This Girl is on Fire! Alicia Keys’ 40th Birthday Facts

The ‘Fallin” singer is not only talented musically but also has a flair for acting. She found her way onto our screens in 1985 in an episode of ‘The Cosby Show’ where she played a friend of Rudy’s in the episode ‘Slumber Party’.

The singer has won a total of 15 Grammy Awards, however, she also has half of a Grammy from when John Mayer broke his in half and gave part of it to Keys. Mayer won the award for song of the year in 2005 but felt that Keys should have won with her song ‘If I Ain’t Got You’, so he snapped the Grammy in two!

Writing is another skill to add to Key’s already long list of talents. In 2014 she published her first children’s book called ‘Blue Moon’ which is based vaguely on her relationship with her grandmother.

During the first Grammy Awards she attended in 2002, Keys was very unwell and almost missed her performance. In an interview with ‘People’ magazine, she said: “We had to work some wonders, vitamin B, something, to get me to sing for three minutes. It was equally exhilarating and terrifying.”

Since the start of her music career in 2001, the singer has released an impressive 7 studio albums as well as two live albums and dozens of singles. She’s also performed with a host of other artists and her song ‘My Boo’, performed with Usher, has been streamed over 333 million times. She has even sung the bond anthem ‘Another Way to Die’ for ‘Quantum of Solace’, duetting with Jack White.

It comes as no surprise that Keys is raking it in, her debut album was a complete success and earned her five Grammy Awards in 2002. The album also included one of her biggest hits, ‘Fallin”, which has sold over 16 million copies worldwide. According to Spear’s Magazine, the ‘This Girl is on Fire’ singer is estimated to be worth around $72 million. Her other top hit songs include ‘No One’, ‘Empire State of Mind’ and ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ – which has been streamed over 500 million times.

The artist was born Alicia Aguello Cook in New York. However, she wanted a stage name that would help her stand out in the music industry. Before becoming up with Alicia Keys she bounced around lots of different names including Alicia Wild. However, her mother disapproved of the name. In the end, she settled on the moniker we’ve all come to recognise, Alicia Keys.

The singer has two sons, Egypt and Genesis, and is also step-mum to her husband’s three children, Prince, Nicole and Kasseem Jr. Keys married her husband DJ Kasseem Dean (Swizz Beats) in 2010 in their luxury Mediterranean home. The couple have more musical talent than most, having collected a whopping 35 Grammy Award nominations between them.

Not only has Keys has co-founded the charity Keep a Child Alive but she has also taken part in a host of fundraising concerts like Shelter from the Storm: A Concert For the Gulf Coast and America: A Tribute to Heroes. The singer has also played at fundraising concerts for the Hurricane Katrina Victims as well as Live Earth and Live 8.