Alicia Keys

When brains, beauty and bountiful talent converge in one young musician, the world is bound to flip from complimentary to over-the-top hyperbole in a New York minute. The praise is understandable, and heartfelt, in the case of Keys, the classically-trained, Manhattan-bred pianist and chanteuse called both "the voice of an angel" and the 21st century Roberta Flack. Songs in A Minor featuring "Fallin'", was Keys' first album and was released to a collective sigh in 2001. Diary of Alicia Keys in 2003 achieved similar success. Despite her youth and apparent lack of life experience, Keys's compositions and delivery have the depth of an "old soul," another of her popular descriptions.