Alicia Keys' troubled time leads to big success

By Iain Blair


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - R&B singer Alicia Keys is enjoying
a successful worldwide tour, a chart-topping album and will act
in an upcoming movie, but it might not have happened, she said,
were it not for a near breakdown two years ago.


Keys, whose current hits include "No One," is in the middle
of her "As I Am" tour. The new "As I Am" album debuted on
record charts at No. 1 and has sold over 3 million copies.


In October, she makes her film debut in "The Secret Life of
Bees," starring Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson. Based on the
best-selling novel of the same name, the movie is co-produced
by Will Smith and backed by indie powerhouse Fox Searchlight.


While Keys seems to lead a charmed life and has the sort of
career that most other 26-year-olds could barely imagine, it
hasn't always been so rosy.


Two years ago, the singer went through a troubled period
that nearly derailed her life and career. A workaholic
lifestyle and the death of a close relative from cancer pushed
her "very close" to the breaking point, she admits.


Instead of having a public meltdown, Keys faced her demons
in private.


"I knew I needed time away, so I went to Egypt for a month
-- on my own, which gave it a whole different perspective," she
told Reuters in a recent interview.


"It allowed me to see things I'd never seen before -- all
the temples on the Nile, the Pyramids, the history. It was so
rich and beautiful and strong, and it inspired me so much, and
renewed me."