Photo: Wes and Alex
Alicia Keys doesn’t think she was prepared for the music industry, but she knows how to hold her own and stay true to who she is as she writes, produces and performs her own music. The singing-songwriting giant celebrated International Women’s Day on Tuesday (March 8) with the iHeartRadio SeeHer Hear Her: Celebrating Women Who Make Music and Culture — a celebration placing gender equality center stage. The live-streamed show is team effort with SeeHer, the largest global movement to eliminate gender bias in marketing, advertising, media and entertainment.
The 2022 event spotlighted three influential artists: Keys, pop-punk icon Avril Lavigne and country trailblazer Maren Morris. The second-annual iHeartRadio SeeHer Hear Her delved into the stories behind their successes in music, and how they advocated for themselves in their respective careers.
Keys has released iconic hit songs over the years, including “Girl on Fire,” “Falin,’” “No One” and tons of others. The iconic artist, 41, acknowledged that although she “wasn’t prepared for this industry,” she was “definitely pretty sassy” growing up. “I guess I was kind of bossy and strong, but I think I lost some of that along the way because I did become a bit too over-compromising…wanting to make sure that everybody was taken care of.”
That’s why Keys credits the legendary Stevie Wonder, who once sang “make sure you’re in it, but not of it.” It’s a mantra that Keys has taken with her and applied to the way she perceives being a trailblazing woman in the music industry, particularly when industries can be imbalanced and “phony, to a degree, because it’s all based on what the external is as opposed to the internal. So, I took that and really ran with it. ‘Make sure you’re in it, but not of it.’ That saved me.”
There are many women who have empowered Keys throughout her life, and the ones she raves about first are her mother and her grandmother. “I love how she empowered me to be a strong woman who has an opinion, who’s not afraid to say it,” Keys said of her mom, who raised her as a single parent. Her grandmother “mentored me in a way of how to treat people, how to love people, how to be kind and thoughtful to people,” Keys reflected, also noting that her professional mentor is Mary J. Blige.
Those qualities became key when the “Girl On Fire” artist paved her way in the music industry: “Nobody was expecting me to be so clear about what I wanted and what I didn’t want, and to be so involved and completely be the producer of my music, the writer of my music,” she recalled “…I was gonna prove myself, no matter what it took.”
Now, long after proving that she’s more than capable of striving to reach her goals, Keys tells iHeartRadio that for anyone aiming to find success, “I think what you can’t forget is you’re the reason why.” Although others may lend a hand along the way, Keys advised: “Don’t let people doubt you. Don’t let people make you doubt yourself. … The world is created for us to follow, and somebody gotta lead.”
The hour-long iHeartRadio SeeHer Hear Her show live-streamed on iHeartRadio's YouTube and Facebook pages on International Women’s Day. It’s available on demand through March 14.