Alicia Keys gets down to business

Published: Thursday | October 8, 2009


NEW YORK (AP):

Singer Alicia Keys is launching a new company that will handle the singer's projects, especially those outside of music.

The first project for the 28-year-old's AK Worldwide is The Barber's Daughters, a handcrafted jewellery line engraved with messages of hope and wisdom.

"The words, when you read them, they really do resonate with you. They kind of inspire you to want to find that place in yourself," the 12-time Grammy winner said, sporting a silver oval ring that read: "May you find inspiration and meaning soaked in the wonders of the imagination cradled in compassion of the heart and hold a will to make difference."

Keys also will launch a new website, iamasuperwoman.com, devoted to spotlighting inspirational women and causes that will fill a missing gap in the blogosphere, Keys said.

"It really calls out to all those brilliant, amazing, fantastic women every day that are doing their thing and need kind of a community to support each other," she said.

Keys said the creativity required to be a businesswoman has spilled over to her music, and that it's reflected on her fourth studio CD, The Element of Freedom, to be released on December 1.

"We have the ability to be totally free, to be totally unstoppable, and there's no heights that you can't reach," Keys said. "So I totally love that and that's what the music feels like, and that's what everything that I'm doing sounds like."

The lead single, Doesn't Mean Anything, teaches people that having success is unimportant unless there's someone to share it with, Keys said.

The next single, Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart, is "mean, mean, mean," she said.

Keys credits Oprah Winfrey and other business-minded people with turning on her entrepreneurial spirit.

"Why do I love Oprah? Because she's able to bring you things that will really change your life," Keys said. "They're part of your life in a meaningful way, and those are the things I want to be a part of."

We have the ability to be totally free, to be totally unstoppable, and there's no heights that you can't reach. - Keys

 
 
 
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