Alicia Keys felt ‘manipulated and objectified’ by photographer in 2000 shoot when she was 19 … as Oprah says she has ‘deep admiration and love for’ songstress
- Keys talks about uncomfortable incident in More Myself: A Journey
- Photographer asked her to partially disrobe and insisted they be alone on set
- Singer broke out with her smash-hit debut album, 2001’s Songs in A Minor
Alicia Keys says a photographer left her feeling shamed, manipulated and objectified earlier in her career by pushing her boundaries into uncomfortable territory during a shoot 20 years ago.
‘This isn’t about me showing some skin, which I’ll do on my own terms, for my own purposes, in the coming years,’ the 39-year-old singer wrote in her new book More Myself: A Journey. ‘It’s about feeling manipulated. It’s about being objectified.’
Keys recalled the 2000 incident in which a photographer – who she did not name -asked her to partially disrobe and insisted they be alone on set.
Looking back: Alicia Keys, 39, says a photographer left her feeling shamed, manipulated and objectified earlier in her career by pushing her boundaries into uncomfortable territory during a shoot 20 years ago
The Empire State of Mind artist said the photographer told her reps that the shoot needed to be with him alone.
‘When I emerge from the dressing room, there’s just the two of us on set,’ Keys wrote in her memoir. ‘”Open up your shirt a little,” he directs while firing off a flurry of camera snaps.
‘My spirit is screaming that something is wrong, that this feels sleazy. But my protests, lodged in the back of my throat, can’t make their way out.’
The Grammy-winner wrote in vivid detail how the photographer continued to push her into uncomfortable territory at a time she was an up-and-coming artist. (It happened the year before she released her smash-hit debut album, 2001’s Songs in A Minor.)
Forthcoming: The Grammy-winner wrote in vivid detail how the photographer continued to push her into uncomfortable territory at a time she was an up-and-coming artist
Giving back: Keys took part in iHeart’s coronavirus fundraiser this past Sunday on Fox
‘”Pull the top of your jeans down a bit in the front,” he urges,’ she wrote. ‘If I say no, what doors will be closed to me? I swallow my misgivings, tuck my thumb between the denim and my skin, and obey.’
Keys, who’s mother to sons Egypt, nine, and Genesis, five, with husband Swizz Beatz, said she burst into tears ‘harder than ever’ after the experience. She was dismayed when the photographs materialized in a publication that went on sale.
Oprah Winfrey, who published the book, lauded Keys and her tome in an Instagram post on Wednesday, saying that she has ‘deep admiration and love’ for the performer, whose real name is Alicia Augello Cook.
Pals: Keys and Oprah were snapped at an event in LA last March
Good read: Oprah Winfrey, who published the book, lauded Keys and her tome in an Instagram post on Wednesday
Thumbs up: She said in a clip that Keys has ‘wise words’ about family and love in the book
‘In her new book #MoreMyself, she reveals the struggles, the insecurities, and the joys to becoming more herself,’ she said. ‘It’s the first book I’m releasing from my book imprint and all of my proceeds are going to the Boys and Girls Club of Kosciusko, Mississippi.’
She said in a clip that Keys has ‘wise words’ about family and love in the book.
More Myself: A Journey is on sale now.