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Alicia Keys to mark anniversary of her ‘Songs in A Minor’ album with a special London gig

Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys is to mark the 10-year anniversary of her ‘Songs in A Minor’ album with a special London concert. The ‘Empire State of Mind’ hitmaker is to celebrate a decade since the release of her debut LP by performing at the historic Royal Albert Hall on June 13. The intimate show, entitled ‘Piano & I: A One Night Only Event With Alicia Keys’, will see the singer perform tracks from the album, as well as some of her other classic hits, accompanied just by her piano.

She told BBC Radio 1′s Newsbeat: “It’s incredible that I’ve been able to make it 10 years and here we are celebrating that.

“London is so good to me. I want to show my gratitude.”

In addition to the concert, Alicia – who will also tell stories about her career during the show – is releasing deluxe and collectors’ editions of ‘Songs in A Minor’ on June 27.

The new reworking of the album will also feature 10 tracks penned by the singer at the time she was first writing the album.

She said: “I think back to a time when I barely thought an album would be able to come out just because there were so many trials and tribulations.

“When the record did finally come out and was able to be heard and people fell in love with it, it was a testament to doing great music and not allowing people’s negativity stop you from what you dream.”

The Strokes album currently being mixed.

The Strokes album currently being mixed. The Strokes are currently mixing their fourth album and plan to have it out by March. The band regrouped after a song time working with other people. ‘We didn’t really break up,’ bassist Nikolai Fraiture told BBC Radio 1. ‘But we didn’t see each other for a long time. When you get back together there was a lot of weird energy flowing around. There are different dynamics in the group in different ways.’ The band, who recently played a string of festivals around the world didn’t play any new material because they didn’t want people’s first impressions to be through a mobile phone camera. ‘We didn’t really want to play anything new because in the age of the internet we didn’t want the new songs to be heard in a crappy way,’ Fraiture said. The Strokes currently have no dates planned, but no doubt will head out on the road later this year.

Coldplay banned children’s choirs from their Christmas record.

Coldplay banned children's choirs from their Christmas record.

Coldplay banned children’s choirs from their Christmas record. The band have just released single ‘Christmas Lights’ and made a list of the predictable festive pop sounds they didn’t want on the track. In an interview with British station BBC Radio 1, guitarist Johnny Buckland said: ‘Funnily enough when we were writing this song we thought about all the things that take a song from being a great Christmas song to being a huge Christmas song, and we had a long list of things that we would absolutely not put in our Christmas track.’ Singer Chris Martin interjected to add: ‘You threw all my lyrics out didn’t you?’ Johnny continued, saying: ‘About the reindeer and stuff? It’s been done before. A children’s choir, that’s a no-go, and sleigh bells. There is a fine line between good and cheese.’ Although Chris is pleased with the group’s foray into festive music, the singer insists he isn’t going to worry about what the reaction is to ‘Christmas Lights’ ‘ which has already charted in over 10 countries. He said: ”m not going to get all paranoid about it. It’s Christmas! Start worrying in January.’