Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), better known by her stage name… Read Full Bio ↴Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American recording artist, musician and actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. At age seven, Keys began to play classical music on the piano. She attended Professional Performing Arts School and graduated at 16 as valedictorian. She later attended Columbia University before dropping out to pursue her music career. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records.
Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards including 14 Grammy awards and has sold over 75 million records worldwide. Billboard magazine named her the top R&B artist of the 2000–2009 decade, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time. In 2010, VH1 included Keys on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Keys released her first studio album, Songs in A Minor, in June 2001. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and sold 236,000 copies in its first week. The album sold over 6.2 million copies in the United States, where it was certified six times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It went on to sell over 13 million copies worldwide, establishing Keys' popularity both inside and outside the United States, where she became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album's lead single, Fallin', spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The album's second single, A Woman's Worth, peaked at number three on the same chart. The following year, the album was reissued as Remixed & Unplugged in A Minor, which included eight remixes and seven unplugged versions of the songs from the original.
Songs in A Minor led Keys to win five awards at the 2002 Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, and Best R&B Song for Fallin', Best New Artist, and Best R&B Album; Fallin' was also nominated for Record of the Year. Keys became the second female solo artist to win five Grammy Awards in a single night, following Lauryn Hill at the 41st Grammy Awards. That same year, she collaborated with Christina Aguilera for the latter's upcoming album Stripped on a song entitled Impossible, which Keys wrote, co-produced, and provided with background vocals. During the early 2000s, Keys also made small cameos in television series Charmed and American Dreams.
Keys followed up her debut with The Diary of Alicia Keys, which was released in December 2003. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling over 618,000 copies its first week of release, becoming the largest first-week sales for a female artist in 2003. It sold 4.4 million copies in the United States and was certified four times Platinum by the RIAA. It sold nine million copies worldwide, becoming the sixth biggest-selling album by a female artist and the second biggest-selling album by a female R&B artist. The singles You Don't Know My Name and If I Ain't Got You both reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the third single, Diary, entered the top ten. The fourth single, Karma, was less successful on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 20. If I Ain't Got You became the first single by a female artist to remain on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for over a year.
Keys won Best R&B Video for If I Ain't Got You at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards; she performed the song and Higher Ground with Lenny Kravitz and Stevie Wonder. Later that year, Keys released her novel Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics, a collection of unreleased poems from her journals and lyrics. The title derived from one of her poems, "Love and Chains" from the line: "I don't mind drinking my tears for water." She said the title is the foundation of her writing because "everything I have ever written has stemmed from my tears of joy, of pain, of sorrow, of depression, even of question". The book sold over US$500,000 and Keys made The New York Times bestseller list in 2005. The following year, she won a second consecutive award for Best R&B Video at the MTV Video Music Awards for the video Karma. Keys performed If I Ain't Got You and then joined Jamie Foxx and Quincy Jones in a rendition of Georgia on My Mind, the Hoagy Carmichael song made famous by Ray Charles in 1960 at the 2005 Grammy Awards. That evening, she won four Grammy Awards: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for If I Ain't Got You, Best R&B Song for You Don't Know My Name, Best R&B Album for The Diary of Alicia Keys, and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals" for My Boo with Usher.
Keys performed and taped her installment of the MTV Unplugged series in July 2005 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. During this session, Keys added new arrangements to her original songs and performed a few choice covers. The session was released on CD and DVD in October 2005. Simply titled Unplugged, the album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart with 196,000 units sold in its first week of release. The album sold one million copies in the United States, where it was certified Platinum by the RIAA, and two million copies worldwide. The debut of Keys' Unplugged was the highest for an MTV Unplugged album since Nirvana's 1994 MTV Unplugged in New York and the first Unplugged by a female artist to debut at number one. The album's first single, Unbreakable, peaked at number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number four on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It remained at number one on the Billboard Hot Adult R&B Airplay for 11 weeks.
Keys opened a recording studio in Long Island, New York, called The Oven Studios, which she co-owns with her production and songwriting partner Kerry "Krucial" Brothers. The studio was designed by renowned studio architect John Storyk of WSDG, designer of Jimi Hendrix' Electric Lady Studios. Keys and Brothers are the co-founders of KrucialKeys Enterprises, a production and songwriting team who assisted Keys in creating her albums as well as create music for other artists.
In 2006, Keys won three NAACP Image Awards, including Outstanding Female Artist and Outstanding Song for Unbreakable. She also received the Starlight Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In October 2006, she played the voice of Mommy Martian in the "Mission to Mars" episode of the children's television series The Backyardigans, in which she sang an original song, Almost Everything Is Boinga Here. That same year, Keys nearly suffered a mental breakdown. Her grandmother had died and her family was heavily dependent on her. She felt she needed to "escape" and went to Egypt for three weeks. She explained: "That trip was definitely the most crucial thing I've ever done for myself in my life to date. It was a very difficult time that I was dealing with, and it just came to the point where I really needed to—basically, I just needed to run away, honestly. And I needed to get as far away as possible."
Keys released her third studio album, As I Am, in November 2007; it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 742,000 copies in its first week. It gained Keys her largest first week sales of her career and became her fourth consecutive number one album, tying her with Britney Spears for the most consecutive number-one debuts on the Billboard 200 by a female artist. The week became the second largest sales week of 2007 and the largest sales week for a female solo artist since singer Norah Jones' album Feels like Home in 2004. The album has sold nearly four million copies in the United States and has been certified three times Platinum by the RIAA. It has sold nearly six million copies worldwide. Keys received five nominations for As I Am at the 2008 American Music Award and ultimately won two. The album's lead single, No One, peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, becoming Keys' third and fifth number-one single on each chart, respectively. The album's second single, Like You'll Never See Me Again, was released in late 2007 and peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The album's third single, Teenage Love Affair, peaked at number three on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. She released the fourth single, Superwoman, which peaked at number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 12 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
No One earned Keys the awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Keys opened the ceremony singing Frank Sinatra's 1950s song Learnin' the Blues as a "duet" with archival footage of Sinatra in video and No One with John Mayer later in the show. Keys also won Best Female R&B Artist during the show. Keys, along with The White Stripes' guitarist and lead vocalist Jack White, recorded the theme song to Quantum of Solace, the first duet in Bond soundtrack history. In 2008, Keys was ranked in at number 80 the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists. She also received three nominations at the 2009 Grammy Awards and won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for Superwoman.
In an interview with Blender magazine, Keys allegedly said "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other, 'gangsta rap' didn't exist" and went on to say that it was created by "the government". The magazine also claimed she said that Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. were "essentially assassinated, their beefs stoked by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing". Keys later wrote a statement clarifying the issues and saying her words were misinterpreted. Later that year, Keys was criticized by anti-smoking campaigners after billboard posters for her forthcoming concerts in Indonesia featured a logo for the A Mild cigarette brand sponsored by tobacco firm Philip Morris. She apologized after discovering that the concert was sponsored by the firm and asked for "corrective actions". In response, the company withdrew its sponsorship.
Keys collaborated with record producer Swizz Beatz to write and produce Million Dollar Bill for Whitney Houston's seventh studio album, I Look to You. Keys had approached Clive Davis for permission to submit a song for the album. Keys also collaborated with recording artist Jay-Z on the song Empire State of Mind from his 2009 album, The Blueprint 3. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 and became her fourth number-one single on that chart.
The following month, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers honored Keys with the Golden Note Award, an award given to artists "who have achieved extraordinary career milestones". She collaborated with Spanish recording artist Alejandro Sanz for Looking for Paradise, which topped the Hot Latin Songs chart. Keys released her fourth studio album, The Element of Freedom, in December 2009. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 417,000 copies in its first week. As part of the promotional drive for the album, she performed at the Cayman Island Jazz Festival on December 5, the final night of the three day festival which will be broadcast on Black Entertainment Television (BET). The album's lead single, Doesn't Mean Anything, has peaked at number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100. Keys was ranked as the top R&B recording artist of the 2000–2009 decade by Billboard magazine and ranked at number five as artist of the decade, while her song, No One, was ranked at number six on the magazine's songs of the decade. In the United Kingdom, The Element of Freedom became Keys' first album to top the UK Albums Chart.
According to Songfacts, Keys said regarding the title of her fifth studio album, Girl On Fire. "Before making this record, in some ways I felt like a lion locked in a cage. I felt like a girl misunderstood that no one really knew, I felt like it was time to stop making excuses for any part of my life that I wanted to change. Once I made that choice I became a Girl on Fire, the lion broke free!!" The title track will be made available on iTunes and radio on September 4, 2012.
In May 2009, Swizz Beatz announced that he and Keys were romantically involved, and in May 2010, a representative for Keys and Swizz Beatz confirmed that they were engaged and expecting a child together. During the time of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the couple took part of a union and had the unborn child blessed in a Zulu ceremony, which took place in the Illovo suburb of South Africa. Keys and Swizz Beatz were married on the French island of Corsica on July 31, 2010. On October 14, 2010, Keys gave birth to a son, Egypt Daoud Ibarr Dean, in New York City.
1997
Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards including 14 Grammy awards and has sold over 75 million records worldwide. Billboard magazine named her the top R&B artist of the 2000–2009 decade, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time. In 2010, VH1 included Keys on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Keys released her first studio album, Songs in A Minor, in June 2001. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and sold 236,000 copies in its first week. The album sold over 6.2 million copies in the United States, where it was certified six times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It went on to sell over 13 million copies worldwide, establishing Keys' popularity both inside and outside the United States, where she became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album's lead single, Fallin', spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The album's second single, A Woman's Worth, peaked at number three on the same chart. The following year, the album was reissued as Remixed & Unplugged in A Minor, which included eight remixes and seven unplugged versions of the songs from the original.
Songs in A Minor led Keys to win five awards at the 2002 Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, and Best R&B Song for Fallin', Best New Artist, and Best R&B Album; Fallin' was also nominated for Record of the Year. Keys became the second female solo artist to win five Grammy Awards in a single night, following Lauryn Hill at the 41st Grammy Awards. That same year, she collaborated with Christina Aguilera for the latter's upcoming album Stripped on a song entitled Impossible, which Keys wrote, co-produced, and provided with background vocals. During the early 2000s, Keys also made small cameos in television series Charmed and American Dreams.
Keys followed up her debut with The Diary of Alicia Keys, which was released in December 2003. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling over 618,000 copies its first week of release, becoming the largest first-week sales for a female artist in 2003. It sold 4.4 million copies in the United States and was certified four times Platinum by the RIAA. It sold nine million copies worldwide, becoming the sixth biggest-selling album by a female artist and the second biggest-selling album by a female R&B artist. The singles You Don't Know My Name and If I Ain't Got You both reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the third single, Diary, entered the top ten. The fourth single, Karma, was less successful on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 20. If I Ain't Got You became the first single by a female artist to remain on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for over a year.
Keys won Best R&B Video for If I Ain't Got You at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards; she performed the song and Higher Ground with Lenny Kravitz and Stevie Wonder. Later that year, Keys released her novel Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics, a collection of unreleased poems from her journals and lyrics. The title derived from one of her poems, "Love and Chains" from the line: "I don't mind drinking my tears for water." She said the title is the foundation of her writing because "everything I have ever written has stemmed from my tears of joy, of pain, of sorrow, of depression, even of question". The book sold over US$500,000 and Keys made The New York Times bestseller list in 2005. The following year, she won a second consecutive award for Best R&B Video at the MTV Video Music Awards for the video Karma. Keys performed If I Ain't Got You and then joined Jamie Foxx and Quincy Jones in a rendition of Georgia on My Mind, the Hoagy Carmichael song made famous by Ray Charles in 1960 at the 2005 Grammy Awards. That evening, she won four Grammy Awards: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for If I Ain't Got You, Best R&B Song for You Don't Know My Name, Best R&B Album for The Diary of Alicia Keys, and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals" for My Boo with Usher.
Keys performed and taped her installment of the MTV Unplugged series in July 2005 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. During this session, Keys added new arrangements to her original songs and performed a few choice covers. The session was released on CD and DVD in October 2005. Simply titled Unplugged, the album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart with 196,000 units sold in its first week of release. The album sold one million copies in the United States, where it was certified Platinum by the RIAA, and two million copies worldwide. The debut of Keys' Unplugged was the highest for an MTV Unplugged album since Nirvana's 1994 MTV Unplugged in New York and the first Unplugged by a female artist to debut at number one. The album's first single, Unbreakable, peaked at number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number four on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It remained at number one on the Billboard Hot Adult R&B Airplay for 11 weeks.
Keys opened a recording studio in Long Island, New York, called The Oven Studios, which she co-owns with her production and songwriting partner Kerry "Krucial" Brothers. The studio was designed by renowned studio architect John Storyk of WSDG, designer of Jimi Hendrix' Electric Lady Studios. Keys and Brothers are the co-founders of KrucialKeys Enterprises, a production and songwriting team who assisted Keys in creating her albums as well as create music for other artists.
In 2006, Keys won three NAACP Image Awards, including Outstanding Female Artist and Outstanding Song for Unbreakable. She also received the Starlight Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In October 2006, she played the voice of Mommy Martian in the "Mission to Mars" episode of the children's television series The Backyardigans, in which she sang an original song, Almost Everything Is Boinga Here. That same year, Keys nearly suffered a mental breakdown. Her grandmother had died and her family was heavily dependent on her. She felt she needed to "escape" and went to Egypt for three weeks. She explained: "That trip was definitely the most crucial thing I've ever done for myself in my life to date. It was a very difficult time that I was dealing with, and it just came to the point where I really needed to—basically, I just needed to run away, honestly. And I needed to get as far away as possible."
Keys released her third studio album, As I Am, in November 2007; it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 742,000 copies in its first week. It gained Keys her largest first week sales of her career and became her fourth consecutive number one album, tying her with Britney Spears for the most consecutive number-one debuts on the Billboard 200 by a female artist. The week became the second largest sales week of 2007 and the largest sales week for a female solo artist since singer Norah Jones' album Feels like Home in 2004. The album has sold nearly four million copies in the United States and has been certified three times Platinum by the RIAA. It has sold nearly six million copies worldwide. Keys received five nominations for As I Am at the 2008 American Music Award and ultimately won two. The album's lead single, No One, peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, becoming Keys' third and fifth number-one single on each chart, respectively. The album's second single, Like You'll Never See Me Again, was released in late 2007 and peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The album's third single, Teenage Love Affair, peaked at number three on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. She released the fourth single, Superwoman, which peaked at number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 12 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
No One earned Keys the awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Keys opened the ceremony singing Frank Sinatra's 1950s song Learnin' the Blues as a "duet" with archival footage of Sinatra in video and No One with John Mayer later in the show. Keys also won Best Female R&B Artist during the show. Keys, along with The White Stripes' guitarist and lead vocalist Jack White, recorded the theme song to Quantum of Solace, the first duet in Bond soundtrack history. In 2008, Keys was ranked in at number 80 the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists. She also received three nominations at the 2009 Grammy Awards and won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for Superwoman.
In an interview with Blender magazine, Keys allegedly said "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other, 'gangsta rap' didn't exist" and went on to say that it was created by "the government". The magazine also claimed she said that Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. were "essentially assassinated, their beefs stoked by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing". Keys later wrote a statement clarifying the issues and saying her words were misinterpreted. Later that year, Keys was criticized by anti-smoking campaigners after billboard posters for her forthcoming concerts in Indonesia featured a logo for the A Mild cigarette brand sponsored by tobacco firm Philip Morris. She apologized after discovering that the concert was sponsored by the firm and asked for "corrective actions". In response, the company withdrew its sponsorship.
Keys collaborated with record producer Swizz Beatz to write and produce Million Dollar Bill for Whitney Houston's seventh studio album, I Look to You. Keys had approached Clive Davis for permission to submit a song for the album. Keys also collaborated with recording artist Jay-Z on the song Empire State of Mind from his 2009 album, The Blueprint 3. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 and became her fourth number-one single on that chart.
The following month, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers honored Keys with the Golden Note Award, an award given to artists "who have achieved extraordinary career milestones". She collaborated with Spanish recording artist Alejandro Sanz for Looking for Paradise, which topped the Hot Latin Songs chart. Keys released her fourth studio album, The Element of Freedom, in December 2009. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 417,000 copies in its first week. As part of the promotional drive for the album, she performed at the Cayman Island Jazz Festival on December 5, the final night of the three day festival which will be broadcast on Black Entertainment Television (BET). The album's lead single, Doesn't Mean Anything, has peaked at number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100. Keys was ranked as the top R&B recording artist of the 2000–2009 decade by Billboard magazine and ranked at number five as artist of the decade, while her song, No One, was ranked at number six on the magazine's songs of the decade. In the United Kingdom, The Element of Freedom became Keys' first album to top the UK Albums Chart.
According to Songfacts, Keys said regarding the title of her fifth studio album, Girl On Fire. "Before making this record, in some ways I felt like a lion locked in a cage. I felt like a girl misunderstood that no one really knew, I felt like it was time to stop making excuses for any part of my life that I wanted to change. Once I made that choice I became a Girl on Fire, the lion broke free!!" The title track will be made available on iTunes and radio on September 4, 2012.
In May 2009, Swizz Beatz announced that he and Keys were romantically involved, and in May 2010, a representative for Keys and Swizz Beatz confirmed that they were engaged and expecting a child together. During the time of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the couple took part of a union and had the unborn child blessed in a Zulu ceremony, which took place in the Illovo suburb of South Africa. Keys and Swizz Beatz were married on the French island of Corsica on July 31, 2010. On October 14, 2010, Keys gave birth to a son, Egypt Daoud Ibarr Dean, in New York City.
1997
Tears Always Win
Alicia Keys Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Check it out
It feels kinda crazy
These covers
May keep me warm at night
But they can't take your place
'Cause they never gonna hold me tight
And these pillows
May let me rest my head
But they can't say good night
And tuck me in before I go to bed
Say now baby girl you're better off
That's what I'm telling myself (over and over)
But I'm lying to myself
'Cause I know I don't want nobody else
These lips are missin' you
'Cause these lips ain't kissin' you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wantin' you
'Cause these arms ain't holdin' you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These candles
Light up my room at night
But they can't light the room they way you did
When you walked inside, oh baby
If these walls could sing
About everything they've witnessed
Oh it'd be a sad sad song
And it'll probably sound something like this
Say now baby girl you're better off
That's what I'm telling myself (over and over)
But I'm lying to myself
Cause I know I don't want nobody else
'Cause these lips are missin' you (Missin' you)
'Cause these lips ain't kissin' you (Kissin' you)
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wantin' you (Wantin' you)
'Cause these arms ain't holdin' you (Holdin' you)
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Tell me when the hell this loneliness is gonna be over (Gonna be over)
When everything in this room reminds me of you (You)
Every time I think, I'm getting closer
'Cause tears drown me out, once again I lose
'Cause these lips are missin' you (Missin' you)
'Cause these lips ain't kissin' you (Kissin' you)
I put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wantin' you (Wantin' you)
'Cause these arms ain't holdin' you (Holdin' you)
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Crying like oh oh
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Crying like oh oh
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
It feels kinda crazy
These covers
May keep me warm at night
But they can't take your place
'Cause they never gonna hold me tight
May let me rest my head
But they can't say good night
And tuck me in before I go to bed
Say now baby girl you're better off
That's what I'm telling myself (over and over)
But I'm lying to myself
'Cause I know I don't want nobody else
These lips are missin' you
'Cause these lips ain't kissin' you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wantin' you
'Cause these arms ain't holdin' you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These candles
Light up my room at night
But they can't light the room they way you did
When you walked inside, oh baby
If these walls could sing
About everything they've witnessed
Oh it'd be a sad sad song
And it'll probably sound something like this
Say now baby girl you're better off
That's what I'm telling myself (over and over)
But I'm lying to myself
Cause I know I don't want nobody else
'Cause these lips are missin' you (Missin' you)
'Cause these lips ain't kissin' you (Kissin' you)
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wantin' you (Wantin' you)
'Cause these arms ain't holdin' you (Holdin' you)
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Tell me when the hell this loneliness is gonna be over (Gonna be over)
When everything in this room reminds me of you (You)
Every time I think, I'm getting closer
'Cause tears drown me out, once again I lose
'Cause these lips are missin' you (Missin' you)
'Cause these lips ain't kissin' you (Kissin' you)
I put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wantin' you (Wantin' you)
'Cause these arms ain't holdin' you (Holdin' you)
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Crying like oh oh
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Crying like oh oh
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
The lyrics of Alicia Keys's song Tears Always Win convey a sense of heartbreak and longing for a lost love. The singer is addressing the absence of her partner and how she misses their touch, kiss, and embrace. She tries to find solace in material things like pillows, candles, and covers, but they can never replace the emptiness that comes with the absence of her partner. The singer is honest with herself and admits that she is lying to believe that she is better off alone because no one can replace her partner.
The chorus of the song repeats the refrain, "These lips are missing you, 'cause these lips ain't kissing you. These eyes put up a fight, but once again, these tears always win." The singer expresses that no matter how she tries to put up a fight, her tears always win because she misses her partner too much. The song's bridge expresses a sense of desperation and loneliness, as the singer wonders when her loneliness will end and lamenting how everything in her room reminds her of her partner.
Overall, Alicia Keys's Tears Always Win is a poignant expression of the pain and heartbreak associated with lost love. The song's lyrics convey a sense of honesty and vulnerability, and the soulful delivery of the song showcases Keys's range as a singer.
Line by Line Meaning
Check it out
Listen up, pay attention
It feels kinda crazy
I am overwhelmed and emotional
These covers
May keep me warm at night
But they can't take your place
'Cause they never gonna hold me tight
Although these blankets provide me comfort at night, they cannot replace the feeling of being held tight by you
And these pillows
May let me rest my head
But they can't say good night
And tuck me in before I go to bed
These pillows allow me to rest my head, but they cannot say good night and tuck me in like you used to
Say now baby girl you're better off
That's what I'm telling myself (over and over)
But I'm lying to myself
'Cause I know I don't want nobody else
Although I keep telling myself that I am better off without you, I am lying to myself because I know that I don't want anyone else but you
These lips are missin' you
'Cause these lips ain't kissin' you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wantin' you
'Cause these arms ain't holdin' you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
My whole body misses you and yearns for your touch, but I try to put up a fight and hold back my tears. However, in the end, my tears always win because I miss you too much
These candles
Light up my room at night
But they can't light the room they way you did
When you walked inside, oh baby
Although these candles provide light in my room at night, they cannot light up the room the way you did whenever you walked in
If these walls could sing
About everything they've witnessed
Oh it'd be a sad sad song
And it'll probably sound something like this
If the walls could talk, they would sing a sad song about everything they have witnessed, and it would sound similar to my sadness in this song
Tell me when the hell this loneliness is gonna be over (Gonna be over)
When everything in this room reminds me of you (You)
Every time I think, I'm getting closer
'Cause tears drown me out, once again I lose
I am tired of being lonely and waiting for my pain to end. Everything in my room reminds me of you, and every time I think I am getting over it, I end up losing the fight and drowning in tears
Crying like oh oh
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Crying like oh oh
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
I cry uncontrollably, and my eyes try their best to hold back the tears, but in the end, the tears always win
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: JEFF BHASKER, ALICIA AUGELLO-COOK, BRUNO MARS, PHILIP LAWRENCE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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Ruth L
These covers
May keep me warm at night
But they can't take your place
'Cause they never gonna hold me tight
And these pillows
May let me rest my head
But they can't say good night
And tuck me in before I go to bed
Say now baby girl you're better off
That's what I'm telling myself (over and over)
But I'm lying to myself
'Cause I know I don't want nobody else
These lips are missin' you
'Cause these lips ain't kissin' you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wantin' you
'Cause these arms ain't holdin' you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These candles
Light up my room at night
But they can't light the room they way you did
When you walked inside, oh baby
If these walls could sing
About everything they've witnessed
Oh it'd be a sad sad song
And it'll probably sound something like this
Say now baby girl you're better off
That's what I'm telling myself (over and over)
But I'm lying to myself
Cause I know I don't want nobody else
'Cause these lips are missin' you (missin' you)
'Cause these lips ain't kissin' you (kissin' you)
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wantin' you (wantin' you)
'Cause these arms ain't holdin' you (holdin' you)
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Tell me when the hell this loneliness is gonna be over (gonna be over)
When everything in this room reminds me of you (You)
Every time I think, I'm getting closer
'Cause tears drown me out, once again I lose
'Cause these lips are missin' you (missin' you)
'Cause these lips ain't kissin' you (kissin' you)
I put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wantin' you (wantin' you)
'Cause these arms ain't holdin' you (holdin' you)
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Crying like oh oh
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Crying like oh oh
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Herschel Santos
OUTSTANDING LYRICS AND MELODY.
"Tears Always Win"
These covers
May keep me warm at night
But they can't take your place
Cause they never gonna hold me tight
And these pillows
May let me rest my head
But they can't say good night
And tuck me in before I go to bed
Say now baby girl you're better off
That's what I'm telling myself (over and over)
But I'm lying to myself
Cause I know I don't want nobody else
[Chorus:]
These lips are missing you
Cause these lips ain't kissing you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wanting you
Cause these arms ain't holding you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These candles
Light up my room at night
But they can't light the room the way you did
When you walked inside, oh baby
If these walls could sing
About everything they've witnessed
Oh it'd be a sad sad song
And it'll probably sound something like this
Say now baby girl you're better off
That's what I'm telling myself (over and over)
But I'm lying to myself
Cause I know I don't want nobody else
[Chorus:]
These lips are missing you
Cause these lips ain't kissing you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wanting you
Cause these arms ain't holding you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Tell me when the hell this loneliness is gonna be over
When everything in this room reminds me of you
Everytime I think, I'm getting closer
Cause tears drown me out, once again I lose
These lips are missing you
These lips ain't kissing you
I put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wanting you
These arms ain't holding you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Crying like oh oh...
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Crying like oh oh...
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
Esther Juliet Apio
After i painfully broke up with the man i love so much, This song makes me go crazy, but it just speaks the damn truth. Thanks Alicia Keys, You are such a blessing to the world.
"These lips are missing you
These lips ain't kissing you
I put up a fight
But once again these tears always win
These arms are wanting you
These arms ain't holding you
These eyes put up a fight
But once again these tears always win"
PM
Why is she SO beautiful? Her soul, her smile, her voice. She was the first artist I ever noticed. When I was 12 y/o I bought Songs In A Minor and all the ones that came after. Today I'm 20 y/o and I can say: she has never disappointed me and I don't think she ever will. magic.
Nanette Davis
You should know the answer to that question already
Mariano Martín
Have you enjoyed her last three albums now?
John Carpenter
Because she is a Goddess...that simple.
Shaeed Cheverria
hey you're 27 now i hope you are doing well and still enjoying this masterpiece
Aaron OutterCooch
One of the most talented,phenomenal artist to ever pick up a mic.
Julia Jakubczak
@Miki Kikki please send lll
Layana Galgren
@Rosa_baby delvalle aa
Renee Dillard
Yassss
She is very talented
Gina Lienn
I agree 100% with you.