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The Diary of Alicia Keys

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Untitled

The Diary of Alicia Keys is the second studio album by American R&B and soul musician Alicia Keys, released December 1, 2003 on J Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2002 to 2003 at various recording studios, and production was handled primarily by Keys with contributions from Kerry Brothers, Jr., Timbaland, Dwayne Wiggins, Dre & Vidal, Easy Mo Bee, and Kanye West.

The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 618,000 copies in its first week. It became Keys' second consecutive number-one debut in the United States and spawned three top-ten singles. Upon its release, The Diary of Alicia Keys received generally positive reviews from most music critics and earned Keys three Grammy Awards at the 47th Grammy Awards. With domestic sales of four million copies and worldwide sales of eight million copies, The Diary of Alicia Keys is the thirty-first best-selling album of the 2000s decade.

Background

Alicia Keys's debut album Songs in A Minor (2001) sold over 6.2 million copies and earned five Grammy Awards.[1] Due to the extreme popularity of her debut album, there was a lot of pressure on the album to match or exceed that success.[2] The album proved to be as successful as her debut album, and was nominated for two of the "big four" Grammy Awards: Song of the Year for If I Ain't Got You, and Album of the Year. The album also sold over twice as many copies in its first week as Songs in A Minor.

Reception

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 618,000 copies, serving as Keys' second consecutive number-one debut in the United States.[3] It spent 88 weeks on the chart, leaving at number 198 in 2005. It has sold over four million copies in the U.S. and more than eight million copies worldwide.[4] The album's four singles, "You Don't Know My Name", "If I Ain't Got You", "Diary", and "Karma", reached the top twenty of the Billboard Hot 100, with three of them becoming top ten hits.

Critical response

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[5]
Blender[1]
Entertainment Weekly(B)[6]
Los Angeles Times[7]
The New York Times(favorable)[8]
PopMatters(favorable)[9]
Rolling Stone[10]
Slant Magazine[11]
Vibe[12]
The Village Voice(mixed)[13]

Upon its release, the album received generally positive reviews from most music critics, based on an aggregate score of 71/100 from Metacritic.[14] The Times said that the album "confirmed her place in musical history".[15] Giving the album four stars, People magazine said that "Keys honors R&B's golden age with an old soul far beyond her 23 years."[16] Of The Diary of Alicia Keys, Josh Tyrangiel of Time said that Keys "made half a great record. The first six songs are models of how to make nostalgic music that is not anti-present... The second half of Diary sags." He added, however, that it was "obvious" that subsequent albums would "be worth hearing."[17] Billboard magazine felt that "the songstress handily tops Songs in A Minor" and "channels spirits of '60s and '70s soul for Diary."[18] Rolling Stone called the album "an assured, adult statement, steeped in the complicated love life and musical dreams of an ambitious young woman", and compared Keys to Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin.[19] ABC News said that "If I Ain't Got You" is "a stunner of a ballad on which Keys' sound and vocal inflection recalled another one of Davis' famous proteges: Whitney Houston."[20] Yahoo! Music UK, which gave the album nine stars out of ten, stated: "With both Lauryn Hill and Jill Scott still AWOL, and Beyoncé unable to cut it over an entire album, there's only one lady right now who can truly claim Aretha's crown."[21]

Accolades

Blender magazine named it the seventh best album of 2004.[22] Billboard placed the album fifty-fifth in the decade-end ranking of the most successful albums of the 2000s.[23] At the 47th Grammy Awards in 2005, The Diary of Alicia Keys won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album and also earned Keys two other awards, including Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "If I Ain't Got You" and Best R&B Song for "You Don't Know My Name". Keys also won two Soul Train Awards, Best R&B/Soul Single ("If I Ain't Got You") and Best R&B/Soul Album by a female artist.[24] In 2007, The National Association of Recording Merchandisers and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame released a list of what they term "The Definitive 200 Albums of All Time"; The Diary of Alicia Keys ranks at number 129 on the list.[25]

Track listing

  • Alicia Keys wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album; additional writers are listed below.
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Harlem's Nocturne" Alicia Keys1:43
2."Karma"Taneisha Smith, Kerry Brothers Jr.Kerry Brothers, Jr.4:16
3."Heartburn"Tim Mosley, Erika Rose, Walter Millsap III, Candice NelsonTimbaland, Alicia Keys3:28
4."If I Was Your Woman/Walk On By"Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Gloria Jones, Pam Sawyer, Clarence McMurrayEasy Mo Bee, Alicia Keys, Dwayne Wiggins3:06
5."You Don't Know My Name"Harold Lilly, Kanye West, Ken Williams, Mel Kent, J. R. BaileyKanye West, Alicia Keys6:08
6."If I Ain't Got You" Alicia Keys3:48
7."Diary" (featuring Tony! Toni! Toné!)Brothers Jr.Alicia Keys4:45
8."Dragon Days" Alicia Keys4:36
9."Wake Up"Brothers Jr.Alicia Keys4:27
10."So Simple" (featuring Lellow*)Lilly, Andre Harris, Vidal DavisDre & Vidal3:49
11."When You Really Love Someone"Brothers Jr.Alicia Keys4:09
12."Feeling U, Feeling Me (Interlude)" Alicia Keys2:07
13."Slow Down"Rose, Paul L. GreenAlicia Keys, Kumasi4:18
14."Samsonite Man"RoseAlicia Keys, Kerry "Krucial" Brothers4:12
15."Nobody Not Really"Taneisha SmithAlicia Keys2:56
UK and Japanese Edition Bonus Track
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
16."Streets of New York" (featuring Nas and Rakim)Keys, Smith, Eric Barrier, Nasir Jones, Chris Martin, William Griffin4:55

*Alias for Alicia Keys[26]

Samples credits
Australian, German, Latin American, and Japanese bonus CD
  1. "If I Ain't Got You" (Remix featuring Usher) – 3:52
  2. "If I Ain't Got You" (Spanish Version featuring Arturo Sandoval) – 3:53
  3. "If I Ain't Got You" (Kanye West Radio Mix #1) – 3:47
  4. "You Don't Know My Name/Will You Ever Know It" (Reggae Mix) – 5:05
  5. "You Don't Know My Name" (Video)
  6. "If I Ain't Got You" (Video)
  7. "Diary" (featuring Tony! Toni! Toné!) (Video)

Personnel

Musicians

Production

Charts, sales and procession

Chart positions

Chart procession and succession

Preceded by
The Black Album by Jay-Z
Soulful by Ruben Studdard
 U.S. Billboard 200 number-one album
December 20, 2003
January 3, 2004 		Succeeded by
Preceded by U.S. Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums number-one album
December 20, 2003 - January 24, 2004 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
It's Done! by Overground
 Swiss Albums Chart number-one album
December 21, 2003 		Succeeded by

Release history

Country Date Label
United Kingdom December 1, 2003 J
Germany
France
Australia
United States December 2, 2003
Canada Sony
Japan December 12, 2003 BMG

References

  1. ^ a b Ex, Kris. Review: The Diary of Alicia Keys. Blender. Retrieved on 2009-09-20. Cite error: The named reference "Ex" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ Norment, Lynn. "Alicia Keys: sounds off on men, love & fame." Ebony 59.3 (Jan 2004): 134(4). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. Hampton University Library. 26 Nov. 2007 <http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=EAIM>.
  3. ^ Martens, Todd (December 10, 2003). "Keys Unlocks Second No. 1 Debut". Billboard. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
  4. ^ Batey, Angus (November 10, 2007). "The ascent of Alicia Keys". The Times. London. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
  5. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Review: The Diary of Alicia Keys. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2009-09-20.
  6. ^ Browne, David. Review: The Diary of Alicia Keys. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2009-09-20.
  7. ^ Hilburn, Robert. Review: The Diary of Alicia Keys. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2009-09-20.
  8. ^ Pareles, Jon. Review: The Diary of Alicia Keys. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2009-09-20.
  9. ^ Neal, Mark Anthony. Review: The Diary of Alicia Keys. PopMatters. Retrieved on 2009-09-20.
  10. ^ Sheffield, Rob (December 25, 2003). Review: The Diary of Alicia Keys. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2009-09-20.
  11. ^ Cinquemani, Sal. Review: The Diary of Alicia Keys. Slant Magazine. Retrieved on 2009-09-20.
  12. ^ Ehrlich, Dimitri. "Review: The Diary of Alicia Keys". Vibe: 127–128. February 2004.
  13. ^ Sinagra, Laura. Review: The Diary of Alicia Keys. The Village Voice. Retrieved on 2009-09-20.
  14. ^ The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2009-09-27.
  15. ^ Iley, Chrissy (2008-02-24). "Alicia Keys the girl who made Bob Dylan weep". The Times. London. Retrieved 2010-05-25.
  16. ^ Arnold, Chuck (2003-12-08), "The Diary Of Alicia Keys". People. 60 (23):47
  17. ^ Tyrangiel, Josh (2003-12-08), "The Princess of Queens". Time. 162 (23):89
  18. ^ Paoletta, Michael (2003-12-13). "The Diary of Alicia Keys". Billboard. 115 (50):44
  19. ^ Sheffield, Rob (2003-12-25–2004-01-08), "Alicia Keys". Rolling Stone(938/939):124
  20. ^ ABC News: What's Alicia Keys' Secret Weapon?
  21. ^ http://uk.launch.yahoo.com/l_reviews_a/31690.html
  22. ^ Staff. 50 Greatest CDs of 2004. Blender. Retrieved on 2010-02-19.
  23. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Diary_of_Alicia_Keys&action=edit
  24. ^ McMenamin, Tony. Usher and Alicia Keys Triumph at Soul Train Awards. Blender. Retrieved on 2010-02-19.
  25. ^ "Definitive 200". The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved 2008-09-15.
  26. ^ Lellow Discography at Discogs. Retrieved on 2009-09-19.
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  43. ^ "Ultratop – Goud en platina – Albums – 2005". Ultratop (in Dutch). Retrieved 2009-08-23.
  44. ^ "CRIA: Gold & Platinum – February 2005". CRIA. February 18, 2005. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
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  57. ^ Hope, Clover (January 24, 2006). "Keys Craves 'Strange As Hell' Collaborations". Billboard. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
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