Unlike many of her pop-music contemporaries, the precocious Keys not only sings, but writes and produces her own music. Keys decided to follow Davis, who had engineered the careers of soul luminaries such as Aretha Franklin, to his new label. In 1999, Clive Davis-head of Arista Records-left the prominent record company where he worked to start J Records. While she was accepted to Columbia University on a full scholarship, after a four-week stint at the school, Keys departed to devote herself fully to her music. Keys had already attracted the attention of record company executives while in high school, and after what amounted to a bidding war for her talents, she signed with Arista Records in 1998. Having excelled academically, Keys was allowed to graduate at the age of 16. She began piano lessons at age 7 and Augello's dogged insistence that her daughter stick with the instrument led Keys to attend Manhattan's prestigious Professional Performance Arts School, where she majored in choir.

Growing up, Keys was raised by her mother, Nikki Augello-a part-time actress and paralegal. Musician and actor Alicia Keys was born Alicia Augello Cook on January 25, 1981, in New York, New York. She followed up with hit albums such as The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003), As I Am (2007) and Girl on Fire (2009), all of which won the artist Grammys. Her debut album, Songs in A Minor (2001), went platinum five times over and earned her five Grammys. Davis left Arista to start J Records and Keys followed. After graduating from the Professional Performance Arts School, she signed a deal with Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records.

Born in 1981, in New York, Alicia Keys began piano lessons at age 7.

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