Alicia Keys has major plans to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her pivotal second album, The Diary of Alicia Keys.
The 15-time Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and producer has announced The Diary of Alicia Keys 20, a special digital deluxe edition set to release Dec. 1.
On the same day, Keys will perform Diary in its entirety at Webster Hall in New York City. Tickets go on sale this Friday, Nov. 3. (A portion of the price of each ticket will be donated to Keep A Child Alive.)
The 24-track expanded album will feature all the songs from the original, plus nine bonus tracks, including the previously unreleased “Golden Child.”
Written and produced by Keys, “Golden Child” is an empowering track filled with affirming lyrics: “You are a golden / You are a golden / You don’t have to be afraid / ‘Cause time is on your side / And they don’t know the power you possess or the beauty that’s inside.”
The special edition will also include different mixes of songs like “You Don’t Know My Name” and “Diary” featuring Tony! Toni! Toné! and Jermaine Paul, as well as live versions from her 2003 AOL Broadband Rocks! concert at Webster Hall.
Additionally, Keys has partnered with Urban Outfitters for an exclusive limited edition of The Diary of Alicia Keys on champagne colored 12″ vinyl and a bonus 7″ vinyl of “Streets of New York” featuring Nas and Rakim. It’s available for pre-order now.
In early 2024, Vinyl Me, Please will release a limited-edition 3LP Piano Key-colored 12″ vinyl pressing of The Diary of Alicia Keys (VMP 20th Anniversary Edition).
This edition will include a lyric and photo booklet featuring a handwritten letter from Keys. (One random purchaser will receive the original letter.)
The Diary of Alicia Keys was released Dec. 2, 2003, via J Records. It bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with 618,000 copies sold in the first week. It spent two weeks atop the summit.
The album spawned the hit singles “You Don’t Know My Name,” “If I Ain’t Got You,” “Diary,” and “Karma.”
All the singles landed in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with “You Don’t Know My Name” peaking at No. 3, followed by “If I Ain’t Got You” (No. 4), “Diary” (No. 8) and “Karma” (No. 20).
Every single, except “Karma,” reached No. 1 on the Adult R&B Airplay chart. “Diary” dominated for 12 weeks, while “If I Ain’t Got You” and “You Don’t Know My Name” both reigned for 10 weeks.
At the 47th Grammy Awards in 2005, Keys won Best R&B Album (The Diary of Alicia Keys), Best R&B Song (“You Don’t Know My Name”) and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (“If I Ain’t Got You”).
She also won a trophy for “My Boo,” her duet with Usher that appeared on his album,Confessions (Special Edition).
In August 2020, The Diary of Alicia Keys was certified 5x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling over five million copies.
At that same time, “Karma” and “Diary” were certified gold with 500,000 equivalent units sold.
In September 2022, “You Don’t Know My Name” was certified platinum. Earlier this year, “If I Ain’t Got You” was upped to 6x platinum with six million units sold.
For Keys’ 2021 album, KEYS, she unlocked her vault to include a song recorded during her Diary sessions titled “Is It Insane.”
“Honestly, that song is one of my favorite songs of my entire life,” Keys told Rated R&B in an interview. “I’m talking about it right now and am getting chills. That’s how I feel about that song.”
She explained why she didn’t include it on Diary. “I remember writing it just how I wrote ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ in that Diary moment, how I wrote ‘Diary,’ which was a big one for Diary. After I finished writing it, I loved it, but I was like, ‘It doesn’t fit.’ Every year, every album after, I would go back to ‘Is It Insane’ and be like, ‘Does it fit here? Can it fit?’ Finally, I started to be like, ‘I guess it’s not meant to fit.'”
Ultimately, she found that KEYS was the right album for “Is It Insane.” “It fits as if it has been the missing piece of the entire album. It was meant for this album. Sometimes, songs are just waiting for their time. And now this one has found its time.”
Listen to Alicia Keys’ “Golden Child” below. Pre-save and pre-order The Diary of Alicia Keys 20 HERE.
The Diary of Alicia Keys 20 Album Tracklist
1. Harlem’s Nocturne
2. Karma
3. Heartburn
4. If I Was Your Woman/Walk On By
5. You Don’t Know My Name
6. If I Ain’t Got You
7. Diary (featuring Tony! Toni! Toné! & Jermaine Paul)
8. Dragon Days
9. Wake Up
10. So Simple (featuring Lellow)
11. When You Really Love Someone
12. Feeling U, Feeling Me (Interlude)
13. Slow Down
14. Samsonite Man
15. Nobody Not Really
16. If I Ain’t Got You (Orchestral Version) (featuring Queen Charlotte’s Global Orchestra) (from Netflix’s “Queen Charlotte”)
17. Golden Child
18. You Don’t Know My Name/Will You Ever Know It (Reggae Mix)
19. Diary (featuring Tony! Toni! Toné! & Jermaine Paul) (Hani Mixshow)
20. If I Ain’t Got You (Spanish Version) (featuring Queen Charlotte’s Global Orchestra (from Netflix’s “Queen Charlotte”)
21. Streets of New York (AOL Broadband Rocks! Live at Webster Hall – December 1, 2003)
22. If I Ain’t Got You (AOL Broadband Rocks! Live at Webster Hall – December 1, 2003)
23. Diary (featuring Jermaine Paul) (AOL Broadband Rocks! Live at Webster Hall – December 1, 2003)
24. You Don’t Know My Name (AOL Broadband Rocks! Live at Webster Hall – December 1, 2003)
