Alicia Keys for Essence Magazine January 2013

On being affected by Hurricane Sandy: "After the third or fourth tuna fish sandwich, and after we learned we’d be without power for a week, I called my mother, who lives Uptown. She was okay and hadn’t lost any power, so we ended up going to her house. We were pretty lucky."

On finding balance in her life: "It’s okay if I can’t do every single thing. I finally understand that it doesn’t make me a lesser artist or human being."

Alicia Keys Taps Painter Pal Beyonce For An Artistic Future

Beyonce has a career as an artist ahead of her if she ever tires of making music, according to pal Alicia Keys.

The Crazy in Love hitmaker stunned guests at a paint party Keys threw for her art collector husband Swizz Beatz by showing off her watercolour skills and the hostess is convinced the R&B superstar could make a living selling paintings.

She says, "We had canvases everywhere and you did whatever you could - even if you could only splat paint on it... There was something so cool about that for people. Jay (Jay Z) and B (Beyonce) came... Beyonce's actually a really beautiful painter."

Alicia Keys: My son is so skilled

Alicia Keys' two-year-old son is "pretty advanced" for his age and 'co-wrote' his first track aged six months.
The international star claims Egypt helped with her latest project, which is an interactive storybook app for children called The Journals of Mama Mae & LeeLee.
Doting mother Alicia has gushed about the talents of her tot, and relied on his musical input

 when making the tracks featured on the app.
'He's pretty advanced.' Alicia explained to British magazine Stylist.

'Egypt co-wrote every song. He did. Every time I'm writing something, I'm like, 'Come on, E.' He wrote his first song at six months. When he's there, the songs just come, and I'm like, 'This works.' He's my partner."

The Empire State of Mind singer's life has altered over the last two years. She's become a married woman as well as first time mother, which had a huge affect on her daily routine. In order to keep her over-achieving toddler amused, Alicia wakes at 8am every day and has breakfast with Egypt before their daily meditation session.

'[How does a toddler meditate?] Oh, he doesn't. He goes everywhere else, shouting, 'Mummy, mummy.' Eventually he will sit in my lap. If I'm just meditating quietly and chanting, eventually he'll start saying, 'Ommm,'' Alicia laughed. 'We'll watch Sesame Street, play piano, play some games. He loves basketball. He takes classes; swim class, Mandarin class.'

The chart topper's high expectations for her son come from her own morals. Alicia is hard on herself and determined to make a success of everything she does, which often means sacrificing sleep to fulfil her duties as mother and mega recording star.

'I'm a notorious 4am emailer [everyone I work with has commented on my] early emails," Alicia revealed. 'It's not easy. It's hard as hell. You're probably not going to sleep that much, if at all. But at least you love it, and then you feel good about it, and it's going to be good.'

Jay-jay Z Wasn't Happy With Alicia Keys' First Take For Empire State Of Mind

Alicia Keys had to swallow her pride and re-record her vocals for Jay Z's smash hit Empire State Of Mind after the rapper raised concerns about the quality of her work.

The track has become an unofficial New York anthem since its release in 2009, but the singer/songwriter admits she was asked to do a second take for the

 tune after initially laying down her vocals while battling a little nasal congestion.

Keys opened up about the recording process during an episode of Vh1 Tv show Storytellers, which aired in the U.S. on Monday (12Nov12).

Recounting the meanings behind her songs and how they came about, she told fans she thought Jay Z was calling her to congratulate her on a job well done, but instead Keys was left a little red-faced as she had to accept that she hadn't done her best on the track.

She recalled, "(He said), 'It's good, it's good, but maybe you need to hit it one more time.' I was like, 'What? Whatchu (what do you) mean?'

"I honestly felt a little some kinda way (annoyed). But you know, I was like, 'You know what? I can probably hit it one more time; I was kinda congested, it's true.' So I go into the studio in L.A. and now, I'm aggressive with it, now I feel like someone's challenging me, 'Oh, I wasn't good enough? Oh, Ok.' So I go in, I hit it hard... put my little swag on it, send it back, like send! Bet you ain't have nothing to say now (sic)!