We all know and love singer/songwriter Alicia Keys.
The 15-time Grammy Award–winning artist recently released her new book, More Myself, and inside she opened up about being "manipulated" and "objectified" by a photographer when she was 19 years old.
Alicia recalled the 2000 incident, writing that she felt "shame" when the unidentified photographer told her to "open your shirt a little" and "pull the top of your jeans down a bit in the front" for the photo shoot.
“My spirit is screaming that something is wrong, that this feels sleazy. But my protests, lodged in the back of my throat, can’t make their way out,” she wrote.
According to Alicia, “This isn’t about me showing some skin, which I’ll do on my own terms, for my own purposes, in the coming years. It’s about feeling manipulated. It’s about being objectified.”
Alicia also said she wanted to throw up when she saw the cover on sale. “I now understand why the photographer wanted my team out of that room,” she wrote. “A nineteen-year-old girl is more pliable than a set of her grown-ass managers.”
“I swear that I’ll never again let someone rob me of my power,” Alicia continued, adding, “It’s a promise I still work to keep.”
You can get a copy of Alicia's memoir, More Myself, here.
