‘i’m excited about how women are taking over in music. we’re unstoppable!’

IN HARMONY

She has sold more than 90 million records worldwide, won 16 Grammy Awards and was named twice by Time magazine in their list of 100 of the world’s most influential people.

But Alicia Keys is far more than a music artist. A mother to two boys – Egypt, 13, and nine-year-old Genesis – with her producer husband, Swizz Beatz, she is also heavily involved in both activism and humanitarian work.

OK! caught up with Alicia at her Women To Women initiative – a project that aims to drive cultural progress in Saudi Arabia and globally – to talk about motherhood challenges, the perils of social media and the advice she would give to her 20-year-old self.

Hi, Alicia. What do you find is the biggest challenge of motherhood, and how has it changed you?

I love being a mom. It has taught me how to know what is important. Sometimes you can get caught up in things that really don’t matter. It keeps me grounded.

My biggest challenge as a mom is making sure, with all the travelling and moving, the planning and the creating and the careering, that I’m still very tight with my children. I want to understand what they’re thinking and going through, and ensure we can be best friends and can talk, no matter what.

I believe in something called “designing your life” – identifying what you want, then creating the space for those things. So I want to be present and learn what they are ingesting.

Which brings me to my second challenge.... the phone! Social media is the biggest challenge and it drives me insane. I am trying to find a balance. There are so many great things about it, but there is always so much mess, so much toxicity and negativity.

Girls feel they have to be perfect and boys feel like they are supposed to dominate. Its influence is dangerous and so, for me, it brings me back to the original challenge of making sure I’m present.

What inspires you in your life and your songwriting?

Humanity inspires me – people and real-life experiences. Those are the things I write songs about, and those are the things that really connect us together as humans.

I think it’s so beautiful that we are all experiencing life. We don’t exactly know what we’re doing but we are figuring it out. Meeting new people