Even though Alicia Keys just released a new music video for the sultry jam, “Fire We Make” with Maxwell last week, there’s no stopping the girl now, as she just dropped the video for her Swizz Beatz and Dr. Dre-produced jam, “New Day.” (Not to be confused with the 50 Cent song that her vocals were featured on, as well as Dr. Dre’s.) Guess she finally realized that “Girl On Fire” had its moment and it was time to move on like five months ago.

In the video, the beautiful singer can be seen meeting up with her background dancers in an ally to bust a move, doing so in a hot bustier-type beaded top and black pants (can we agree that her hair these days is just fabulous??). She’s also seen in concert performing the song while flashing images of New York City go by and an image of her face, lyrics to the track, and the title of the song is slowly but surely spray painted on a wall. It’s definitely a fashionable video and it makes me appreciate the song a bit more, but I’ll probably stick to “Fire We Make” for now, just because Maxwell is my husband and what not…

But anywho, check out the video below and let us know what you think. Is it a pass or play?

Which song would you like to see her make into a video next from her Girl on Fire album?

As she played the first chords, something within me knew that I was about to discover the anthem for this season of my life. Then came the lyrics— It’s been a while…I’m not who I was before… As she continued singing “Brand New Me,” scenes of my life—friendships, fears, and pain—played in my head. Alicia Keys had written a song for me. (I’m almost completely serious about that.) Hearing her close with “It’s a brand new time for me…yeah…” sounded more like “It is finished.” I immediately got out of bed and went to the salon to chop my hair off (again), but this time I resolved that it (my hair) would not be my glory and that no one and nothing would keep me from my destiny. This girl was on fire! Nobody could tell me nothin!

Fancy earrings, selfies, and a shopping spree at the thrift store were only the beginning. The caged bird was finally flying. My passion to write was restored, I was meeting new people, I was traveling, I was laughing, I was dancing, and I wasn’t crying anymore. There was no pain. I’d dealt with the idols in my heart and turned in my counterfeit gods.  I could finally breathe. That is until one day, months later, a very dear friend of mine dropped a bomb on me—I’d changed. I’d stopped contacting her as much, I was short in my responses when I did, I wasn’t as concerned with her welfare, and the list went on.

My first thought: HATER. Dang. One of my best friends isn’t happy for me? Really?!? If [she] was worth the while, she’d be happy to see my smile. My response: I did what all the self-help people tell you to do. I decided to surround myself with positive people and not allow any negative energy to bring me down. Derailment avoided. But now, this freedom train was carrying loads of guilt. Had I changed? Was my friend really just hating? Was I willing to lose this friend in order to stay positive? Yes, no and absolutely not.

Some of my change was long overdue and meant freedom, so it couldn’t be bad.  But I began to recall Prince’s surprising words during his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame speech. He’d said, “I learned that too much freedom can lead to the soul’s decay.” Whoa.

Indeed, other aspects of my change were loaded with pride and selfishness. I’d gone from one extreme (dependence) to the next (independence).  My pursuit of happiness had quickly become a path of self-preservation that abandoned chivalry. I didn’t want to hear anyone’s bad news nor did I want to be anyone’s shoulder to cry on. I wanted to think and reason for myself and define things as I saw fit.  And I didn’t want to feel bad for enjoying this new way of life. Yet, I had to consider that while there are people who literally do no want to see you prosper, there are others who wrestle with their own discontentment and have yet to overcome it in order to celebrate you. They are not liberated, so your freedom mocks theirs. Your happiness taunts their depression. Your smile laughs at their tears. And beyond that, they weren’t prepared for the new you. You all have not been re-introduced.

But that reintroduction will take time and seemingly slow you down. And if life is a race in which winning is determined by who allows the least amount of pain, burden, arguments, and frustration to enter into their lives before they cross the finish line, then the best thing for you to do is to avoid negativity at all costs. Don’t slow down. Avoid the depressed, avoid pessimists, avoid quitters, avoid opponents, avoid, avoid, avoid. But that’s not what life is. And we know it. We know that because we’ve been depressed, we’ve been pessimistic, we’ve wanted to quit (or have quit) something, and we’ve been opposed to things and people. We would be avoided and left aside on the road waiting on a good Samaritan all the same. I can’t speak for Alicia’s situation—it is actually her song about her own life—so her resolve could very well be the best for her, and I will continue to cheer for her freedom. (Die hard fan over here.) But sometimes the people who challenge and frustrate us, or interrupt our lives the most, are the people who will actually help transform us into better people. So, in turn, the path of least resistance can often be the path to mediocrity, self-righteousness, and incompleteness even if it looks like we’re on the yellow brick road.

After apologizing to my friend, and hopefully mending our broken relationship, I wondered how I could pursue my dreams and be happy without becoming a mean girl and losing sight of what is true and good? I knew it would have to involve resetting my moral compass by an unchanging north star. And I recalled that North Star being what my pastor always says: “Love God, love people, and do whatever else you want. The restriction is in the first two.”

That’s a brand new kinda free…yeah.

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Not too long ago, we were wondering what exactly happened to the whole BlackBerry/Alicia Keys relationship. After a big splashy announcement that she would be serving as global creative director, it seemed like Keys kind of disappeared.

Not true, said Frank Boulben, BlackBerry’s chief marketing officer. “Ms. Keys has sat in on five marketing meetings with the company, even presenting her own PowerPoint slides at one, he said. She is also expected to give a presentation at the company’s upcoming BlackBerry Live event,” reports Ad Age. Boulben spoke yesterday at the Ad Age Digital Conference. Ad Age says that bringing Keys’ input into the company’s marketing is a way for the company to appear both professional and “cool.”

Business Insider notes that these celebrity partnerships are usually just for show. “But a ‘global creative director’ actually contributing their own input to a brand’s marketing strategy is relatively unheard of. Brand ambassadors usually get by just flashing a logo every now and then — Keys’ PowerPoint presentation takes the role to a new level,” they say.

Of course the big question is whether Keys’ contribution is valuable. Sales will tell.

We’ve all been there. You had an outfit you liked, a project you were doing, something you worked long and hard on only to find that those around you felt that it was…uh, how to say this…a piece of crap. It’s never easy, and these type of realizations happen every day in the entertainment world, where many an artist gets excited about a new single and release and force it on folks, only to find that those same folks wouldn’t touch that mess with a 10-foot-pole, let alone their hard earned cash. Here are 10 songs these artists thought were the greatest thing since sliced bread, but got the cold shoulder too fast.

Girl On Fire – Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys released the album Girl On Fire in November of last year, and being that it’s almost March and she’s still pushing the song “Girl on Fire” on us at every opportunity, you would think the album came out last month. It’s not a terrible song, but its attempt at being the girl power anthem of the decade fell short when people started noticing that Keys was doing a whole lot of yelling as opposed to singing. A bunch of remixed versions and different ways of performing it live couldn’t make it hot, but hey, you can’t knock a girl for trying. But it’s time to stop.

AP Photo/Eric Gay

Were you checking out the NBA All-Star Game last night? If you were, then you know that aside from the game, everybody was talking about Alicia Keys and her performance during the halftime show. Of course, it didn’t have all the hype behind it as a Beyoncé at the Super Bowl, but she was crunk nonetheless. The 10-minute show was something we hadn’t seen from her before, as Keys left from behind her piano to dance around with her background dancers in leather pants and a crop top. Though in Houston, she opened her performance with “Empire State of Mind,” and no one in the crowd had any problem with that, jamming to the beloved song and singing the chorus as though she was saying, “Baby I’m from H-toooooooown!” Loved it!

And then things got a bit interesting…I guess you could say. Keys of course pulled out “Girl on Fire,” but flipped the script on everybody by trying to make it into a reggae version (check the dance moves and all the colors). It definitely was a bit easier to sing for her (as the usual high notes in that song can be a struggle), and a bit easier to groove to, but the dance moves by everyone involved we could have lived without, especially those by Keys herself. But she eventually got back behind the computer to do “No One,” another crowd favorite. There were some vocal struggles with that one in the beginning, as I think her voice was getting tired after five minutes of jumping around and singing. But she pulled it together to do one final song, “New Day” off of her Girl on Fire album, which was actually a lot of fun to watch. The song is growing on me more and more and it definitely helped to close out the performance with some energy, because let’s be honest, this wasn’t the most amped halftime show, but then again, neither was the actual game itself (snore fest).

In the end, I don’t think it was all that bad. There were just some moments when you could tell her voice was really straining, and that made things a little awkward. And you know how we already feel about “Girl on Fire.” But what do you think? Were you feeling last night’s halftime performance? Check it out and let us know below!

Source: WENN

While I might be looking away for reasons I won’t say for fear of Alicia Keys stans coming for me, I must say the woman told us she’s “so bright she can burn your eyes. Better look the other way,” and she appears to be living up to every word of her track “Girl on Fire.”

After singing during President Obama’s Inaugural Ball and performing her own rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner” during the Super Bowl this past Sunday, Alicia Keys has now been named the headlining performer for the NBA All-Star  basketball game halftime show.

Fox broke the news, saying Alicia will have all eyes on her during the All-Star event February 17 in Houston. Unlike with Beyonce’s halftime show where way too many details were spilled before the event, so far no one seems to know what’s in store for A. Keys, buuuut I’d be willing to bet my next paycheck “Girl on Fire” will most definitely be on the tracklist — and an extended remix like “Dwywane Wade is on fiiiiiiiyyyyaaaahhhhhh.” Sigh. (Sorry, that song just follows me everywhere I go)

Aside from Alicia, there will also be some other major star power during the game. John Legend will perform the National Anthem and Ne-Yo will sing during the player introductions. Singer Gloria Reuben, who also played in “Lincoln,” will also perform the Canadian anthem.

Looks like the alleged criticism that Alicia was disrespectful to sit during her performance of the National Anthem Sunday isn’t stopping her game at all. I must say, I am still a smidge worried about her hitting some of those notes though.

As much as I love me some Alicia Keys (she’s just gorgeous isn’t she?), I just can’t with “Girl On Fire.” The original, the remix with Nicki Minaj, the Mary Poppins-inspired video, the performances, the cute version for President Obama–all of it is cool and what not, but at the end of the day, I’m just not as inspired by the song as I think Alicia wants me to be. Seriously, it’s already the new theme song for makeovers of older women on the “Today Show,” and everywhere I go, somebody’s store or some commercial is trying to force it as the new pro-girl anthem. And A. Keys is at the helm of this movement. Maybe that’s why she just released a Japanese version of the video to get her overseas fans to fall in love with it all.

The clip, which is directed by Japanese photographer Mika Ninagawa, showcases Alicia Keys in a room full of beautiful flowers. These plants look to represent women in all shapes and sizes (hence the different colors and types of flowers available) as they light on fire once the chorus drops, signaling a transformation. With her jazzy new haircut and some very interesting outfit changes, Keys belts out the song and gives great face in the video. And I’ll admit, it’s a very visually appealing clip. But I’m ready for her to leave this song behind and push “Listen To Your Heart” or even promote “Brand New Me” a bit more in performances and appearances. Because this song is just not lighting my fire at this point. But what about you? What do you think of the new video? Check it out below and let us know what you think!

From BlackVoices

San Francisco police are looking for a man suspected of throwing a flammable liquid at his girlfriend and setting her on fire. Officer Carlos Manfredi says witnesses in the city’s Bayview District reported hearing the woman screaming on Sunday. She was taken to a hospital burn unit. Investigators believe her attacker was 22-year-old Dexter Oliver.

Read the rest at BlackVoices

Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Alicia Keys has been tearing up the charts with her new album “Girl On Fire” and the hit single of the same name. But there’s someone who says she needs to share the credit for the song, and the riches that have come with it.

Earl Shuman, a songwriter, says there’s a portion of the song that samples the song “Lonely Boy,” which reached number two on the Billboard charts in 1970 when it was recorded as “Hey There Lonely Girl.” He’s suing for copyright infringement, asking for damages and costs related to the alleged infringement and the court case. The Hollywood Reporter has a copy of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that a section of the song sounds a little too much like a part of the 1970 tune. The similarity was pointed out back in November by a site, Showbiz411, THR reports. The lawsuit lifts directly from the Showbiz411 story.

So you’ve no doubt heard “Girl On Fire” since it’s everywhere — from the radio to commercials to the Madame Noire office where I’ve gotten the karaoke version numerous times from a couple of my fellow editors. Below, here’s the older “Lonely Girl” song. What do you think?

If you haven’t checked out Alicia Keys’s new album, Girl On Fire, as of yet, you’re missing out on the awesome-ness that is “Brand New Me.” The song about introspection and change is probably the best track on Girl On Fire, and it’s definitely a fan favorite. In the clip for the song, Keys starts out in a huge curly wig, glasses on, coming off quiet spoken and submissive to a man that we can only guess plays a significant part in her life. As he walks away, commenting on how he likes the Alicia he sees, she starts to sing about finding herself and finally being free. By the end of the video, Keys even rips off her bountiful wig in a very dramatic move to show off that asymmetrical cut we’ve grown accustomed to, tears coming down her face and emotions high. In the end, she looks at the guy as he has no choice but to accept her “change,” and she smiles at her new happiness.

It’s an uplifting video and song, directed by Diane Martel (the woman behind “If I Ain’t Got You” and “Like You’ll Never See Me Again” for Keys) and it’s nice to see Keys be so open and vulnerable. And not to be a Debbie Downer, but was anybody else thinking she looked adorable with the big hair? Sorry, I just kind of miss it. And on another style note, I was loving the black jumpsuit, and shout out to trainer Jeanette Jenkins who has Keys’s arms looking so very toned and awesome these days. But now that you know what I think about the clip (and other random things I noticed about it), check it out for yourself and share your opinions below. Thanks!