Alicia Keys in a multi-Grammy-winning performing vocalist, songwriter, and classically trained pianist. She was born in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City.
Alicia Keys is mono-lingual and is fluent only in the English language. Although an exceptionally gifted student who excelled in school, Alicia’s focus was on classical music and she did not pursue foreign language studies.
Alicia’s prowess lies in the performing arts. She is unmatched in her generation of playing the piano and receiving associated accolades, however, languages do not seem to be her forte.
Language Exposure
Alicia Keys grew up between the multi-cultural New York neighborhoods of Hell’s Kitchen and Harlem.
Surrounded by people from the Latin community, Alicia had some exposure to Spanish and it might be here she picked up the language.
She has admitted that she speaks some Spanish but she does not speak the language often, nor does she speak it fluently.
In her most recent best-selling novel, “More Myself” Alicia describes how it is her son’s nanny who is teaching him Spanish.
Singing in Spanish
Alicia Keys has performed some of her songs in Spanish throughout her career.
In an interview with Oprah in 2004, she said of her first performance in a Latin Show, the Latin Billboard Awards, that she performed her song in Spanish. To her, it was “a magical moment.”
On her appearance at the Latin Grammys with the artiste, Miguel in 2019, Alicia Keys sang some of the words to their song in Spanish.
She posted to her Youtube channel snippets of her practice session and her attempts to learn some Spanish words in order to interact with the audience.
For the remix of the Pedro Capó and Farruko song, Calma, that same year, Alicia Keys supplied vocals in Spanish. In order to “get my Spanish right”, the performer enlisted the assistance of Spanish up and coming star, Rosalía, for a bit of practice.
She posted about the lessons delivered via Facetime on her Twitter page at the time.
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