Alicia Keys back for Nov. 25 gig at MOA Arena

MANILA, Philippines - Alicia Keys will enthrall music fans with an awesome array of hit songs that blend R&B, hip-hop, classical, soul and jazz influences when she returns for a major concert on Monday, Nov. 25, at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena in Pasay City.

According to Ovation Productions, the internationally-acclaimed R&B/soul singer-songwriter and recording artist will bring to Manila her Set The World On Fire Tour, a global concert series to support her latest album, Girl On Fire.

The one-night musical presentation from Blackberry is expected to whip up a wave of excitement among R&B fanatics of the multi-Grammy winner’s second local appearance in five years following her debut concert in August 2008 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Aside from Girl On Fire, other songs in Keys’ catalogue of R&B hits that she will wow fans with include Fallin’, If I Ain’t Got You, No One, You Don’t Know My Name, Unbreakable, Diary, Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart, among others.

Acclaimed as one of the most popular artists of the 21st century, Keys has been known for writing her own songs and playing several instruments with technical skill, aside from being an original-voice singer at a time the musical landscape was flooded with pop bands.

An accomplished pianist, she heavily incorporates classical piano with R&B, soul and jazz into a majority of her songs.

Born Alicia Augello-Cook 32 years ago in New York City, Keys showed a great interest in music since early childhood when, at the age of seven, she began playing piano and learned the classical music of composers Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin and wrote her first song in one night.

She entered the Professional Performing Arts School at the age of 12, where she majored in choir and began writing songs at the age of 14, graduating in four years as valedictorian at the age of 16.

Keys emerged in the international music scene in 2001 with the release of her debut album, Songs In A Minor, which became a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide and certified six times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The album spawned two Top 10 singles: her debut single, Fallin’ (No. 1 in the US charts), a Gospel-influenced piano ballad often considered as her signature song; and A Woman’s Worth (No. 7).

Aside from giving Keys the awards for Best-Selling New Artist and Best-Selling R&B Artist of 2001, Songs In A Minor won five Grammy Awards the following year, making her the second female solo recording artist to bring home five Grammy Awards in a single night, following Lauryn Hill at the Grammy Awards in 1999.

Her 2003 follow-up album, The Diary Of Alicia Keys, debuted at No. 1 and produced another slew of hit singles, including You Don’t Know My Name (No. 1, 2004), If I Ain’t Got You (No. 4, 2004) and Diary (No. 8, 2004).

The recording — together with her duet with Usher on My Boo (No. 1, 2004) — yielded an additional four Grammys in 2005. Keys also picked up the Best R&B Video at both the 2004 and 2005 MTV Video Music Awards for the albums If I Ain’t Got You and Karma, respectively.

Her first live album, MTV Unplugged, debuted at No. 1 in the US with sales of more than one million copies.  It was considered as the highest-selling MTV’s Unplugged series after Nirvana’s 1994 Unplugged version.

As an actress, Keys appeared on several television shows such Charmed in 2001 and American Dreams in 2003. In 2007, she made her film debut in Smokin’ Aces and was featured in The Nanny Diaries later that year.

She scored another hit with her 2007 third album, As I Am, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 200 and grossed five million copies worldwide. It marked her fourth consecutive No. 1 debut on Billboard Hot 200 to tie Britney Spears for the most consecutive No. 1 debuts from a female artist.

It also garnered her an additional three Grammy Awards and two American Music Awards the following year.

Her fourth and final single from the same album, titled Superwoman, gave her the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards.

Keys’ appearance in 2008 in The Secret Life Of Bees, alongside Jennifer Hudson and Queen Latifah, earned her a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture at the 40th NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Image Awards in 2009.

Keys’ fourth studio album, The Element Of Freedom, was released in December 2009 with Doesn’t Mean Anything as the first single and which landed at No. 2 on Billboard Hot 200.

Her fifth studio album, Girl On Fire, hit the market on Nov. 27, 2012 via RCA Records. The recording, which was preceded by the Sept. 4 release of its title track as its lead single, peaked at No. 11 on Billboard Hot 100 and became Keys’ fifth chart-topping album in the US.

Keys is listed on the Recording Industry Association of America’s best-selling artists in the US, with 15 million certified albums to her name. She has sold over 35 million albums and 30 million singles worldwide.

In 2010, she was ranked by Billboard magazine as the top R&B Recording Artist of the 2000s and listed at No. 5 as Artist of the Decade. The magazine also placed her at No. 10 on its list of the Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years.

VH 1 includes her in its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

(Set The World On Fire is presented by Blackberry. It is produced by Ovation Productions with the support of Air 21, 2nd Avenue, Diva Universal, Jack TV, Jack City and Mercedes Benz. It is also supported by The Philippine STAR, Manila Bulletin, BusinessWorld, Inquirer.net, 96.3 Easy Rock, Monster Radio RX 93.7, 97.9 Home Radio, Mellow 94.7, RJ 100.3, MYX and OptimaSignsolutions.   Tickets are priced at P13,200, P10,560, P8,976, P5,808, P4,752, P3,696 and P1,056 and are available at all SM Tickets outlets or online at www.smtickets.com.)