Alicia Keys Releases Much-Anticipated Debut
N E W Y O R K, July 13 -- Alicia Keys, the newest young star of music mogul Clive Davis, seems to be joining the long string of successful artists who have shot to fame under his watch.
With her long-awaited debut album, Songs in A Minor, the 20-year-old Keys debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 and Billboard's Top R&B Hip-Hop Albums chart.
Keys' single "Fallin" has steadily risen on the charts. And she is being compared to R&B stars such as Jill Scott, D'Angelo and Lauryn Hill.
Growing up in an artists' housing complex in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan, Keys would sing and bang out rhythms, even as a preschooler. She started taking piano lessons at age 7 and later attended the Professional Performance Arts School in New York, where she studied voice and got noticed by a talent manager.
She plays piano and writes and arranges her own songs. And ever since she did a series of live performances orchestrated by Davis, the music industry has been poised for her album. It sold 236,000 copies in its first week.
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