These 5 Alicia Keys Songs Prove Her Lyrics Are All About Vulnerability and Self-Empowerment

It’s no secret Alicia Keys has one powerful voice, but her inspiring song lyrics leave just as much impact.

Alicia often writes vulnerable, empowering songs that are personal to her, yet relatable for others. It’s safe to say there’s an Alicia Keys song for every mood and situation.

Two themes the Grammy Award-winning artist loves to sing about are self-empowerment and vulnerability. In 2012, Alicia entered a new era in both her career and personal life thanks to the song “Girl On Fire.”

The years leading up to the release of the female anthem were an awakening for Alicia. “These last three years have been the most in every way,” she told Billboard in 2012. “The most newest, the most difficult, the most loving, the most dream-filled, the most breaking free … an entire crazy dynamic of lessons and emotions to grow into and claim. This whirlwind has definitely forced me to be who I am, to be free enough and brave enough to just not accept anything else-nor try to be anything else.”

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In 2016, once again, Alicia reached a crucial phase in her life, which included not wearing makeup anymore. Her decision to rock a bare face all began after a photographer insisted on shooting her in her natural state while wearing sweats.

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“I was shocked,” she wrote in a personal Lenny Letter essay at the time. “Instantly, I became a bit nervous and slightly uncomfortable. My face was totally raw. I had on a sweatshirt! As far as I was concerned, this was my quick run-to-the-shoot-so-I-can-get-ready look, not the actual photo-shoot look. So I asked her, ‘Now?! Like right now? I want to be real, but this might be too real!!'”

Fortunately, the brunette beauty began feeling comfortable with herself and as a result, she became more invincible than ever. “I felt powerful because my initial intentions realized themselves. My desire to listen to myself, to tear down the walls I built over all those years, to be full of purpose, and to be myself!”

Keep scrolling to see all of Alicia Keys’ best lyrics.