BARBADOS - Alicia Keys

She’s here!

Hip hop and R&B star Alicia Keys (centre) made a hurried entry into Barbados for the 12th annual Jazz Festival.
Wearing sunglasses and flanked by bodyguards, the Grammy Award-winning artiste came through the Grantley Adams International Airport shortly after 4 p.m. and was quickly ushered into a nondescript maroon taxi after meeting with festival producer, Gilbert Rowe.

Keys will perform at the gymnasium of the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex tomorrow – 11 days before she celebrates her 24th birthday.

Asked if she had any Caribbean roots, the New York native said: “I hope so!”

	How has Alicia Keys been preparing for her big night on stage, you may ask. A seabath at Payne’s Bay with a personal trainer was certainly part of the routine, and may well be the key to that extra glow needed for tonight’s appearance at the gymnasium of the Garfield Sobers Complex.
Yesterday, the Barbados Jazz Festival headliner spent 20 minutes running along the beach and swimming in the crystal-clear water off The House at Tamarind Cove, while her husky bodyguards kept watch from beach chairs.
Alicia, performing at the Barbados Jazz Festival 2005, is here with an entourage of over 20 people, including relatives and band members.

Sloe-eyed beauty Alicia Keys was this photographer’s dream model as she posed patiently during an hour-long photo shoot yesterday morning on the picturesque Payne’s Bay Beach on the West Coast.

'SHE’S COMING! SHE’S COMING! '

That was the word on Payne’s Bay beach yesterday morning when American rhythm and blues superstar Alicia Keys appeared for a photo-shoot.

Preceded by her towering six-foot, nine-inch bodyguard, “Carter”, and with her mum Terri by her side, the petite Barbados Jazz Festival headliner strolled across the sands and plopped into a hammock, one of the props.

A murmur of approval spread through the small welcoming crowd of hotel guests, passers-by and watersports operators who had gathered quickly.

Instantly, her carefully made-up face, framed by a freshly-plaited cornrow hairstyle, the 24-year-old Keys relaxed as she broke into an almost shy smile. She adjusted the body-hugging, bubble-gum pink top, checked the ankle-length rolled up cuffs on her blue jeans, and took a deep breath.

While the Times photo-shoot was business, it was also a rare moment of light-hearted relaxation for the singer. She spread her arms wide to steady herself in the swaying hammock and grinned.

“It’s beautiful here and we like it very much,” Terri Augello, Key’s mother and personal assistant, told the Saturday Sun in a brief interview.

Compliments of the Nation News

Musicians/Entertainers