Ladies and gentlemen...
...rock 'n' roll.
Let's take a step back.
I grew up all over Harlem, Hell's Kitchen area.
I was 16, I had just graduated high school,
and I was signed to Columbia Records.
It's like everything at once, boom!
You will remember tonight. The launch of Miss Alicia Keys.
And the winner is... Fallin', Alicia Keys.
Alicia, it's been two years since you put out Songs in A Minor.
I've been fiending for a record. Everybody has.
Why are you keeping your fans waiting?
Like Prince and Biggie, Beethoven and Bach,
she's an artist ahead of her time.
It's Alicia Keys!
And the winner is the most beautiful woman to sit behind a piano.
So this is for everybody in the struggle, trying to make it.
You can only find that in New York.
The past year has been really incredible.
Being able to be a mom, being able to be a wife,
and just really finding, I feel like, my centre.
Nicki, light it up, baby.
This is something I've been loving to do since I was four years old.
If you stick to what you're doing, you know, you'll get what you want.
Ladies and gentlemen...
...rock 'n' roll.