Often we look to celebrities to constantly be on the move, and constantly creating something for us—the impatient fans. We are always in search of the next new thing, but we fail to realize that each celebrity we love is also a human being. Well I’m here to tell you that the woman with the gift to move you with just a piano is back. It has been four years since her last album. During that time away from her music career, she became a mother, a wife and took time to actually live her life instead of always being in the public eye. Alicia Keys is here and finally ready to dazzle us once again.
Keys has taken a different approach to this album. She was quoted in a Rolling Stone interview that she is back at the place of when her debut album, Songs in A Minor, first came out. Keys feels the passion of that younger version of herself and believes that she’s out of her “head” and back in her “heart.” Her much anticipated album, Here, will speak on many topics we often are afraid to talk about. For example, in one of the singles, “Holy War,” Keys talks about “war being holy and sex being obscene,” commenting that we don’t talk about sex with our youth, but freely give them video games centered around war. Alicia Keys is using this album to raise her voice and speak out about topics close to her heart. She is a woman influenced by the likes of Nina Simone, Bob Dylan and Bob Marley—all of which used their voices to talk about the issues society faced at the time. Alicia Keys needed to find her courage to do the same, saying, “I didn’t understand how to put it into words, or I just didn’t have access to the emotion or the confidence or the clarity or the ballsiness. The difference is time.” With time comes experience and with experience comes the creativity and emotion to show the world something beautiful. As a huge fan of Alicia Keys, I can attest that this album is coming straight from her heart.
As we have been awaiting the arrival of Here, which dropped on Nov. 4, Alicia Keys graced us with a few singles and a short film entitled “The Gospel.” The short film depicts police brutality, the struggle women have everyday and the beauty of New York. In addition, the short film includes unreleased tracks from Here. Keys lives an “Empire State of Mind” and she shows us her view of New York and how she grew up there. At the premiere of “The Gospel” at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, Alicia Keys comments on the film and says that it’s set up in “four-chapter series of vignettes of stores about coming of age in New York City.” “The Gospel” is more than a short film—it’s a topic starter. And her album Here is no different. Just as it took time for Keys to find her way of speaking up, you can to. Don’t force the process—take the time to experience life and see where it leads you.
If you’re interested in watching the film, you can find it exclusively on TIDAL and be sure to listen to her sixth studio album, Here.