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Alicia Keys Uses Her Vocals At The Staples Center

Vanessa Gomez |
March 13, 2013 | 2:05 a.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

Alicia Keys at The Staples Center singing "You Don't Know My Name."
Alicia Keys at The Staples Center singing "You Don't Know My Name."
It started and ended with Frank Sinatra. That's when you know it's going to be a good show.

And it was... until the first few songs were over. The show died after Keys sat down to play her grand piano a second time but then, something changed when she started "101." Then, the question of "how does she do it" was raised.

Alicia Keys performed Tuesday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles for her "Set The World On Fire" Tour. It was a show full of dancing, intimate moments, and some serious singing.

Keys opened with the chorus of her signature song, "Empire State of Mind," as she took us through New York City virtually through the projector screens. She continued her momentum with one of her first hit singles of her career, "Karma," and played with the audience with "You Don't Know My Name."

After these few songs, the show got a little repetitive with Keys going back and forth from the piano to center stage to singing. 

She was just saving her vocals though. Just by listening to her music, people know she can sing. But, recordings don't always translate equally to live shows.

In this case though, she sounded even better live. She had intimate moments with just her and the white grand piano center stage, but there was nothing to prepare anyone for the moment when she pounded the first few chords of a song off her new album, "Girl On Fire," called "101." The video doesn't even do her vocals justice because they sounded so raw and pure and even better in person. 

From there, Keys went right into her hit single from 2001, "Fallin." Her vocals were powerful than ever. She had the audience help her with her infamous "ah, ah, ah, ah, oh, oh, oh, ooooh" line of the song. She did runs over the chorus as the back up singers sang it. 

She ended with the last high note of "Fallin," and told the audience to get ready for what was coming next. She wanted everyone to snap. Everyone in the Staples Center was snapping to the beat of the drum when Keys said she had a surprise for L.A.

"We do things that only happen in LA," said Keys. 

The bass started and rapper Kendrick Lamar stepped out on stage. He performed two of his songs, which the crowd was not expecting. The energy of the entire venue changed after his performance. Everyone was on their feet. 

Keys started a duet with Maxwell, who was not there physically but instead virtually on the projector screens. Her vocals were so spot on during her whole show, but during this song, we got to hear her different runs and her wide vocal range.

She gave one of her band members the spotlight for a minute at the end of the song. Her guitar player gave an amazing electric guitar solo while she went backstage. Afterward, she came rising up through the floor of the stage at the front. 

The stage was shaped with her logo of her initials on her "Girl on Fire" album cover. She spent most of her time either center or at the front of the stage. She had two sets of stairs on either side of a raised platform on top of the actual stage. This is where the back up vocalists and instruments were.

Keys started out on the platform for her first song and went up a couple other times, but for the most part, stuck with center stage. Underneath the center of the raised platform was a door opening for the white grand piano to roll in and out remotely when needed.

Then, front center stage, she had an opening in the floor that lowered and raised her and instruments if needed. She came out of the floor multiple times playing a standing keyboard and her white grand piano and even drums at the end of the show. 

She had four male dancers to add even more to her concert. They weren't always on the stage, but when they were, Keys interacted with them a lot.

During her song, "You Don't Know My Name," she acted like she was calling the boy in the song on the phone, and she actually talked to one of her male dancers and acted the scene out asking him out on a date.

When she sang "Unthinkable," Keys and one of her dancers danced with each other to express her lyrics "I was wondering maybe could I make you my baby." It was a completely sexy scene they acted out and it ended with the dancer being lowered into the floor, staring up at Keys as he went down.  

Keys played songs from all five of her albums: "Songs In A Minor," her Grammy-Award winning album; "The Diary of Alicia Keys"; "As I Am"; "The Element of Freedom"; and her most recent one, "Girl on Fire." The show included all of her hit songs, like "Fallin," "No One," "New Day," "Like You'll Never See Me Again," and the list goes on and on. 

She was not off key on any of her songs and she just kept going and going with her strong vocals. Everything went black after she sang "No One" and the show seemed to be over. That is, until yellow strobe lights came on and she started singing "New Day," which turned into "Girl on Fire." 

"Put your hands up if you're on fire tonight," said Keys after she finished. 

She started the chords for her latest single "Brand New Me" and everything went black again. The curtain dropped and the crowd wanted an encore performance.

The curtain raised, the dancers came back on stage, and Keys came out in a sparkly purple evening gown to sing her last song of the night, "Empire State of Mind." She thanked her fans before walking off stage. 

"We've had the time of our lives up here tonight," said Keys. 

The curtain dropped, and the show ended with Sinatra's famous line of "It's up to you New York, New Yo-rk." Alicia Keys played with the audience, kept the sound of her vocals so raw the entire show, but also had a few slow moments in it.

Regardless, she started out with a spark, but by the end of her performance, she had "set the world on fire." Well, at least Los Angeles. 

Read more of NT's show reviews here.

Reach Staff Reporter Vanessa Gomez here. Follow her on Twitter



 

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