Alicia Keys has announced her Hell’s Kitchen musical cast album will release June 7.
The album will feature cast recordings of new and reimagined songs by Keys that are performed in the Broadway musical.
The 16-time Grammy winner stopped by The Today Show on Tuesday (May 14) to discuss the upcoming project.
“We purposefully put it together so that you really get a sense of the entire arc of the show as you’re listening to it,” Keys told co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb.
“The songs are really meant to speak to the characters,” Keys continued. “They’re really meant to move the story forward. Every time you hear the song, it’s in a new way. You know this song, and you love it, but you’re hearing it in a way you’ve never heard before. I think that’s such a powerful part. People tell me all the time, ‘As many times as I heard these lyrics, I never heard them in this way. They never meant this to me. And in so many ways, I’m experiencing the songs in a whole new way.'”
The Hell’s Kitchen album will include the lead single “Kaleidoscope,” performed by Keys and Maleah Joi Moon, who stars as Ali in the musical. Keys released the official video for the uplifting track in April.
“This video is so special to me; it captures the spirit of Hell’s Kitchen, the place I grew up, and the new musical we’ve worked so hard to bring to life!” explained Keys. “One that is now debuting on Broadway on 4/20! I’m so proud to showcase a place I call home, and the amazing community that helped make me who I am today.”
According to the musical’s logline, “In the mid-’90s, in an apartment high above the energy and grit of Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, 17-year-old Ali squints toward the horizon until she can just see the Hudson River. Despite the warnings of her protective mother, the symphony of the street calls to her—promising freedom, excitement, and the possibility of love. Finding herself. When a wise piano teacher helps her find her voice, Ali learns she can make the city her own.”
The coming-of-age musical officially opened on Broadway’s Shubert Theatre on April 20, after showing at New York’s Newman Theater last fall.
In other news, Hell’s Kitchen has racked up 13 Tony Award nominations, including for Best Musical. “I don’t know what’s happening to me — I’m a songwriter and I can’t put my words together, but I feel unbelievable. I’m so excited for everybody to be recognized,” Keys told The New York Times.
Pre-save the Hell’s Kitchen cast album here.
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