2004 SPECIAL REPORT: "ALICIA KEYS"

Keys followed up her debut with The Diary of Alicia Keys, which was released in December 2003. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling over 618,000 copies its first week of release, becoming the largest first-week sales for a female artist in 2003.


It sold 4.4 million copies in the United States and was certified four times Platinum by the RIAA. It sold eight million copies worldwide,becoming the sixth-biggest-selling album by a female artist and the second-biggest-selling album by a female R&B artist.


The album's lead single, "You Don't Know My Name", peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for eight consecutive weeks, her first Top 10 single in both charts since 2002's "A Woman's Worth". The album's second single, "If I Ain't Got You", was released in February 2004 and peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for six weeks.


The album's third single, "Diary", peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, being their third consecutive Top 10 single in both charts. The album's fourth and final single, "Karma", which peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 17 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, first release to fail to achieve top ten status on both charts. "If I Ain't Got You" became the first single by a female artist to remain on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for over a year.


Keys also collaborated with recording artist Usher on the song "My Boo" from his 2004 album, Confessions (Special Edition). The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for three weeks, became her first number-one single on the Hot 100 since 2001's "Fallin'". Keys won Best R&B Video for "If I Ain't Got You" at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards; she performed the song and "Higher Ground" with Lenny Kravitz and Stevie Wonder


While attending the Cannes Film Festival in May 2004, it was announced that Keys intended to make her film debut in a biopic about biracial piano prodigy Philippa Schuyler. The film was to be co-produced by Halle Berry and Marc Platt.


September 25, Alicia Keys headlined the Wall of Hope concert on the Northern Gate Juyongguan section of the Great Wall of China, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Great Wall of China's restoration project that was part of a series of benefit concerts.


Later that year, Keys released her novel Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics, a collection of unreleased poems from her journals and lyrics. The title derived from one of her poems, "Love and Chains" from the line: "I don't mind drinking my tears for water."


She said the title is the foundation of her writing because "everything I have ever written has stemmed from my tears of joy, of pain, of sorrow, of depression, even of question".


The book sold over US$500,000 and Keys made The New York Times bestseller list in 2005. The following year, she won a second consecutive award for Best R&B Video at the MTV Video Music Awards for the video "Karma".


Keys performed "If I Ain't Got You" and then joined Jamie Foxx and Quincy Jones in a rendition of "Georgia on My Mind", the Hoagy Carmichael song made famous by Ray Charles in 1960 at the 2005 Grammy Awards.


That evening, she won four Grammy Awards: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "If I Ain't Got You", Best R&B Song for "You Don't Know My Name", Best R&B Album for The Diary of Alicia Keys, and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals" for "My Boo" with Usher.


Keys performed and taped her installment of the MTV Unplugged series in July 2005 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.[90] During this session, Keys added new arrangements to her original songs and performed a few choice covers.


The session was released on CD and DVD in October 2005. Simply titled Unplugged, the album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart with 196,000 units sold in its first week of release.


The album sold one million copies in the United States, where it was certified Platinum by the RIAA, and two million copies worldwide.


The debut of Keys's Unplugged was the highest for an MTV Unplugged album since Nirvana's 1994 MTV Unplugged in New York and the first Unplugged by a female artist to debut at number one.


The album's first single, "Unbreakable", peaked at number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number four on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.


It remained at number one on the Billboard Hot Adult R&B Airplay for 11 weeks.


The album's second and final single, "Every Little Bit Hurts", was released in January 2006, it failed to enter the U.S. charts.songwriting team who have assisted Keys in creating her albums as well as creating music for other artists