IF THE name of her sophomore album, Diary of Alicia Keys did not make it clear enough, that artist made it clear at the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival, her music is very personal.
"I was so enraptured in the music, in creating it, in creating these thoughts," she said, explaining why she never worried about whether Diary would be as widely accepted as Songs in A Minor. "I mean putting to word and putting to music these thoughts that I was having, this way that I was feeling. I mean that was the last thing on my mind to really care what anybody else was thinking," she explained.
"I'm trying to deal with what I'm goin through, you know what I mean. So, for me that's the most prominent thing when I write."
Even so the charming singer and songwriter is quick to highlight her appreciation of the acceptance that her music has received. "I'm thankful and humbled that people relate," she says, "but I do my music first to release something from inside of me, and there's really no room to worry about other people when I'm doing that."
Keys was talking in the performers' tents at the four-day music festival which took place at the Cinnamon Hill Golf Course, Rose Hall, St. James, last month. She went on to give a fabulously exciting performance which had fans screaming from her entrance to her exit.
Indeed the personal nature of songs such as You Don't Know My Name, which hints at a bold vulnerability, has gone over very well with audiences. Diary debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, and after 13 weeks on the Hot 100 singles chart, You Don't Know My Name rests at number four.
Heartburn and If I Were Your Woman are also very personal seeming tracks from the album. So by now, most of the world knows her name and have gotten an earful of her diary.
