Alicia Keys has learned she doesn’t need to “seek so much validation” from others.
The 42-year-old musician has no qualms with ageing because it has made her wiser and “comfortable” in making decisions for herself and not requiring other people’s approval.
She told The Cut: “I love getting smarter. I love being more conscious. I love being aware of what I think.
“I love being in touch with what I think and being comfortable knowing that what I know is the right thing for me, that I don’t have to seek so much validation from everybody else to decide if that’s a good thing for me or not.”
When the ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ hitmaker started out in the music industry she used makeup and clothes to disguise her lack of confidence, but now she’s happy to go makeup-free.
She said of growing up in the spotlight: “It opened my eyes to how I didn’t feel comfortable or beautiful if I didn’t have my armour on, and if I didn’t have all my face and hair and pretty things and nice clothes on that somehow I was less than beautiful or just less than. I realised, like, ‘Whoa, what’s underneath all that?'”
On why she felt the need to hide her natural beauty, she explained: “I think it was just the awareness of how much we subscribed to social standards of beauty, and I didn’t really think of that before. I just hadn’t thought about it.”
The ‘Empire State of Mind’ hitmaker previously explained that she stopped wearing makeup for public appearances and on album covers because of the “toxic energy” early on in her career.
