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From research Alicia speaks a lot about how her mother played a huge roll in her life and was the first one to inspire her to speak out. She also has had a lot of influence through music which inspired her to write such songs as 'Girl on Fire' which is based on women empowerment.

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In this sit down interview with ABC News Alicia Speaks about her 'Superwomen" movement.

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Women empowerment within the Music industry Article Link

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Women empowerment within the Music industry Article Link

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As a teenager growing up in the New York City neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, Alicia Keys saw a L'Oréal TV commercial with the tagline "Because I'm worth it" and had an epiphany. "I thought, 'What a killer line,'" says Keys of the slogan, which inspired her soulful 2001 single "A Woman's Worth." It was the first of many anthems celebrating female strength that Keys has written through the years -- from 2007's "Superwoman" to 2012's "Girl on Fire," which she performed at the 2016 Democratic National Convention to introduce Hillary Clinton.

Looking back on her career so far, however, Keys says she created "A Woman's Worth" because she didn't feel empowered at all. "I needed to write the song so that I could feel better," she says. Almost two decades later, the 2019 Impact honoree is focused on helping others find that same confidence -- in both big and small ways. In 2016, she embraced a minimal-makeup look to challenge conventional beauty standards. At Billboard's 2018 Women in Music event, Keys detailed She Is the Music, a nonprofit she co-founded to increase opportunities for women in the music industry through writing camps, a database of female creators and other initiatives. Lately, Keys -- who will return as host of the Grammy Awards in January -- has also started using Instagram TV to lead deep discussions with her fans, like a recent broadcast in which she talked about her 4-year-old son's fears about getting bullied over his painted nails. She'll keep the conversations going on her seventh studio album, ALICIA, due next year. "I'm realizing how much I've diminished my own power," says Keys, 38. "I'm not doing that no more."
You've said that a 2018 study from the University of Southern California's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative -- which found that women account for only 22% of performers of popular songs -- inspired you to co-found She Is the Music. What did that illuminate for you?
I was shocked. I didn't think there would be such a huge discrepancy. I grew up in New York City, I've always seen a really diverse mix of people, and I was raised by a woman. So from my experience, it's always been pretty women-centric. But it's not. Sometimes I'm like, "What year is this?"
How would She Is the Music have helped you as a young artist?
I love the community aspect. That would've been a big help for me because I was usually the only one -- the girl with all the guys. With the global database, you can actually find, "Who are the best female lighting designers?" We're allowing you to create your tribe.
Do you have any favorite memories from the writing camps?
One of the recent songwriting camps I did was hosted in my studio. There were a bunch of women that came up from the [Washington] D.C.-Baltimore area. I sat with them for a while, just chatting and chilling. One woman had come from the Middle East, and she had such a powerful story. Just getting to know different people's experiences, even though it was a super-casual moment, was so beautiful.
In 2004, you teamed up with Missy Elliott and Beyoncé for the Verizon Ladies First Tour. What do you remember about it?
It was one of the first of its kind, especially three black women together like that. All three of us were so different from each other. It was so dope. There has always been the Lilith Fair and different festivals focused on women, and I'm glad there's more things like that coming. We're in that time when we are powerfully, clearly in our feminine, divine dope shit. Let's just keep going with it.
What inspired you to title your next album ALICIA?
I'm working on continuing to get to know the whole Alicia. The music really reflects all of those sides. I'm so excited about it being more me -- more free, more comfortable with all the uncomfortable parts. People haven't experienced that unfiltered side of me. They're the best songs I've ever written, period, end of story.
How did you reach that level of self-acceptance?
Most of the time, we're pretending, and we don't even know it. We think, "People expect me to be like this." I'm over all those things. Sometimes it feels so good, sometimes it don't feel good, and I'm cool with that, too. Sometimes I don't have an answer. Sometimes I'm really down and I've got to give myself a break. But I feel like I'm finally myself.

Standing Together
At the 2018 Billboard Women in Music event, Alicia Keys presented She Is the Music, the organization she co-founded with her longtime sound engineer, Jungle City Studios' Ann Mincieli; WME partner and head of East Coast music Samantha Kirby Yoh; and Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) chairman/CEO Jody Gerson. Its goal is to increase the number of women in the music industry. "It was never just a media push," says Mincieli. "This is something that all of us really wanted to stand behind."

She Is the Music's work focuses on three key initiatives: expanding an online database (powered by Billboard) that now includes over 700 female creators, establishing a mentorship program for women in the industry of all ages and hosting all-women songwriting camps around the world with artists like Mary J. Blige and Natti Natasha. In June, electro-pop artist Rozes released " Call Me," the first song to come out of one of the camps. She Is the Music is also growing its various committees, which advise the organization on behalf of particular interest groups. In April it unveiled its first Latin Committee, with members like Anitta and UMPG's Alexandra Lioutikoff.

She Is the Music is already hearing success stories. "We're getting phone calls," says Mincieli. Cyndi Lauper 's manager, Lisa Barbaris, used the database to hire female stagehands for Lauper's upcoming Home for the Holidays benefit concert. The organization has also found like-minded partners in the All Things Go Fall Classic festival in Washington, D.C., which this year had a women-focused lineup, and the nonprofit Step Up, which helps introduce high school girls to careers in music. "We're out there going, 'Tell us what you've been working on and however we can help, we'll get behind it,'" says Kirby Yoh. Adds Mincieli: "It's about creating that opportunity and helping the next generation step into the future."
This article originally appeared in the Dec. 14 issue of Billboard.

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Alicia Keys: Billboard Impact Honoree Women in Music Interview | Billboard

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Looking back on her career, Alicia Keys says she wrote her 2001 single "A Woman's Worth" because she didn't feel empowered at all: "I needed to write the song so I could feel better." Now, the Billboard Women In Music Impact honoree is focused on helping others find that same confidence -- in both big and small ways.

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Women empowerment within the Music Industry

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Women empowerment within the Music Industry

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Alicia speaks to a reporter about the number of men vs women in the music industry. She discusses the difference in the number of popular songs, albums, shows etc between female and male artists within the industry. She explains how from data that men are still having the advantage within industry.

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IAAS.com is a website set up by Alicia Keys to bring women together. Its an online platform for women to discuss goals, struggles and for women to give and receive advice.

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Grammy winner launches Web site for women to share dreams, advice.

April 6, 2010— -- She's turned heads, collected armfuls of Grammys and inspired a nation to have an " Empire State of Mind."

Now singer and actress Alicia Keys is turning to the Internet to empower and connect women to help them find their inner "superwoman."

Her new Web site, IAAS.com -- named after her song "I Am a Superwoman" -- is a place women can gather to share dreams, goals, struggles and advice.

"This dream has been to really create a neighborhood, an online community, a place," she said.

A place, she said, for "the many ways that we can create the life that we dream of and talk about fashion, and talk about places that we love to go, talk about our children and our families, talk about our jobs and our careers, talk about finances and how to really get to the places that you dream of."

Keys, who has spent time in Africa working with children, said IAAS.com has been a dream of hers for some time.

"This is my vision and this is my idea, but this isn't like my personal site about my personal career life or anything like that," she said, "This is really about all women."

To get started, Keys is looking for a little help in the form of a head blogger. Launched with Monster.com, the job is open to anyone.

"It possibly is a superwoman," she said. "It possibly could be a superman."

Keys said she hopes the Web site will be her way of continuing the inspiration learned from her mother and her grandmother.

"They showed me certain things about being a woman that I really want to emulate," she said. "And one of the things about my grandmother was absolutely service to others in the smallest way."

"I just want to continue to that legacy, you know, of compassion, and of service, and of really being like someone that people can relate to, and can understand and say, 'You know what? She's just like me. And if she can do it, I can do it,'" she said. " And we can all kind of figure this out."

Alicia Keys: Empowering 'Superwomen'

So far, Keys has seen extraordinary success figuring things out on her own. She burst onto the scene in 2001 with her debut album "Songs in A Minor," which nabbed her five Grammys. She has since won seven more Grammys for subsequent albums as well as 11 Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards and 14 NAACP Image Awards.

She has also appeared in movies and on television and was nominated for an Image Award for her role in 2008's "Secret Life of Bees." And she's not even 30 years old.

Now on tour promoting her album "The Element of Freedom," Keys said performing never gets old.

"It's constantly inspiring me, changing and evolving and I'm getting more secure in my performance style," she said.

And the fans, she said, never cease to amaze her.

"I honestly can't believe it," she said. "I step out on that stage and all those people are out there and they're singing every word on the top of their lungs and I cannot believe that."

Click here to visit Alicia Keys' new Web site.

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Alicia Keys: Empowering Women Online to Be 'Superwoman'

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Grammy winner launches Web site for women to share dreams, advice. April 6, 2010- -- She's turned heads, collected armfuls of Grammys and inspired a nation to have an " Empire State of Mind." Now singer and actress Alicia Keys is turning to the Internet to empower and connect women to help them find their inner "superwoman."

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Empowered is a campaign set up by Alicia Keys to bring awareness to women about the HIV/AIDS epidemic. She talks about how HIV and AIDS effect women , even now, in todays society and how there is much little help for women dealing with the disease. This campaign is to solve that problem.

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Editorial Note: Many organizations are using new media channels to reach communities in the response to HIV/AIDS. Recently, we asked our colleagues at the Kaiser Family Foundation to share some information on the EMPOWERED campaign. The following guest post is about EMPOWERED, an example of a national campaign using traditional and new media. Among federal examples, the CDC's Act Against AIDS has taken a similar approach.
On April 15 in Washington, D.C, as she introduced EMPOWERED, her new campaign developed as part of the Greater Than AIDS initiative, recording artist Alicia Keys called on the women of America to use their power to help bring an end to AIDS.

"Women and girls have been affected by HIV since the start, but that impact has not been recognized," Ms. Keys said. "And as the sisters, mothers, daughters, and caregivers, we are the backbones of families, communities, and entire societies. We will never see an AIDS-free generation without harnessing the power and strength of women."

EMPOWERED is a new, national cross-platform HIV awareness campaign that includes TV, radio, and outdoor and print ads, in addition to digital content and social media. By joining with Greater Than AIDS, Alicia Keys is reaching women in the U.S. in everyday ways-on their computers, on their phones, at bus stops-to make everyday choices that can change the course of this epidemic.

EMPOWERED's digital focus revolves around the powerful stories of five women living with HIV in the U.S. Alicia Keys met with these women and they shared their struggles and triumphs living with HIV. A six-minute signature video excerpt of that conversation was released exclusively online, then promoted widely with direct prompts to watch the video from all outdoor ad placements and through social media distribution by both Greater Than AIDS and Ms. Keys.

One recent Tweet from Ms. Keys read, "Its time2change the way we think about HIV. We R #EMPOWERED! I'm so moved by this," with a link to the video. The video has also been featured widely on online media sites, including BET, Huffington Post, and the Grio. Greater than AIDS will make a 30-minute version of the video to community groups, for use at events that serve and educate women.

EMPOWERED also continues to roll out new online exclusive features, including five recently released personal profile videos for each of the women in the EMPOWERED signature video with Alicia Keys. These intimate portraits of the women, whose faces grace the EMPOWERED outdoor ads, allow a greater understanding of their EMPOWERED statements and what led each to speak out about HIV. By creating layers of content that build as viewers explore different platforms, EMPOWERED creates a rich learning experience, with the ultimate endpoint of informational resources on HIV prevention, testing, and treatment.

As the campaign goes on, Greater Than AIDS and Ms. Keys will use social media to continue to promote these online features and the actions every woman can take in her own life to protect herself from HIV. Already the campaign has received a wave of positive feedback. For example, a recent Facebook posting by Ms. Keys of photos from the EMPOWERED launch event garnered nearly 49,000 "likes." An online call out from Ms. Keys for responses to the EMPOWERED video started a conversation among commenters, such as, "This really changed my perspective about HIV," "I cried watching this," "Newly diagnosed, thank you."

Through dialogues about HIV, Alicia Keys CAN help to change the way America thinks about HIV/AIDS. We are EMPOWERED.

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Alicia Keys Introduces New National "EMPOWERED" Campaign, Reaching U.S. Women on All Platforms

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Editorial Note: Many organizations are using new media channels to reach communities in the response to HIV/AIDS. Recently, we asked our colleagues at the Kaiser Family Foundation to share some information on the EMPOWERED campaign. The following guest post is about EMPOWERED, an example of a national campaign using traditional and new media.

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Quote explaining the impact Alicias investment into Feminism 

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Quote explaining the impact Alicias investment into Feminism 

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This article is based on the Power of Women New York for co-launching Keep a Child Alive. In her inspiring speech, she talks about the importance of equal pay. She said what inspired her journey was the treatment she saw of women in countries like Africa. With her platform, her voice could be heard and people would listen.

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Alicia Keys was honored at Variety's Power of Women New York for co-launching Keep a Child Alive, a nonprofit aimed at combating the physical, social and economic impacts of HIV. And while she spoke at length about that organization, she also spoke about the day's theme and the people in the room.

She was introduced by "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts, who said, "She not only changed the world around us, she changed the way we see ourselves. I'll say it, but I'm not going to sing it - this girl is on fire."

Keys took the stage, joked about trying to get Roberts to sing, and then said, "We are more on fire than we've ever been - and look at all the action that's around us: women running for office in record numbers, women banding together in the entertainment industry, women demanding an end to disparity in the music industry like equal representation on the Grammy stage," she said, referencing the low number of women performers during this year's show and Recording Academy chief's comment that women need to "step up" in order to get ahead in the music industry.

"We were told we need to step up. Well you feel that step up now?" she said.

Keys also addressed the importance of equal compensation for equal work, pointing to the pay disparity between Claire Foy and Matt Smith on "The Crown."

"It's called 'The Crown,'" she said of the Netflix series. "It's about the queen. So why is the prince getting more than the queen? So the queens are going to get their paper."

"Finally the country started listening," she continued. "I have so much pride in all of us women finding our voice. But this isn't only women's work - I saw the men, they were a little shook," she laughed. "I don't want them to feel that way because it takes great men, and there are so many of them, who support us in raising our voices to make this cultural change happen."

She spoke about her first manager Jeff Robinson. "In meetings, he made sure I had a seat at the table. I was 14, and Jeff treated me like an equal. It takes that from men and women alike to shift this once for all."

She thanked her mother - "a true woman of power" - and referenced Anita Hill as a "founding mother of the current moment and the courage it took to do what she did." She also spoke out against police violence against blacks, and of course the strength of the women she's worked with in Keep a Child Alive.

"I'm telling you all this to share stories about truly culture-rocking women," she concluded. "I'm so honored to be standing here with you all, because you are warriors, agents of change. And I accept this honor on behalf of all the women who have never been recognized in the way they ought to be: You are all incredible women of power."

Speaking to Variety for this week's Power of Women issue, she credited her first trip to South Africa 16 years ago as the spark that ignited her passion for helping others in need, as she performed a charity concert in Cape Town as part of MTV's HIV prevention and awareness initiative, Staying Alive. She toured the country meeting survivors of the epidemic.

In Soweto, specifically, she encountered children orphaned by AIDS who were forced to raise their younger siblings - effectively becoming the heads of their households. She described how many of the young girls in this position were pushed into the sex trade for survival. "They were just a few years younger than me. So I was like, 'What if this was happening to me, and nobody listened to me, nobody cared?'" She came back ready to do something. The trip "gave me a new purpose. I was like, if we could do something, I'm in."

Keys co-founded Keep a Child Alive with activist Leigh Blake shortly thereafter in 2003. The intensely community-oriented charity supports six grassroots organizations throughout Africa and one in India, with an eye to holistic approaches that address the socioeconomic roots of the epidemic and honor individuals with the disease.

Annually, the charity serves 70,000 people, providing generic, affordable AIDS medications to needy population and piloting innovative approaches to region-specific issues. Its mission statement reads: No new infections. No barriers to treatment. No discrimination.
RELATED CONTENT

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Alicia Keys Calls Out Grammy President, 'The Crown' Pay Gap at Variety's Power of Women Luncheon

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Alicia Keys was honored at Variety's Power of Women New York for co-launching Keep a Child Alive, a nonprofit aimed at combating the physical, social and economic impacts of HIV. And while she spoke at length about that organization, she also spoke about the day's theme and the people in the room.

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Empowered is the name of Alicias Campaign

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Empowered is the name of Alicias Campaign

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Women gaining more power within industry

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Women gaining more power within industry

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In this interview Alicia talks about how women should now be having more of an impact within the work environment. She also talk about how women are viewed in society depending on the way they look and how this is also impacted into industry.

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When Alicia Keys gets excited about a topic, you can practically hear the italics and caps lock in her voice.

"Sometimes, I want some damn makeup, and I'm going to wear it! Guess what - if I want to wear red lipstick and put eyelashes on, I can do whatever I f-ing want. I am the creator of my own destiny," Keys says in an interview with Variety.

The renowned singer-songwriter is responding to the media frenzy ignited two years ago when she wrote an essay for Lena Dunham's Lenny Letter titled "Time to Uncover," about shooting the promotional art for her 2016 song "In Common" without makeup. "I was finally uncovering just how much I censored myself, and it scared me. Who was I anyway? Did I even know HOW to be brutally honest anymore?" she wrote. "I don't want to cover up anymore. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing."

The piece, and Keys' genuine disclosure of her insecurities, went viral. And this past January when she appeared at the Grammys with no apparent makeup, she created another flurry of coverage. At the crowded, network-wide junket - which featured several children, including a 5-year-old girl in a frilly pink dress, silver high heels and mascara - Keys fielded a question about the "#nomakeup movement" from a local television journalist. The reporter, a woman, effusively thanked her and applauded her courage in speaking out. "Suddenly it was a movement, and I don't even know what that means," says Keys. "It doesn't have anything to do with makeup or no makeup. It has to do with who are you, what makes you feel good, how do you want to express that and even just asking the questions - What do I feel? How do I feel good? However that is, you should do it."

There's no doubt that the intense scrutiny of life in the spotlight shaped Keys and her views. The performer smashed into the mainstream with her 2002 debut album, "Songs in A Minor," but she's been in the industry since age 4. She describes the messages transmitted by the media to young women in the entertainment business as "a prison."

"We're supposed to be this big, and so tiny, and so skinny. If we have any hips or any thickness or width with us, we're fat. We torture ourselves; we don't eat. I've experienced all of that," she says. "I was subscribing to this sick identity. ... Stay in your place, be feminine, be a lady, don't make too much noise." The noise that comes out of her is a visceral expression of exasperation. "Argh! If you go to work without makeup, it's like, Are you tired? You look tired. And it's like, I'm not f-ing tired!" Keys describes confronting her un-made-up face as really seeing her - meeting her, where she is right now. That's not just for others - that's for herself too. "That was one of the hardest things for me, in the beginning. I'd literally look at myself in the mirror like, Yeah! That's me! OK. Hi!" she says, laughing.

Keys credits her feminism to her "magnificent" mother, an actress, who moved to New York City from Toledo, Ohio. Her mother taught her to "care deeply and strongly about other women." Adds Keys: "She's always been really fearless." Growing up, Keys had to learn how to argue her point against her strong-minded, opinionated parent. "If I didn't have my facts? Mm-mm, I had to have facts," she says. "I'm glad she challenged me in that way." Keys opens up Instagram on her phone to show a post she wrote for her mother for International Women's Day. She taps past the notifications pop-up - some 80,000 likes - to proudly display pictures from her childhood.

Keys has served as a coach on NBC's "The Voice" for three seasons.
Michael Zorn/Invision/AP/REX/Shu

Throughout her career, Keys has written songs with feminist themes, but none is quite so obvious, or memorable, as 2012's smash hit "Girl on Fire," which became a global anthem for femininity. She describes the experience of writing the song as "divine," like she was listening to a faraway voice and transcribing what it was telling her. "I'm always trying to figure out how to lift myself, how to remind myself that I'm greatness. It gets confusing, and you lose your footing. We beat ourselves up, as women."

There's always uncertainty about how much listeners will relate to the music. With "Girl on Fire," the number of stories of young girls singing that song seemed endless. Keys was moved. "If I never do anything else - if I do nothing else - this has been something," she recalls feeling. "Being a woman, being a girl, is the most awesome thing to be. I personally feel we are the more evolved species," she says with a twinkle in her eye. "We are the greatest creators on the planet, like, the planet literally would not exist if we weren't in it. ... We're the entire universe, in five feet five inches. One beautiful, elegant, awkward body."

"I was subscribing to this sick identity. ... Stay in your place, be feminine, be a lady, don't make too much noise."
Alicia Keys

Keys' conviction makes the recent wave of revelations about sexual harassment in the entertainment industry both hopeful and deeply frustrating. "It's layered," she explains. "My first instinct is great pride for all of us as women who are finding our voices."

But, she adds, this has been a deeply disappointing moment. "How long ago was the suffragette movement? The early 1900s! The fact that it is 2018 and we are still at this place?" Keys is growing incandescent with indignation. "Why?" she asks, with barely suppressed rage, "are we still talking about this?! You're wasting our time! We could be out here kicking ass!"

"Until we're in those rooms as equally as men are, it can't shift," she says with fervor. "We have to infiltrate our industries. Period. We have to. That alone will shift the power balance." Keys has been in those rooms since she was 14. She credits her first manager, Jeff Robinson, for that. Even though the performer was a young teen, Robinson always put her at the head of the table. "I was always at negotiations, always right there to express my perspective," she recalls. "He had the opportunity to shape a young girl and show her the ropes. He took me in and treated me like an equal.

"That's what it means in regards to infiltrating the industry," she continues. "Does that mean we have to go to war between men and women? That's not going to create the change we want to see." Harmony between the sexes matters to Keys; for all of her girl power, she's surrounded by men - her husband, Kasseem Dean, aka Swizz Beatz, and their two sons, Egypt and Genesis. "I want [my sons] to grow up in a world where they'd never think boys are better than girls - or that black is better than white," she reflects. "And yet I also want them to have the pride of their history and their ancestry, because when we know our individuality we can really have empathy and feel strong." But above all, she says with sharp-edged amusement, she wants them to grow up in a world where it doesn't take "100 years" to effect important change.

For all of her righteousness, Keys is hopeful about the future. "I really believe in a good humanity," she says. "The amount of people in this world who are here to do something great far outweighs the rest."

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Alicia Keys: Why Women Need to 'Infiltrate Our Industries' to Shift the Power Balance

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When Alicia Keys gets exercised about a topic, you can practically hear the italics and caps lock in her voice.