\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI really do,\u201d she said. She explained that with previous projects, \u201cI didn\u2019t start out right, but kind of ended up right.\u201d But this time, she said, \u201cI didn\u2019t want to go out and get too diluted and get too many partners. We have all the right partners, all the right minds. It\u2019s the right mixture of experience and also newness that I think is important to continue to create a new world.\u201d<\/p>\n
One night in mid-July, I took the subway to Barclays Center to watch Keys do what she is best known for: perform. For 90 minutes she entertained a rapturous crowd of 11,894 \u2014 strikingly more diverse, and younger, than most theater audiences. Her sparkling Yamaha piano was in the center of the arena, on a rotating stage, with runways extending out so she could work the crowd.<\/p>\n
Just before the concert, as she often does, she presided over what she calls a Soulcare Session, promoting her skin care line (\u201cI call them offerings, not products \u2014 products is too transactional\u201d), talking up empowerment (\u201cThe theme today is reminding ourselves to own our own power\u201d), and posing for pictures with superfans who had paid a steep premium for up-close access (\u201cYou can talk to me about anything you want,\u201d she said). Her staff sprayed the patrons with a \u201creviving aura mist\u201d and invited them to select keys (get it?) with words of affirmation; attendees sat on embroidered pillows, black beanbags and purple cushions and asked Keys about her wardrobe, her writing process, her childhood. Some spoke about how her songs had helped them endure disease or emotional hardship.<\/p>\n
Keys has long had an entrepreneurial streak \u2014 she started a babysitters club when she was 11 \u2014 and it is ever-expanding. \u201cI\u2019m really interested in business at this point,\u201d she told me when I asked about what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s all-in on \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen,\u201d of course. She intends to further build up Keys Soulcare. And she\u2019ll make more music.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m in a place where I can express myself clearly,\u201d she said. \u201cI am clear about what I want, what I don\u2019t want. Who I want to do it with, who I don\u2019t want to. I\u2019m unafraid to be very vocal and verbal about that, and I feel like I\u2019m in a place where I can do anything, anything. And I haven\u2019t even begun yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n