Keys: ‘to Have To Deal With All These Things’
Enter AIDS activist Leigh Blake. She is the innovative producer behind the 1990s’ “Red Hot + Blue,” the first concert event and album that banded together musical artists for AIDS efforts. Blake invited Keys to join her on that first eye-opening trip back in 2002, lobbying the voice behind such hits as “Fallin'” and “A Woman’s Worth” to use her clout to shine a light on the global AIDS movement and to get involved herself.
The two toured threadbare medical clinics and destitute villages where the poorest of Africans needed the simplest of interventions: antiretroviral medications , which at that time were neither affordable nor accessible in third-world nations.
“We don’t see more than 16 million U.S. orphans in America because we don’t allow it to happen,” Blake says. “In the United States, if you need the drugs, you get the drugs. But not too long ago, if you were poor in Africa and had no voice, you didn’t. And you died.”
When a pharmaceutical company began making a generic version of ARVs in 2003 for just $500 annually — the original patented drugs tallied $11,000 per year, an astronomical figure for all but the world’s wealthiest citizens — they knew mass distribution had finally become feasible.
“Leigh said to me: ‘I think I can find a way to engage the public and provide these medicines,'” Keys recalls. “So I said to her: ‘You figure that out, and I’m there!’
Did Alicia Keys Mother Have Cancer
Keys also lost her mother to breast cancer, which she reveals in a video clip alongside McCartney. Every 19 seconds a woman around the world is diagnosed with breast cancer, says McCartney. Sadly, I lost my mother to breast cancer 19 years ago. She didnt meet my children.
Accordingly, Who is the father of Alicia Keys Baby?
Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys just received the greatest gift: a baby! The music producer and Girl on Fire singer welcomed their second child together on Saturday, Dec. 27, the couple announced Sunday via Instagram. Son Genesis Ali Dean was born at 1:52 a.m., weighing 6 lbs., 5 oz.
Moreover, Who is Alicia Keys mother and father?
She is the only child of Teresa Augello, who was a paralegal and part-time actress, and one of three children of Craig Cook, who was a flight attendant. Keyss father is African American and her mother is of Italian, Irish, and Scottish descent her mothers paternal grandparents were immigrants from Sciacca in Sicily.
Also Why Alicia Keys named her son Egypt?
15! Egypt is of course a place name that is actually a Greek form of an ancient name for the country, Hwt-ka-Ptah, which means temple for Ka of Ptah Ptah being an early Egyptian god. The Greeks not surprisingly had trouble pronouncing this and so recast the name as Aegyptus, referred to by Homer.
Did Alicia Keys have a baby?
Who Raised Alicia Keys
Growing up, Keys was raised by her mother, Nikki Augelloa part-time actress and paralegal. She began piano lessons at age 7 and Augellos dogged insistence that her daughter stick with the instrument led Keys to attend Manhattans prestigious Professional Performance Arts School, where she majored in choir.
Read Also: Does Hiv Cause Hair Loss
Jeremy Scott To Be Honored At Amfar Los Angeles Gala
Host Sharon Stone arrived in a lavender gown with her son. Stopping at the end of the gray carpet, not red, she greeted the international press on hand warmly: Thank you for coming year after year to cover what we do here.Borat Subsequent Moviefilm star Maria Bakalova arrived early in the evening wearing a fitted black gown with sequin pink straps. Emmy winner Darren Criss arrived in a black suit with wife Mia Swier, while The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel herself, Rachel Brosnahan, stunned in a peach-colored puffed at the bottom gown.
The evening started off with a cocktail hour. As celebrities and influential benefactors strolled down the carpet, guests mingled over champagne and canapés. Walking into the dinner, a discernable 1920s vibe developed against the backdrop of Art Deco interiors and music from exactly one century ago.
Long-time amfAR Global Campaign Chair and AIDS activist Stone set the mood early, challenging the audience by pointing out that many are still living with HIV and AIDS.
She asked for a glass of champagne to celebrate with the audience with a toast. Theres this speech written for me but you know, Im so grateful to be here with you, she said, abandoning her notes. For so long we didnt know what would happen and now we have commercials on TV with AIDS medication. We can stop mother to child transmission because of you.
The entire looks of 32 pieces sold for 225,000 euros.
Alicia Keys On Motherhood: ‘a Billion Times Better Than I Expected’
Love is a word that falls often from Keys’ lips, especially when the name Egypt comes up: “Motherhood is a billion times better than I expected, and I already expected it to be great,” she says.
“It’s all the things everyone ever said, but you don’t know it until you’re there. It’s a really special time, and I feel so honored that I get to help somebody in this world find his wings, and navigate and learn happiness, and be loved. Actually, he’s helping me learn, because I’m smarter now. He’s awesome! I’m having a ball!”
So how does she nurture her creative side while also nurturing a new baby and husband? “I feel like I’m more balanced than I’ve been in my life, actually,” she says. “I felt a lot less balanced about five years ago. More than ever, I consider everything I do now, and make sure it’s something I can’t live without and something I believe in. There has to be a powerful reason to do it, one that makes me feel great.”
Keys continues: “There are a lot of things I can’t do now. Having my son and a family, that’s my barometer, when before I was maybe more inclined to say ‘yes’ and do more — and then be super-exhausted and overspent.
“Life is balance. It’s all a balance,” Keys says. “And if there’s something you’re thinking about, and it’s something you really want in your life, then you will — you’ll do it.”
You May Like: Does Cookie Johnson Have Aids
Alicia Keys Wants You To Talk To Your Kids About Aids
Alicia Keys was only eight or nine years old when she began to understand the impact of AIDS. The Grammy-winning singer, now 34, knew her mom’s friend died of the disease.
In 2003, Keys founded Keep A Child Alive, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness for people in sub-Saharan Africa with HIV and AIDS. The mother of two talked to People about why parents should educate their children about the disease:
It’s important to talk to our kids about having compassion and not ostracizing people who are infected or affected by AIDS. We must understand this is something we still are fighting and we can make tremendous strives if we keep this at the top of our list. We’ve come so far, and it would be such a shame not to take it all the way.
The soon-to-be two-time marathon runner talked about how even as awareness of AIDS grows, the stigma is still prevalent: “There’s this idea that you can’t be friends with someone who has AIDS or can’t choose to love someone who has AIDS.”
Read the rest of Keys’ interview over at People.
Related Video: This Weeks Issue In Song
How do people at clinics and orphanages react when you visit them?
Oh man, its so beautiful. Its such a phenomenal energy. Theres so much love and I feel so welcomed. I feel so grateful to be able to meet the young girls. Theres this one particular girl named Cecy. Ive checked up on her through the years. When I first met her, she had lost both of her parents. It was and continues to be such a difficult thing in child-headed households, you lose both parents and then oldest person in the home is the one who raises all the kids. Its crazy. She was a child of a child-headed household. I saw such a light in her and an energy. She was always very poetic and she just had something about her. I always asked, Whats happening with Cecy? Hows Cecy doing? A few years ago, she was working at a radio station in South Africa and she interviewed me. I was so happy to speak to her. Shes a survivor who hasnt let anything stop her from being a phenomenal woman who is working hard and growing.
How did you feel knowing that you played a part in Cecys success?
I was bursting with pride. It was the best feeling. She was talking to me about important issues and she was so smart. I was excited for her because its like, look at this: it could have gone any number of ways, and because of the support of Keep a Child Alive, she is going to be such a powerful force in society.
For more on Alicia Keys fight against HIV/AIDS, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
You May Like: Walgreens At Home Hiv Test
We Are Empowered: Alicia Keys Wants To Change The Way Women Think About Hiv
Fourteen-time Grammy Award-winning artist and HIV advocate Alicia Keys has teamed up with Greater Than AIDS to launch EMPOWERED, a new public information campaign to reach women in the U.S. about HIV/AIDS. Being released in the lead-up to National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day , the ongoing EMPOWERED campaign includes targeted public service ads and community engagement opportunities.
Approximately 280,000 people living with HIV in the U.S. or about one in four are women. Women of color have been especially hard-hit, accounting for the large majority of new infections occurring among women in the U.S.
As a force in the global fight against AIDS, Keys has dedicated her work in philanthropy to help bring awareness to the urgency of HIV/AIDS. Now with the launch of EMPOWERED, she is once again highlighting the power of women as mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, partners and people living with HIV to change the course of this disease through every day actions.
When I became aware that women accounted for one in five new HIV infections occurring in the U.S. each year, it shook me to the core and I realized this is an issue we ALL need to pay attention to, said Alicia Keys. Whether HIV positive or negative, we all have the opportunity to educate ourselves and make a difference.
The campaign promotes specific ways women are empowered in the face of HIV/AIDS:
About Greater Than AIDS
About Alicia Keys
Topics
Alicia Keys: Lending Her Voice To Stop The Spread Of Aids
Celebrated singer, musician and actress, Alicia Keys, has multi-platinum album sales and multiple Grammys under her belt, but she is undoubtedly most proud of her devoted work as an AIDS activist and philanthropist.
In her early 20s, Alicia Keys was fresh off her first hit album, Songs in A Minor, when she agreed to hold a concert half a world away in Africa. This was Keys first time visiting Africa, and she had no idea what she was in for. While there, Keys encountered pregnant women who were devastated that they would pass HIV onto their children because they werent able to afford the anti-retro-viral medications. Keys learned that thanks to major advances in treatment, an HIV-positive pregnant woman can have an HIV-free baby if she is given these medicines during pregnancy. Unfortunately, less than half of women actually have access to such treatment.
Within a year, and knowing very little about the charity business, Keys took a leap and co-founded a humanitarian group, along with filmmaker and activist Leigh Blake, called Keep a Child Alive. Keep a Child Alive helps build clinics and provides medicine for kids and their families with HIV/AIDS across Africa. For KCA, a bed, a roof, a ride, books and smiles offers people dignity that is life and is why Keep a Child Alive gives more than just the pills needed to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.
You May Like: Hiv Without Ejaculation
Alicia Keys Campaigns For Hiv Education
Alicia Keys says she wants to spark a global conversation about HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The Grammy Award-winning singer met with women who are part of an HIV program at United Medical Center in the nations capital Monday to discuss their experiences with the virus, including the fear and stigma associated with the disease.
Keys, who has also traveled to Africa and India to meet with women who have HIV, said she felt connected to the women there and here because they looked like they could be my sister, or they could be my aunt, or they could be my cousin.
And now, she said, she wants to bridge the gap between domestic and international conversations about the virus.
Keys is working with the Kaiser Family Foundation for Empowered, a campaign launched last month to educate women about HIV and provide grants to community-based projects that will do that.
According to Kaiser, one in four of the 1.1 million people living with HIV in the United States are women. Women of color account for about two-thirds of new HIV infections among women.
Black women are disproportionally affected, making up for the majority of all new infections, Keys said. Thats a must-have conversation.
The campaign includes outreach through public service ads, social media and community programs. It encourages women to learn about HIV and AIDS, talk with family and friends, protect themselves and loved ones, get tested, prevent spreading the disease and stay on treatment.
Breakthrough With Songs In A Minor
Robinson and Keys, with Davis’s help, were able to negotiate out of the Columbia contract and she signed to Arista Records in late 1998. Keys was also able to leave with the music she had created. Davis gave Keys the creative freedom and control she wanted, and encouraged her to be herself. Keys said of Davis’ instinct: “he knows which artists are the ones that maybe are needing to craft their own sound and style and songs, and you just have to let an artist go and find that space. And I think he somehow knew that and saw that in me and really just let me find that.” After signing with Davis, Keys continued honing her songs. Keys almost chose Wilde as her stage name at the age of 16 until her manager suggested the name Keys after a dream he had. She felt that name embodied her both as a performer and person. Keys contributed her songs “Rock wit U” and “Rear View Mirror” to the soundtracks of the films Shaft and Dr. Dolittle 2 , respectively.
In 2000, Davis was ousted from Arista and the release of Keys’s album was put on hold. Later that year, Davis formed J Records and immediately signed Keys to the label. “He didn’t try to divert me to something else”, Keys said on following Davis to his new label. He understood that she wants to be herself and not “made into what somebody else thinks I should be.”
Read Also: Hiv 1 2 Antibodies
The Live Auction Which Took Place During The Dinner Saw A Combination Of Luxury Holidays Jewels Artwork And One
Alicia Keys performed at the event
Sharon Stone hosted and Alicia Keys gave a dazzling performance as the lavish amfAR gala that raises money for Aids research returned to Cannes.
One of the most anticipated nights of the festival, the 27th edition was a smaller more intimate affair than previous years, with the exclusive guestlist pared from 900 to 400 people with Covid-19 protocols in place.
The night began with a cocktail hour complete with ballerinas, flapper girls with Afghan hounds, vodka and caviar shots and plenty of champagne.
Expand
Sharon Stone poses for photographers upon arrival at the amfAR Cinema Against Aids benefit
AP/PA Images
This was followed by a seated dinner without the usual after-party that keeps guests dancing into the early hours, but that did not stop attendees from enjoying the hottest ticket in town.
Dining under the stars at Villa Eilenroc in Antibes, this years theme was I am a Movie Star and guests were entertained with a fashion show curated by Carine Roitfeld.
Keys was the music headliner, performing a spellbinding set which included her legendary hit New York as well as the much-loved Fallin.
Orlando Bloom attended the benefit
AP/PA Images
She sat at the piano and announced to the crowd that this was her first in person performance since the pandemic to a rapturous applause from the diners.
I think were staying on mission and were back at it which is really nice.
Expand
Spike Lee posed for photos
AP/PA Images
What Are The Weirdest Baby Names
Some really weird baby names
- Moon Unit. This was the suitably weird choice of the avant-garde late rock star Frank Zappa for his oldest daughter.
- Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116. Its pronounced Albin apparently.
- Kingmessiah. This was named the worst boys name of 2019 by one parenting site.
- Darth.
- Xxayvier.
Read Also: How Long Can Aids Go Undetected
The Stunning Transformation Of Alicia Keys
Few stars have gone through transformations like Alicia Keys. The beloved singer, songwriter and activist has never shied away from making a statement, and that’s why she is so fun to watch. From breaking down barriers in the music industry to founding a powerful charity, Keys uses her star power for good. Her signature style has gone from a tomboy with braids to a natural, confident mama and everything in between.