fancy gifts to be auctioned off (this year’s lot includes holidays in Jamaica and New York). But those who pay up to £2,000 a ticket won’t be allowed to forget why they’re here; when guests arrive this evening, they’ll be greeted by a foyer filled with funeral wreaths and flashing lights spelling out: “30 million dead, 34 million infected.” (Read more… )