Alicia Keys Admits That She Felt Undeserving of Her Success in Her Autobiography ‘More Myself’
Music artist Alicia Keys who mesmerizes fans with her soulful voice and captivating piano compositions was at one point in her life questioning her self-worth!
Who can ever believe that popular and talented music artist Alicia Keys who mesmerizes fans with her soulful voice and captivating piano compositions was at one point in her life questioning her self-worth!
But that’s what the singer has revealed in her book ‘More Myself’ which talks about her journey from being a common American girl to becoming a world-renowned artist. Writing her autobiography bestowed her with the opportunity to discover the real woman behind her celebrity persona.
In her autobiography ‘More Myself’, Alicia said that on 27 February 2002 she was down with the flu and thus feeling miserable. It was the same day she was nominated for six Grammy awards and had to perform a medley alongside Flamenco dancer Joaquin Cortes.
She forced herself out of her bed. “I wasn't about to miss my first Grammys, even if my face crashed right down onto the piano keys”, she recalls. She took a shot of vitamin B12 that saw her through the grand event.
That lucky day she won five of the six awards creating a record of most number of trophies attained by a female solo artist tying up with Lauryn Hill’s record.
What’s surprising is that despite receiving five Grammy awards, the Grammy winner felt “undeserving” on the stage. “What new artist wins five awards after just one album?” she pondered. The whole night “felt unbelievable to me,” she adds. The irony of it all is that Alicia’s songs speak of strength but the words in the songs are what she needed to implement in her own life, she admitted in her memoir.
‘The Girl on Fire’ singer was miserable because she feared whether she would be able to live up to her name and success. By 2006 “I no longer belonged to myself”, she wrote. “I'd become captive to every request, every demand, every surge of fear that came with even the thought of saying no.”
The turning point however came one night when she broke down in her dressing room in New York. To ease her pain, she booked a solo trip to Egypt. The good news is that it finally dawned on her that she had to slow down and pay attention to her feelings. The strong-willed musician decided to take complete charge of her life thereon by “setting boundaries and making changes for the better.”
Working on her autobiography ‘More Myself’ was the period that Alicia Keys discovered her true self. During her journey of self-discovery, while penning down her life, she simultaneously began opening up in her music and songs too. The real ‘Alicia’ began to emerge in her songs! She said that her seventh studio album is called ‘Alicia’ “because I know for a fact that this is the first time that I'm fully meeting myself and getting to know all of me.” We are glad that the talented artist has ultimately discovered herself and her new found greatness.