Bazaar Icons 2019: Alicia Keys Is on a High Note

Salvatore Ferragamo dress; Cartier earrings and bracelets; Keys’s own ring

Alicia Keys is literally—and figuratively—wearing rose-colored glasses as she enters Astro West Fine Minerals, Fossils, and Meteorites on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “I’m a crystal fanatic,” says the 38-year-old singer, looking around the store like a kid in a candy shop. “I believe that the energy we surround ourselves with influences what happens around us.” Keys is holding a hunk of creativity-enhancing topaz. “Sometimes you need a little extra.”

Today she’s makeup-free, sporting a simple braid and wearing plaid R13 pants, a white Wolford bodysuit, Chanel x Pharrell sneakers, large gold “Alicia” OG hoop earrings, and pink-lensed Stella McCart­ney shades. As she studies the museum-quality treasures with laser intention, she makes a joke about this interview being “our little date.” Just then a rare, virtually flawless heliodor—known for fending off bad vibes—stops her dead in her tracks. “I have to have this!” shrieks Keys. The store owner politely informs us of its price tag: $27,500. “Oh, we aren’t having that kind of date now, are we?” she quips, gently placing the rock back.

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Born and raised in Hell’s Kitchen and Harlem, Keys keeps it real in every aspect of her life. Since the release of her breakout album, Songs in A Minor, in 2001, she has garnered 15 Grammys and sold more than 30 million records. Throughout all of this, she has stayed on the straight and narrow path of success and creative authenticity with zero press-hungry antics, tropes, or gimmicks. Thanks to a mother lode of sheer talent, Keys is one of those rare stars who never has to strive for relevancy or rely on reinvention. “Every time I create something, I feel it’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” she says. “I might experience self-doubt in the process, but once I’ve finished I feel very confident. I still have that childlike wonder.”

In the past few years, Keys has evolved from a chart-topping singer-songwriter-pianist into an avid producer, actor, and advocate. She recently co-created She Is the Music, a nonprofit poised to shake up the music industry’s gender imbalance through all-female songwriting camps and mentorship programs. “I think women are held to higher standards because we are that much more important to the human race. Women are always going to have to navigate a more difficult space because we occupy so many different levels within it, and that’s how powerful we are.”

Unless you’ve been living under a chunk of heliodor for the past two decades, you’ve likely been lifted by one of Keys’s many female-empowering anthems. “A majority of those songs—‘A Woman’s Worth,’ ‘Superwoman,’ and ‘Girl on Fire’—were written when I was not feeling worthy,” she tells me as she pays for a long piece of selenite, said to soothe nerves and aid in clarity, and a Herkimer diamond, a detoxifying stone that stimulates dream work. “They were always songs that I needed to hear because I was going through a time when I was feeling down and needed to be reminded that this is who I am and this is what I deserve!”

As we hop into the back of a black Suburban, Keys reveals that her upcoming album possesses a new spirit of confidence. “It reflects where I am today—the deeper acceptance I have of who I am as a full human being, the flaws, the pieces that I used to push aside because I wasn’t ready to embrace the anger or the fear or the crazy.”

Max Mara coat and turtleneck; Cartier earrings.

Keys blushes when the topic turns to her husband of nine years, producer Swizz Beatz. “[Even] guys have man crushes on him because he’s so engaging and smart,” she says. The couple live just outside the city, where they’re raising sons Egypt, eight, and Genesis, four. “Motherhood gave me a stronger sense of clarity. I used to be less aware of how I wanted to spend my time and more influenced by other people. After I had my kids, I felt like I had found my North Star. I was less wasteful; I worked more effectively.”

Next March, Keys will release More Myself, which is being published by Oprah Winfrey’s imprint with Flatiron Books. It’s a candid take on her life’s trajectory that is part memoir, part recollections from friends and family. She likens the project to therapy, adding that it required even more vulnerability than her songwriting: “I had to be transparent; otherwise there was no point in doing it.”

Michael Kors Collection sweater, bodysuit, and headband; Cartier jewelry.

From the backseat of the SUV, Keys instructs the driver to make a quick detour. As we turn the corner, Swizz Beatz jumps into the car and excitedly shows his wife a video of their kids announcing that “Mommy” will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Keys is more focused on the boys’ speech than the professional milestone. “Aren’t they cute?” she says, beaming.

Eventually she reflects on the breaking news. “Though I’ve always been grateful, I’ve never put too much weight on awards. But now I’m trying to be better about cherishing the big, wonderful things. It’s great to be humble, but all of us deserve to celebrate the win.”

Salvatore Ferragamo dress; Cartier earrings and bracelets; Keys’s own ring.

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This article originally appears in the September 2019 print issue of Harper's Bazaar, available on newsstands August 20.

For Alicia Keys: Hair: Nai’vasha; Makeup: Dotti; Manicure: Dawn Sterling; For Regina King: Hair: Tiffany Mack; Makeup: Oslyn Holder; Sittings Editor: Ron Hartleben; Sittings Assistants: Daniel Gaines and Lauren Fern; Casting Director: Evelien Joos; Entertainment Director: Christopher Bartley; Hair: Akki; Makeup: Kanako Takase; Manicures: Mei Kawajiri; Tailor: Todd Thomas; Production: Sasha Bar-Tur for CR Studio; Set Designer: Philipp Haemmerle; Digital Technician: Chad Meyer; Lighting Technician: Lars Beaulieu; Photo Assistants: Kotaro Kawashima, Javier Villegas, Jared Zagha, and Lance Cheshire; Printing: ARC Lab Ltd.; Locations: Gum Studios, NYC, and Bathhouse Studios, NY

Videographer: Marilou Daubé; Camera Operator: Nick Perron-Siegel; Video Editor: Aaron Fuks; Color: Shawn King, Honest Labor; Flame Artist: Les Umberger, MOD