Alicia Keys： NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

You know, so I just wanted to vibe out with y'all. If it's cool, we just have a little hang, you know what I mean? We just have a little session. And I just wanted to play a little bit and talk with you. It's really a tiny, tiny desk. Like, it's crazy. Like, we really smushed back here like this. And I gotta say, me and the crew, we like feeling so warm and cozy and, you know, it feels so good to just be in an intimate space and connect with you, you know? I don't, there's nothing I love better, really. There's nothing that I love better than the intimacy and the personal space. So, I was just thinking a lot about how much, you know, how much we all just want to be shown some love, you know. And I think now more than ever, it's just a time where we need that love more than we ever needed it before, you know. And I think we all can feel that. We can all feel the need and the desire for respect and just uplifting each other and just seeing each other. Seeing each other and just recognizing the beauty in each other. Because we get so caught up and life goes so fast. Thank you, guys. The next thing we know, that's really what links us. So whenever I play this song, I... Like people that sing with me. So I hope y'all not a shy bunch. Don't seem like it. So help me. I'll say it one time and then y'all say it one time. Okay? So we can just exercise the love showing. Show me love. You. Show me love. Show me love. You. Show me love. Like we freaking on a weekend. Show me love. This is not the season for nobody else, but I always get wrapped up in you, baby. We gonna get this love, like we never done it. Baby, I'm in love, go ahead, show me love, like we never done it. Ooh, I got you running, every time I give you some, show me love, show me love, you'll see red lights. Yeah, I'll show you love like it was passionate, I just want to bask in it, winning it like a championship, you gon' show me love like, like you tried it and denied it, but you still let me apply it, like I made you put your ties in, show me love, when you don't got time to, I'll be there to find you, I'll remind you, show me love, treat it like we breakin' This is not the season for nobody else. That's better. I always get wrapped up in you, baby, I'm in love. We gon' get this love like we never done it. Baby, I'm in love. Go ahead, show me love like we never done it. Ooh, I got you running every time I give you some. Show me love. Show me love. It's not the season for time, y'all. We're singing for real. Y'all got some voices in here. I love it. All right, so I'm actually also my own personal tech. I'll put this over here. Look at this. Bang. We got a set change. You know what I mean? We got a set change. Uh-oh. Might need to call in the professionals. See if I got this right. All right, boom. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. Boom, I did it. Um, This next song I wanted to sing for you, I love this song so much. It's called Gramercy Park, and it's on the Alicia album. And I love what this song means, because I think a lot of what I've been thinking about, and y'all want to give me a little background music? Oh, no, they want it clean. Y'all want it clean or no? Background music. Background music. Let's get a little talking vibes, all right? Exactly. So a lot of what I've been thinking about on my own personal journey is kind of how much we contort and conform and adjust ourselves all the time with the best of intentions, by the way. It's, you know, it's from the most beautiful place and we want people to feel us and we want people to know how much we care about them. Somewhere along the line, we kind of lose ourselves in that and maybe can't find our way back to ourselves, you know, because we're so concerned with how everybody else feels and we're so concerned with just... Making other people happy and so it's been definitely something that I've personally experienced and I have a feeling that a lot of you might have felt the same way and so this song Gramercy Park really talks about how that happens and I'd love to sing this for you special. It's actually my first time performing this song ever right here. I mean, right here. So Gramercy Park. So Phil, join me on this story. Let's bring that around one more time because we feeling it. I'm going to tell you a little bit about me. Are you gonna see me when the light gets dark, the sun goes down over Gramercy, and it's become easy to hide pieces of weight, making of someone the hope that you'll stay, cause I've been trying to be everything I think you want me to be, I've been doing all the things that I think you wanna see. I've been trying to fulfill you with your every need. Now you've fallen for a person that's not even me. Said you've fallen for a person that's not even me. Forgive me to be, forgive me wrong, wasn't out to be seen. I like the attention with your eyes on me. The trouble with the truth is it's so hard to believe. Now here I stand with my heart on my sleeve. Cause I've been doing everything I think you want me to be. I've been doing all the things that I think you wanna see. I've been trying to fulfill. Now you've fallen for a person that's not even me. Said you've fallen for a person that's not even me. Give me the beat. I forgot. Do you kind of feel me on that one? Man! I'm trying to learn though. I'm doing better. I'm doing better. I'm like doing much better. I'm speaking out a lot more. I'm like, you know what I've been learning is like you got to say it in the moment. But you got to be careful because if you're a hothead, you might need to count to 60. You know, because there's different, me, I don't quite, I don't do that, so I'm cool if I say it right in the moment. I know that I can just address it, as opposed to letting it pass, and then excusing it, and then you ignore it, and then you forget it, and then you never really forgot it, and then six years later, like, you know what I mean? So I'm working on that. All right, hold on, let me switch my mic back. Set change. I wanted to sing this, because it also has a vibe that, you know, I've been... I love the storyteller energy, and I love the way that that just kind of creates such a journey that you get to go on. And when we wrote this song, we really did want to kind of talk about how there's so many people that you pass. In your life that you never know what's going on with them. You know, you'll never stop and talk with them. You'll never build with them. You're just busy. You're just going on your train. You're going on your bus. You're getting in your cab, whatever the case. And you don't get a chance to sit down and talk. So this story kind of talks about what happens. What would we learn if we actually stopped and talked to somebody? So I'd love to vibe on this song with you called Underdog and just sing. I'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Nay. Yes. She was walking in the street, looked up and noticed he was nameless. He was homeless. She asked him his name and told him what hers was, gave her a story about life with a glint in his eye and a corner of a smile, one conversation, simple moment, the things that change us. If we notice when we look up sometimes, they say I would never make it, but I was built to break the mold. The only dream that I've been chasing is my own. I sing a song for the hustlers, straight in at the bus stop. Single mothers waiting on a check to come. Young teachers, students, doctors, sons on the front line. Knowing they don't get to run. This goes out to the underdog. Keep on what you love, you'll find that someday, someday, you'll go right. Yeah. Yeah. Back to the kitchen, talking to the driver about his wife and his children on a run from a country, put you in prison for being a woman, speaking your mind. She looked in his eyes in the mirror and he smiled. One conversation, simple moment, the things that change us if we notice when we look up sometimes. They said I would never make it, but I was bound to break them all. The only dream that I've been chasing is my own. So, so, so much. I'm so glad that I'm not the only artist ever that didn't do Chinese dance. I officially am on the train. I caught the train. Well, that's that then, huh? Yeah? Anything that y'all can think of that we need to... Oh, for y'all, yeah. Okay. What you want, Fana? Say again? You want me to introduce them? Let me introduce my band. You know, right here, this is Whitney and Ry. Actually, beautifully married, a beautiful couple. And incredible artists with two of the most incredible voices I've ever heard. I've ever heard. So, thank y'all so much. So, here's Omar. Kurt over here on guitar. Mike on drums. Thumbs up! And Ant on upright and also electric. Patrick. Good vibes. Thank you. Thank you very much. So much. So, you were saying maybe falling? Or, you were saying, well she said, oh, she said no one. That's a good one. You know, we had a moment like this last time, I actually had people scream for it. Okay, are we wanting no one? Are we wanting Fallen? Alright, let's do it then. Good. Makes me, loves me so much. Grab that chorus, all of us together, we gonna sing so loud, it's gonna feel so good. NPR, chemist from State Farm.