Why Alicia Keys should win a Grammy for her album; 'Girl on Fire'
By Paulyn Lloyd | Yahoo Contributor Network – Mon, Jan 13, 2014 17:23 GMT
Alicia Keys is in the running for another Grammy for her latest album, 'Girl on Fire'.The nomination was announced last year, and this month we will find out if she has made the grade.
Alicia Keys, the trailblazing Girl on Fire
Alicia released the album in 2012, and it became her fifth album to top the charts in America's Billboard 200. It was certified gold in Canada, France, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, America and the UK and received a selection of positive reviews. With this kind of success it is little wonder it has scored a nomination.
I bought 'Girl on Fire' a few days after it was released and immediately fell in love with it. Alicia has a gift for writing amazing tracks and her female anthems are second to none. There were two tracks that stood out for me; the title track, 'Girl on Fire' and 'Brand New Me'. I think she deserves a Grammy for these two songs alone.
Alicia has been in the music industry since she was in her late teens and her music has evolved with her. 'Girl on Fire' is a song that most of us can relate to. A Girl on Fire is the kind of person most of us aspire to be; she is bold, she is confident and she never gives up on her dreams. When I first heard it I felt empowered, motivated and ready for anything, and it still has the same effect now.
Alicia said she was inspired to write the track when a journalist referred to her in an article as 'a girl on fire'.
"It came from this interview that I did, and the woman wrote something like, 'She's like a girl on fire,' " Alicia's told the New York Times. "And I was like: I love that. And I remember thinking, I'm writing a song called 'Girl on Fire' for sure."
She took the idea to the studio when she was working with producers Jeff Bhasker and Salaam Remi. They searched through several samples from Salaam's collection before Alicia heard the sound she wanted.
"He started going through his sample library and all these different crazy drums. And there were these loud, obnoxious, just destructive drums, and I was like, Yeah! A girl on fire is loud and obnoxious and destructive and just, like, totally unrelenting and she's free," she said.
Alicia explained that when she got in front of a mic' then everything started to flow.
"It was like an explosion of magic fairy dust that came down. That's basically what happens with songs sometimes but it is very rare," she added.
'Brand New Me' has the same kind of empowering energy but it is coming from a different place than 'Girl on Fire'. To me, 'Brand New Me' is about realising your own strength and self-worth, about being free enough to be yourself regardless of what anyone else thinks and about re-birth. It is my favourite Alicia Keys song since 'Superwoman'. But it isn't just for women, anyone who has battled with doing what they know is right or doing what people expect them to do can relate to 'Brand New Me'.
The whole album epitomises the concept of being comfortable in your own skin, which is interesting because that's exactly how Alicia comes across. It's no secret that she parted ways with Columbia Records when they told her she needed to straighten her hair, lose weight and attempted to mold her into something she wasn't. However, even with her assertive attitude, she has still come across obstacles.
"As a young girl coming into this thing, I felt huge pressure. You don't know how to navigate it because everyone's going 'Oh that's beautiful, that's nice, why don't you unbutton the shirt a little lower, pull the skirt a little higher, it's really nice'. And you're just trying to figure out how to not look like an idiot. I trusted people and then I would see things back and feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. That kind of set me on my path to be stronger about not letting people tell me anything, only trusting my own instincts, but that's tricky too," she told The Telegraph.
'Girl on Fire' proves that even R'n'B pop can be meaningful
With Alicia it has always been about the music. You won't see her making a semi-****ographic music video or dancing provocatively in her underwear. All she needs is her piano and a song and she can keep a crowd in the palm of her hand for hours. The great thing is, she is confident about it. That's why her music stands out and why she has maintained her fan base for more than a decade.
'Girl on Fire' epitomises everything I love about Alicia, her self-assurance, her love for her husband and son, her desire to shine in her own beautiful way and her passion for the things that money can't buy. She has already won 14 Grammys but this is the first album she has written as a mother and it has a different feel to its predecessors.
She seems to be more comfortable in her own skin than ever before and, as such, she has created much more than a stunning album, she's created a selection of motivating mantras, a musical expression of her authenticity and proved that R'n'B with pop elements can be meaningful. So, for me, there is no question who should win- Alicia Keys all the way.
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