CLEVELAND, Ohio – After a jazzy intro, Alicia Keys first appeared backlit in a slit between two massive screens on the Jacobs Pavilion stage. On either side of her, an animation of the sun and the earth slowly rotated, and the screens swiftly, seamlessly closed after she stepped out to sing her first song of the night, “Nat King Cole.”
The audience erupted with cheers, cell phones popping into the air. Keys instantly commanded the crowd before she sang a note or struck a single piano key at her concert Friday night in Cleveland.
Sure, she was standing in front of an audience of 5,000, but the singer also found ways to get in front of most attendees. She popped up at a small side stage next to the seated floor crowd for a few songs, and later strutted her way around the venue’s main path to access every section of the audience.
Her unique approach to getting up close and personal with the crowd felt unconventional for a venue like Jacobs Pavilion. She said her philosophy on performing went back to a key piece of advice that Prince once gave her: “Keep it intimate. Keep it special.”
(I mean, any time you see one of the most iconic, versatile R&B pop singers of all time, it’s going to be special.)
The 15-time Grammy award winner achieved icon status two decades ago when she released her debut album “Songs in A Minor,” and has only impressed in her seven albums since. That included her pandemic-time releases, 2020′s “Alicia” and 2021′s “Keys.”
Combined in the celebratory “Alicia + Keys” world tour, Keys brought attention to the new tunes but also spanned plenty of fan-favorite hits from over the years.
There were plenty of years to cover. The last time Keys had performed in Cleveland was in 2004 on the “Verizon Ladies First” tour and in 2005 supporting 50 Cent, according to setlist.fm records.
Alicia Keys performed at Jacobs Pavilion on Friday, Aug. 19. (Photo by Judie Vegh, special to cleveland.com)
At her recent Cleveland stop, Keys sang her impassioned hit songs “No One,” “Falling,” “Empire State of Mind,” “Girl On Fire” and “If I Ain’t Got You” to a crowd that sang (and often screamed) along. She regularly sat at the piano, showing off her prowess of the instrument, meshing her performance with her talented backing band to create soulful, jazz-tinged textures.
Other times, her tunes got club-friendly remix treatment. Keys performed the “original” and “unlocked” versions of some of the songs from her latest album, including “Skydive” and “Only You.” The flashy, air horn-filled versions gave entire new flavors to Keys’ original songs. As the bass-heavy renditions thumped, the singer twisted her arms into the air under flashing lights as though she herself were dancing in a nightclub.
Keys is an artist who’s always been able to command a lot of genres and a lot of audience. (Who could forget her show-stopping 2019 Grammys performance, where she played two pianos at one time?)
The only puzzling part of Friday’s show was why Keys wasn’t playing somewhere bigger, as she had in the past. The light show itself would have been perfectly at home in a venue like Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse or the Wolstein Center, and the packed audience could have shown up at one of those venues with more force.
But then, as she made her second reference to Prince of the night (“We’re here to celebrate this thing called life”), it became clear that Keys cared more about creating a memorable, one-of-a-kind connection not only for her fans – but also for herself.
R&B singer Pink Sweat$, paired with an acoustic guitarist, performed a mix of summery R&B songs ahead of Keys’ set. Often milking his time slot, he asked the crowd to sing back to him, clap with him and wave their arms in the air almost as much as he played music, while a videographer hovered around him to capture every moment. Check out photos from his set below:
Pink Sweat$
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