A chart-topping musician for two decades, Alicia Keys has won more than a dozen Grammys and is considered an R&B icon. Becoming a global superstar at an early age, it’s easy to wonder about the family circumstances that surrounded her path to superstardom.
Alicia Keys, born Alicia Augello-Cook, was raised in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Her mother, Teresa Augello, was an Italian-American legal secretary. Her father, Craig Cook, was an African-American flight attendant. The couple separated when Alicia was 2 years old and she was raised by her mother, having no bond with her father for much of her early life. In 2006, Alicia allowed her father to reenter her life and they now have a much better relationship.
To learn more about Alicia Keys’ parents and how they influenced her musical identity, keep reading.
The Early Years
Alicia was born on January 25 1981 in Hell’s Kitchen, the daughter of Teresa Augello and Craig Cook, named Alicia Augello-Cook.
Teresa was a paralegal, as well as a part-time actress, with Sicilian ancestry on her mother’s side.
Her love of Italian music gave Alicia her early education in classical music, with the piano becoming a lifelong passion.
Alicia’s father, Craig Cook, was an African-American flight attendant and the couple separated when Alicia was 2. In the singer’s own words, “they were never really together” and Craig was not a part of Alicia’s formative years.
For the first years of Alicia’s musical success, she preferred not to discuss her father in public, fearing that his absence would feed racial stereotypes.
As a single mother, Teresa usually worked two or three jobs to make ends meet, bouncing between being lower-middle-class and outright poor.
When a friend of Alicia’s gave her an unwanted piano, Alicia began taking piano lessons at the age of 7. She begged her mother to let her quit when she realized how poor their financial situation was but Teresa was determined that her daughter should pursue her passion for music.
Despite the hardship they faced during her early life, Alicia feels that those circumstances proved what a strong woman her mother was and encouraged her to be more like her.
If it hadn’t been for enduring those times, perhaps Alicia would not be the musician she is today.
Building a Relationship
For many years, Alicia resented her father’s absence from her early life and did not want him to reenter it after her meteoric rise to fame.
This changed in 2006 when her paternal grandmother, with who she had maintained a good relationship with, became ill. Witnessing her grandmother’s rapid decline in health and the love Craig showed her, Alicia’s anger softened and she realized that he “wasn’t an evil person”.
Alicia says that her own son, Egypt, helped to strengthen the bond between Alicia and her father.
Seeing Craig playing with his grandson helped Alicia see a different side of her father and made it easier for her to accept him back into her life.
She asked if it would be possible for them to have a fresh start and they have formed a positive relationship in the years since.
The bond between Alicia Keys and her mother, Teresa, has remained as strong as ever. From struggling to make ends meet in a single bedroom New York apartment to the lifestyle of a multi-platinum, multi-award-winning musician, Alicia has had her mother at her side.
For anybody who remembers Alicia as an amazingly talented musician barely out of her teens in the early 2000s, it’s difficult to imagine that, as of writing, she isn’t even 40 years old. Alicia’s fans likely have decades of new hits to enjoy.
As a mixed-race woman, Alicia Keys’ diverse set of influences from both sides of her family have inspired her to create years of great music in an iconic career.
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