After over 2 years, Alicia Keys made her return to Nashville, Tennessee on Sept. 24, 2022 to conclude “The Alicia + Keys World Tour”. From the moment her silhouette emerged on stage to her last wave goodbye, the crowd’s energy, love, and admiration for the 15-time Grammy award-winning artist was emphatic. Keys opened with songs like “Wasted Energy” off the 2020 album ALICIA and “New Day” from the 2012 album Girl On Fire and continued to sing through her impressive catalog as the night went on.
Keys welcomed Jill Scott to the stage to give their first-ever, live joint performance of Keys’ song titled “Jill Scott” that features the 3-time Grammy award-winning artist. Keys and Scott also performed “The Way” off of Scott’s 2000 album Who is Jill Scott? – Words and Sounds, Vol. 1.
Amidst the many cheers between songs, Keys’ expressed how the crowd’s energy was just what she wanted as she said, “I wanted us to reconnect after being disconnected for so long”. Keys then made her way to a B-Stage set up in the lawn-seat section of Ascend Amphitheater where she played the songs “Skydive”, “Is It Insane” and “Only You” off of her 2021 album KEYS. She gave the crowd two options for each song and allowed their cheers to determine which version of each song would be performed – either the “Original” version played on piano, or the “Unlocked” version played with its fully produced studio tracks. Keys stated this portion of her set was inspired by the Apollo Theater in New York City where the audience gets to choose what is best.
Keys took a moment to introduce her next song stating, “this song is about faith, this song is about hope, this song is about never giving up on your wildest dream.” She then asked the crowd to shine their cell phone lights like stars in the night sky. As she made her way through the crowd back to the main stage, Keys performed her iconic chorus from “Empire State Of Mind”.
As Keys came closer to the end of her set, she welcomed Nashville’s own Fisk Jubilee Singers to join her on stage for a rendition of her hit song, “Fallin’”. Keys closed out the night with a powerful encore performance of “If I Ain’t Got You” from the 2003 album The Diary Of Alicia Keys.
Photos by Theo Wargo
Written by Alexander Wieland (@alex.j.wieland)
Alicia Keys’ latest album KEYS II, is available now.
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