Alicia Keys says her mother “empowered” her to be brave.
The ‘Girl on Fire’ hitmaker believes she is “not afraid” to speak her mind because of what Teresa Augello, her mom - who was a single mother - taught her growing up.
While at the iHeart Radio SeeHer Hear Here: Celebrating Women Who Make Music and Culture, the 41-year-old singer said: “I love how she empowered me to be a strong woman who has an opinion, who’s not afraid to say it.”
While reflecting at the event to mark International Women’s Day (08.03.22), Alicia also paid tribute to her grandmother, who “mentored me in a way of how to treat people, how to love people, how to be kind and thoughtful to people,” and revealed that her professional mentor is none other than Mary J Blige.
The Grammy Award winner - who shares her two sons Egypt, 11, and Genesis, seven, with her husband Swizz Beatz, 43 - thinks that these life lessons helped her “prove herself” in the music industry.
Alicia said: “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.”
The ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ hitmaker advises that aspiring creatives to remember “the reason why” they want what they want.
Alicia said: “I think what you can’t forget is you’re the reason why.”
She added: “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.”
Alicia also acknowledged other sources of inspiration, namely Stevie Wonder, who gave her the mantra “make sure you’re in it, but not of it” from his 1976 song ‘As’, which she says “saved her” throughout her career.
She said that it can all be ““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.”
