By GARY GRAFF
Of the Daily Oakland Press

Alicia Keys approached her sophomore album, the multimillion seller "The Diary of Alicia Keys," with "a lot of confidence." And who could blame her?

It's her follow-up to 2001's "Songs in A Minor," a five-times platinum debut that earned Keys five Grammy awards and enough critical accolades to wallpaper a significant portion of the houses in Harlem, where she was raised. It made her one of pop music's hottest newcomers, so she had every reason to feel good when she hit the recording studio again.

"And it wasn't in a cocky way," adds Keys, 24, who watched "The Diary of ..." debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in its first week of release and enjoy an even better run than its predecessor. "It was just from experience and from understanding a little more about myself and my artistry, my musicianship and my writing.

"On this one, I had a place to start, and that gave me a solid foundation from which I could spread my wings."

'I love to create music'

And, she adds, that confidence mitigated the expectations and pressures that came from following up "Songs in A Minor."

"I can absolutely separate myself from that," she contends. "That's not what makes me create. That's not the reason why I'm driven the way I'm driven ... my music is my life - just like when I wake up every morning and thank God, just like how I breathe. That's how I do music."

Keys says any pressure to follow up her initial success "was the farthest thing from my mind."

"I didn't feel that," she explains. "I just felt like I was on this path and it was guiding me. I was just following it."

The path did her well. "The Diary ..." is seven-times platinum and has piled honors including four more Grammy Awards, a half-dozen Billboard Music Awards (including Female Artist of the Year), three Soul Train Music Awards, and a pair of NAACP Image Awards.

She also had a hit duet, "My Boo," with Usher and hit the best-seller list with her first book, "Tears For Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics," which includes the words to all the songs from her two albums.

She's gracious about the success, but she makes it clear that it's not a priority, either.

"I just feel like people get so caught up in winning sometimes," she explains. "For me, I love my music. I love to make music. I love to create music.

"And don't get me wrong, I love when people love my music. There's nothing an artist wants more than to have people identify with their art ... that's definitely a beautiful feeling."

A life in the arts

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