On those rare nights when she isn’t at the keyboard creating hit music, Alicia Keys retreat to her two-bedroom Cape Cod-style house in Queens, kicks off her shoes and lights up the grill. “I love to barbecue,” she says. “But one time I tried to take the last piece of chicken off, and all of a sudden everything caught on fire.”
Not unlike her career. The 20- year-old classically trained pianist, up for an MTV video music award next month and now on an 11-city tour, made a major splash in July when her debut album, Songs in A Minor, shot to No. l on Billboard’s Top 200. It has hovered near the top ever since, a testament to more than Keys’s dazzling smile. “She is bluesy, classical and infuses R&B and hip-hop into her song,” says Vibe music editor Shani Saxon. “Alicia has a broad appeal.”