American Singer-songwriter-actress Alicia Keys has a net worth of $150 million. This is the total wealth that she and her husband, the record producer Swizz Beatz, have amassed. Their combined wealth is nearly even.
Early Life
Alicia Augello Cook entered the world on January 25, 1981, in the borough of Manhattan, New York City. In the music industry, she is known by her stage name, Alicia Keys. Keys is the youngest of three children to her father Craig Cook and the only child of her mother Teresa Augello. Her mother was a single parent raising her and her sister in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City after her father abandoned the family when she was just two years old.
Career Beginnings
She’s been singing ever since she was a little kid, and she’s been a part of musicals at school since she was in preschool. Keys began playing the piano as a kid after a friend gave her an old instrument. She began studying classical piano by the time she was seven years old.
Until she turned 18, she planned to keep studying classical music. Also, at the tender age of twelve, she entered the Professional Performing Arts School, where she studied the performing arts of music, dance, theatre, and choir.
Keys first met her manager, Jeff Robinson, at the age of 13 while they were both members of the youth group Teens in Motion. He acted as a guide and teacher for her by accompanying her to meetings with lawyers and record label talks.
Robinson placed her in touch with A&R man Peter Edge, who assisted her in recording demos to send to record company bosses. The resulting bidding battle resulted in Columbia Records’ $26,000 white baby grand piano being chosen as the winner’s prize.
Keys maintained her schooling after signing with Columbia, and at age 16, as valedictorian of her high school class, she earned her diploma early. After that, she received a scholarship to Columbia University. After a month of trying to juggle a full college course load with her work in a recording studio, she chose to forego her academic education in favor of a career in music.
But she was immensely irritated by Columbia’s attempts to shape her public persona and her forced collaboration with producers she disliked. Keys eventually bargained out of her Columbia contract and joined Arista in late 1998 with the support of Robinson and Arista Records head Clive Davis. Her record was again delayed when Davis was fired from Arista in 2000, but he quickly signed her to his new label, J Records.
Music Career
Now signed to J Records, Keys began promoting her upcoming debut with appearances on shows like “The Tonight Show” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show” before the release of her debut single, “Fallin’,” in April 2001. Critical acclaim showered down upon her first studio album release, “Songs in A Minor,” in June of 2001.
It debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 and has since sold over 6.2 million copies in America alone. The CD featured songs that were initially turned down by the record label Columbia. In the end, Alicia Keys‘ refusal to compromise with Columbia paid off, as the album was nominated for six Grammys.
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After winning Song of the Year, Keys went on to take home awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song, Best New Artist, and Best R&B Album at the 2002 Grammys, for a total of five Grammys.
Both of her subsequent studio albums, 2003’s “The Diary of Alicia Keys” and 2007’s “As I Am,” were commercial successes, and Keys took home a pair of Grammys for the album’s lead single, “No One,” in 2008. You can also check out her other albums like “The Element of Freedom” (2009), “Girl on Fire” (2012), “Here” (2016), and “Alicia” (2018). (May 2020).
Career in Theater and Film
First appearing in the crime film “Smokin’ Aces” in 2007, Keys went on to star in “The Nanny Diaries” and “The Secret Life of Bees” in the same year (2008). Not only has Keys performed on numerous television series, including “Saturday Night Live,” “Empire,” and “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” but she has also been on those shows in various capacities, including as a judge, coach, or musical guest (Season 6).
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Additional Initiatives
Keys has worked on a number of other things besides music. In 2005, she published a collection of poetry and song lyrics titled Tears for Water. The collection, which included previously unpublished poems from her notebooks and lyrics, was published that year and became a New York Times bestseller. Her autobiography, titled “More Myself: A Journey,” came out in March of 2020.
Keys and her collaborator in production and composition, Kerry “Krucial” Brothers, own the Long Island recording studio The Oven Studios. The production and songwriting team KrucialKeys Enterprises, which works on records by Keys and other artists, was created by Keys and Brothers.
As time went on, Keys became the face of various other companies. She became the face of Dove’s Go Fresh range in a 2008 ad micro-series. She also inked an endorsement deal with VitaminWater and appeared in an American Express commercial.
Personal Life
Until 2008, Keys dated her longtime colleague and friend, Kerry Brothers. After that, she started dating Swizz Beatz, a famous hip-hop producer. Keys and Beatz became engaged in May of 2010, tied the knot in July, and welcomed their first child in October. During the month of December 2014, she gave birth to the couple’s second son.
Real Estate
Alicia and Swizz paid $10.4 million in 2013 to purchase a massive property in the New Jersey suburb of Englewood. Eddie Murphy was the seller of the 25,000-square-foot, 5.4-acre property. There are a total of 32 rooms in this palace. In 2015, they spent $1.7 million on a neighboring lot. For the first time ever, this mansion was put up for a sale in 2015 for a price tag of $14.9 million. The property was re-listed in 2016 for $9.9 million. Finally, in April of 2022, they agreed to take $6 million.
They had an apartment in New York City that they had purchased from Lenny Kravitz in 2010 for $12.75 million and then sold in 2013 at a little loss. They also used to own a Phoenix, Arizona property, which they sold for $3.1 million in 2021.
Alicia and Swizz bought a $30 million mansion in La Jolla, California for $20.8 million in September of 2019.
The Keys’ revealed their plans to turn the 111-acre, three-building complex formerly known as the Jindal Films center in Macedon, New York, into a “musical utopia” on August 9, 2019. Their goal is to convert it into a recording studio and theatre for the performing arts.