Michelle Obama praised singer-songwriter Alicia Keys at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards not only for her musical brilliance but for also interweaving advocacy of women and social justice into her award-winning songs.
The former first lady, 57, gave a virtual shout-out to Keys in Los Angeles before the Grammy-winning songwriter commemorated the 20th anniversary of her seminal album, Songs in A Minor.
“I remember what it felt like to feel like to hear the song ‘Fallin’ for the first time. It was edgy and soulful, graceful yet raw,” Obama said. “This young singer was taking us to church and to the symphony and to a candlelight dinner and couples therapy and everywhere else all in a little more than three minutes. I knew right then and there that this wouldn’t be the last we’d hear from Alicia Keys, and in the years since she’s amazed us again and again in so many ways.”
Keys was resplendent in monochromatic white while she played a medley of her biggest hits from her coming-out party album in 2001, including the No. 1 smash “Fallin,'” as well as “You Don’t Know My Name” and “A Woman’s Worth.”
Obama also extolled Keys for being “not just an artist. She’s also an advocate for women and families around the world, a leader on social justice, a wife, a mentor, a mother. But most of all she is herself, always thoughtful, always hopeful, always Alicia. And in bearing her true self, she calls us all to be the same in our own lives and for each other.
