Like most of us, Alicia Keys has found a new appreciation for the little things this past year. “I feel so blessed to be able to have more meaningful time with my family and so I honestly feel better than ever in a lot of ways,” she tells me via Zoom, the day after the monumental Biden-Harris inauguration. But while those small joys bring solace, there are bigger things occupying her thoughts.
The last year has been one defined by seismic events, from the global pandemic to an election that transfixed the entire world. The extended pause of lockdown has shone a light on the things that really matter.
These things, from the major to the minuscule, are the focus for Keys’ new documentary, produced in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz to mark the launch of the S-Class Cares for what Matters campaign. Shot entirely in Keys’ California home, the short film offers a glimpse into the 15-time Grammy Award winner’s life and is soundtracked by ‘Love Looks Better’, the latest release from her self-titled album.
Here, Keys discusses her hopes for the future of the United States, the powerful impact of Amanda Gorman and her roadmap to becoming part of the change.
What has the last year taught you about what matters most?
The last year has definitely taught me how much I appreciate the very little things – the simple things that you might feel are mundane or overlooked – like dinner together with my family or checking my kids’ homework, or setting aside the time to identify the things I need for myself. It’s easy to schedule you out of your schedule. So I think this year has reminded me how important these things are: they seem little but they’re so big.
It’s so true that there’s such a weight, and almost a sense of pride attached to being ‘busy’ all the time – and since the pandemic hit, we’ve suddenly lost that…
Right! Which has been so incredible for someone like me, because since the moment I started with ‘Fallin’’, in a lot of ways my own self-worth has been based on how much I travel, how many shows I do, how many songs I write, how many albums I put out. I think that we all can see it becoming so much more apparent in all of our lives that this output level is what validates us – the person with the highest output is the most successful. It’s truly not rational and it’s definitely not good for us at all.
I love that we’ve been able to see what we can do when we have to slow down and we have to be in one place, which is quite a gift. It also makes it really clear what’s important. I’m thinking, if i can do all these things without travelling so much, why was I even travelling? Of course, as an artist it’s a little bit different because performance is such an important part of our experience together and I miss that so much, but there is so much that can be done without moving so fast. And that’s a really important jewel that we’ve all been able to take away from this time.
In your documentary created with Mercedes-Benz, you say that creativity comes from the uncertain. Are there any new artists, creatives or small businesses that you’ve discovered and been inspired by this year?
There’s a new artist I love called Giveon, who a lot of people are loving. What I love about him is that every time I hear his music, I’m asking, ‘Who is this?’ I love when that happens with artists – you hear them randomly in a store and you’re like, ‘Who is that?”
I also think it’s been really exciting to discover all the small types of businesses in the world. There’s a cool account on Instagram called Black Enterprise, and I love how it features so many different Black-owned businesses. I found this beautiful blueberry company, and my kids like those apple-sauce pouches, so I found a company that makes them. There are so many people in the world doing so many awesome things and I feel like we’ve been thinking a lot more consciously about how to support growing independent businesses.
Do you feel hopeful for the United States this year?
I definitely feel hopeful – I have a real sense of relief. With Biden and Harris being inaugurated, so many people have stated how they’ve just put their head in their hands and cried from relief. It’s relief from a sense of so much uncertainty. I think that’s the inspiration this new administration has displayed.
But honestly yes, I do feel hopeful. I’ve always been a glass-half-full person, but I do temper that slightly with politics, because it’s also a system created to have a certain number of limitations and we know that it’s a system created without many of us in mind. So I temper my positivity sometimes. But what I have recognised is that we’re really starting to know our power, and to understand that when we collectively do show up – and we’ve really been showing up this year because there’s been so much to change and alter – we get results, and that’s been very encouraging. I think for many years people have said, ‘Well, what changes?’ and now we can at least see our determination does yield results.
So my goal, honestly? I would really like to be a part – and I’d like us all to be a part – of rewriting the constitution. That would be a very powerful day and I believe we’re on the road to achieving big ideas like that.
My friend Valarie Kaur did this beautiful thing [on inauguration day] where she created the People’s Inauguration. She wants us, as everyday citizens, to take this oath, asking how we are going to keep changing and leading with love and acceptance, treating people with dignity, and asking ourselves how we are going to take accountability for this. I thought that was really powerful, this idea of our own oath, and committing to this country that is really not finished. I guess no country is ever finished, because there are always ways to improve what has been started and what began – just because we began with something doesn’t mean it’s still the best thing. But I do feel hopeful and I’m really looking forward to us all holding each other.
America now has its first Black, South Asian and female Vice-President in the form of Kamala Harris. What would it have meant to you as a young girl growing up to see a woman of colour in such a great position of power?
Honestly I feel like America is very behind. Many countries already have female representation and that’s what I constantly grapple with – this country that is supposedly a leader of the world is just so behind. So I think that actually makes me frustrated a bit: it’s like, is she really only the first after all these years? But I do think that obviously it’s very important. We’ve got to see ourselves [in the world], we can’t just be faced with one version of what people look like, think like, act like. That doesn’t represent the world we live in, and so I think Kamala is special, and it’s very exciting in terms of what she’ll accomplish in the next 20 years – to see her really does open people’s minds to what leadership should be and what it actually already is. We just haven’t seen it enough. I love how she said, ‘I might be the first, but I won’t be the last.’ And it absolutely does give young people, and myself, the confirmation that there’s no limit to where we belong. We belong everywhere.
Amanda Gorman is another great example of how powerful representation can be. A lot of people found her recital of ‘The Hill We Climb’ one of the most powerful moments of the inauguration. Do you think her performance will inspire young girls to find their own creative outlets?
Oh my gosh I love her – first of all she is the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. She was so poised and so confident, and it is so difficult to show up in that way. Just seeing this beautiful representation of diversity, and what and who we actually are, it’s so incredible to witness. And then her words were so understandable and yet so profound: it was definitely the highlight without question. I immediately showed my older son at bedtime, I told him, ‘I just want you to see this beautiful poem.’ It totally inspires and reminds us of what we’re capable of. Your words are important. What I’m seeing is a stronger sense of welcoming in different states of mind, different backgrounds, different people. It was beautiful – such a stand-out moment.
And Dr Jill Biden will be the first First Lady to continue working outside of her public duties. That feels important, especially for working mothers across the US…
She has work to do! We all have work to do! And so again, these older ideals of what women are supposed to do and the role they play in the household, all these very old thoughts are starting to be broken down. And again, even the fact that we’re having this conversation is annoying. Let’s modernise and let’s understand what women are already doing, what we’ve always been doing, and what women will continue to do. A lot of this stuff is the older ideas finally purging and I’m really excited for that to finally happen.
You say in the documentary how you always worked hard because your mother worked hard...
Absolutely – I came by it naturally. She was a single mother so she had to work extra hard, she had to be all the parts. And so I admire her more than ever; juggling all that daily is no easy feat, and her doing it all by herself gives me the ultimate respect for her. But yes, I did inherit her work ethic, which has served me well, but I’m also learning how to create more space, how to understand that silence and doing nothing is just as important. It’s a balance.
So how do you manage to separate your work from your family time, particularly when working from home?
You know, it’s tricky and it’s now become trickier with work, family and school often happening in the same place. It doesn’t provide a lot of separation and so all of us are trying to work our way through that.
First of all, how do you identify what you need? Then, how do you learn how to prioritise making the space for what you need? I love to work: it’s my passion and my life purpose and in so many ways it helps me to be more clear about who I am and what I think about the world, and how I can bring a certain energy through music. But I can’t do it without that space. The whole schedule thing has always been my secret weapon.
You’ve used your platform in so many ways to help further racial equality, but for others, it’s easy to feel powerless. What is your advice for someone who wants to be part of the change, but doesn’t know where to start?
My advice would be just to keep researching. Keep searching, learning, being curious. What are the things that you’re feeling ignited by? Is it learning more clearly the accuracy of history? We’re all uncovering that there’s so much we’ve been taught that’s actually not true and I think so many of us are inspired to discover the truth of our origins, the truth of our histories, the truth about so-called race and what it means to be so-called white or so-called Black. And as you discover what you are interested in, what you are fired up by, then you can find your space within it. There’s no defined way that it has to go. A lot of times it feels like ‘OK, we’re angry so we have to march’, but maybe marching isn’t your thing. There are so many ways to approach it all.
Last summer, my family and I read Stamped From The Beginning. It’s a really powerful book about getting more familiar with anti-racism and the history of how these ideals started to be presented to us. We read it as a family – my youngest was nine at the time, and I wondered if it was a lot for him to be talking about – but everyone joined in. A neighbour and her kids joined, one of our oldest friends and their kids joined, my mother, my husband’s mother and father, it was this group of different ages and generations and people and every week we got together and reviewed what we read and what it meant and what it brought up. One of us is an ex-police officer, another is a 14-year-old young brown boy, and it was so deep and so amazing to be able to gather like that.
I thought it was a beautiful way to start to open up and consider how you want to progress in your own self education and your own reprogramming. Even something like that is such a cool way to begin to learn and be curious, and you’re bringing your family together in a way that allows you to have these conversations.
But I think sometimes the hardest part is knowing who to talk to – whose opinions can you trust? And what if their opinions differ from yours? How do you have a conversation like this? What if you have family members who are ignorant and you feel like you don’t understand how they feel?
You’re such a great example of someone who stays true to themselves. Do you have any advice for women or girls who are feeling the pressure to conform?
Listen, first of all: I understand. That’s what I’d say first. I understand so much and it’s so hard to know who you are because we’re absolutely not encouraged to know who we are. We’re not even encouraged to listen to ourselves or to listen to our bodies or our instincts or those voices in our head that say ‘don’t do that’ or ‘that doesn’t feel right’. We’re taught to push them aside and now, more than ever, it’s important to be self-aware because everything around us is so confusing.
We’re on social media and we don’t know what’s real and what’s fake. This ideal of perfection is shoved down our throats, especially for women. It’s just a crazy world to navigate, so I truly understand how it is to feel like you have to be like everyone else so people will like you. A lot of my life I’ve felt totally unusual – I did not even relate to so many people and I wondered, ‘What’s wrong with me? Why don’t I feel comfortable being those ways?’
So I would just say, everybody who I love and I admire in my life, even the artists and painters and chefs and personalities I don’t know, I can’t compare them to anyone else – there’s no one else like them. And I think that is the secret: it’s to become comfortable with the fact that there is nobody else like you. When you look like everybody else and you dress the same way as everybody else and you think the same thoughts and you always agree, you don’t stand out. I think the goal is to get comfortable standing out, because that’s how it’s meant to be. We are meant to be ourselves.
Alicia Keys is a Mercedes-Benz ambassador who stars in the S-Class Cares for what Matters campaign. The new S-Class is designed for modern leaders around the world.
