ALICIA KEYS

The story

A classically trained pianist from Hell's Kitchen, Alicia Keys arrived in 2001 with Songs in A Minor and five Grammys, at a moment when R&B production had largely abandoned live instruments. Her writing draws on Chopin as readily as on Donny Hathaway, and the piano has stayed at the centre of everything she records. She has since built a career spanning Broadway, film scoring and the Keep a Child Alive foundation she co-founded in 2003.