Alicia Keys learned Italian and Spanish for a new song.
The Empire State of Mind hitmaker appears on legendary Italian musician Eros Ramazzotti’s new album, Una Storia Importante, and the 44-year-old singer had an “incredible” experience recording L’aurora in different languages.
She told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “We had such a fun time. We’re doing this beautiful song, L’aurora, and I was learning it in Spanish as well as Italian.
“And so, it’s really exciting to be able to sing in a whole different language and poetry and the beauty of how it goes and how it feels coming out is incredible.
“It felt very easy. It felt natural, it felt fun.”
Alicia admitted Eros, 62, was a “prankster” in the studio.
She said: “He’s trying to scare me the whole time, but I’m tough. So, you can’t scare me. But it was beautiful. I love it and I’m so excited about this project.”
The Fallin’ singer hasn’t released a new studio album of her own since her 2022 festive record Santa Baby.
However, early last year she insisted she was looking forward to getting back to work on a new album after working on music for Broadway show Hell’s Kitchen, which is loosely based on her own life.
She told Vibe: “I’m excited about new music through my own label, Alicia Keys Records, which I love.
“I feel like sonically this one is going to be one of the best ones I’ve ever done. I feel there’s going to be melodies, really strong, very memorable, [and] very powerful. It’s going to feel good. I’m in the process of creating it, so even though I don’t fully know, but I know 2024 is going to go good. I’m excited to get into it.”
And Aicia was keen to “explore” where her ideas could take her on her new record.
She told WWD: “I’m going to start to work on the next body of work over these next couple of months.
“And I’m excited to really just take all of the essences and energies and continue to explore where music takes me in its most truthful form.”