Алисия Киз: Екінші студиялық альбомы мен 20 жылдық мерекесі

The Diary of Alicia Keys is the second studio album by American singer Alicia Keys. It was released on December 2, 2003, by J Records. The album was recorded at several recording studios, and production was handled primarily by Keys with contributions from Kanye West and Kerry Brothers Jr., who described it as "an R&B album". Upon its release, The Diary of Alicia Keys received generally positive reviews from music critics. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 618,000 copies in its first week. It became Keys's second consecutive number one debut in the United States and spawned three top ten singles. The Diary of Alicia Keys earned Keys three Grammy Awards at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards. The album has sold over five million units in the United States and over eight million copies worldwide. In 2023 the album was reissued for its 20th anniversary under the title The Diary Of Alicia Keys 20, with nine additional tracks. At the 66th Annual Grammy Awards the album won for Best Immersive Audio Album.

Keys' debut studio album Songs in A Minor was released on June 5, 2001. Debuting atop the US Billboard 200, it went on to sell over 6.2 million copies and earned Keys five Grammy Awards at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards, tying Keys with Lauryn Hill as the female artist with most Grammy Awards won in a single ceremony (the record has since been broken by Beyoncé and Adele). Keys embarked on the Songs in A Minor Tour (2001–2002) in support of the album; while touring, Keys started writing songs for her second studio album. Due to the extreme popularity of Songs in A Minor, there was a lot of pressure on The Diary of Alicia Keys to match or exceed that success. Keys, however, felt no pressure to deliver another album due to her experience in the making of Songs in A Minor and in touring to support it as well as her confidence in her songwriting and musicianship, nor did she want to have many guests on the album. Speaking on the subject, album contributor Kerry Brothers, Jr. said in 2018:
blockquote|"During the time we definitely loved what we did and I didn't think everybody would get it right away because of the setbacks with Columbia and them not understanding it because it was unique for its time. It was a combination of hip hop, jazz, R&B, classical, and soul, but it was a new combination of it. It didn't sound like Mary J. Blige, it didn't sound like Erykah Badu, it didn't sound like Missy Elliott. After that, people would ask "How do you feel about the second album? Are you worried about the sophomore jinx?" And we never had that, there was never any of that pressure. We did what we wanted to do the first album, let's just do it again and let's try this new stuff we learned too. That was the main thing because during each album process we didn't listen to any of the current music or radio. We just always tuned it out and went back to our favorite classic albums and used that for inspiration. We had the confidence because a lot of artists that get that "sophomore jinx" are people who didn’t have control over their first album. If that first album did well they were finally allowed to do what they wanted to do which might have been different from what the label might have wanted them to do to get attention. Alicia didn't have to go through that. She had creative control from the jump. Of course, we had gotten better and we had grown, me as a producer, her as a producer, even songwriting, so for the second album it was back to business. We just upgraded a little more equipment and finally bought a couple of real instruments." Among producers, Keys worked with Kerry Brothers, Jr., Kanye West, Timbaland, Dre & Vidal, Easy Mo Bee, D'wayne Wiggins and Kumasi. Dre & Vidal's Andre Harris stated he and Keys "crossed paths in the studio" while Dre & Vidal were working on Usher's album Confessions (2004) and started working together afterwards. Lellow, Keys' alter ego, was introduced on the album, making an appearance on "So Simple". Brothers stated: "Lellow is her alter ego. That was what we called her when she was in her hip hop mode so it's dope they recorded her singing in one key and pitched her up to make it sound high pitched." Lyrically, the album mostly explores complexities of romantic relationships, following their different stages. However, some songs address social issues, such as materialism ("If I Ain't Got You") and war ("Wake Up"). Horn infused alternative hip hop song "Karma" follows; it contains excerpts from Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 by Johannes Brahms. Titled after the concept of karma, the song follows the narrator whose former lover wants to restart their relationship despite leaving her before, but she has moved on; the lover is now in the position she was once in, and in being rejected receives his just deserts ("what goes around comes around"). The third track "Heartburn" "marries the explosive brass and choppy guitars of a Blaxploitation soundtrack to a beat bearing the influence of visionary producer Timbaland". Keys was inspired by Aaliyah's death and the September 11 attacks when writing the album's sixth track "If I Ain't Got You", as those events made her realize what's truly important in life. The soul jazz song condemns materialism: "Some people want diamond rings / Some just want everything / But everything means nothing / If I ain't got you, yeah". The album's title track "Diary" features Tony! Toni! Toné! on bass, piano, guitar, organ and Wurlitzer, while Jermaine Paul provides uncredited additional vocals; Stokley Williams was originally set to sing on the track but was replaced by Paul. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine described the song as reminiscent of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder's work. Following the anti war song "Wake Up", "So Simple" is the album's tenth track, featuring an appearance from Keys' alter ego Lellow, whose verses see Keys' voice manipulated to sound high pitched. Its lyrics follow a narrator seeking reconciliation with a former lover. The eleventh track, neo soul ballad "When You Really Love Someone", speaks about sacrifices one must make for their significant other. The interlude "Feeling U, Feeling Me" follows, featuring "a squawky synthesizer straight off Stevie Wonder's Innervisions". "Samsonite Man" is a neo soul song with Latin percussion and guitar. Its lyrics follow a narrator who's ending her relationship and telling her lover to leave; it was later revealed the song was about Keys' father, who abandoned her and her mother when she was two years old. UK and Japanese editions of the album include bonus track "Streets of New York (City Life)", a hip hop song featuring Nas and Rakim. Sampling "N. Y. State of Mind" by Nas, the song is an "affectionate ode" to New York City. Keys returned to the United States to perform the song at the 2003 Vibe Awards on November 20, later performing on Good Morning America on November 26 and December 2, AOL Broadband Rocks! Live on December 1, Total Request Live on December 2, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on December 4 and 5. The Diary of Alicia Keys was first released on December 1, 2003, internationally, before being released in the United States the following day by J Records; its limited edition with a bonus DVD was released simultaneously. The US promotional tour continued in 2004, with Keys performing at WGCI FM's Big Jam Slow Jams on February 13. In Germany, Keys performed "You Don't Know My Name" on Wetten, dass ? on February 28. Afterwards, Keys co headlined the Verizon Ladies First Tour with Beyoncé and Missy Elliott in North America from March until April 2004. After performing on Todays Toyota Concert Series on May 7, Keys embarked on a five month international tour which visited various venues and festivals in Europe, Asia and Australia. She continued performing in the United States, performing "If I Ain't Got You" and "Diary" on The Early Shows Summer Concert Series on June 8, "If I Ain't Got You" at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards on August 29, and "Heartburn" at 2004 Fashion Rocks on September 8. In September, a double disc special edition (also titled collector's tour edition) was released outside the United States. Keys performed "Karma" at the 2004 World Music Awards on September 15, American Music Awards of 2004 on November 14, and the 2004 Billboard Music Awards on December 8. Following her performance of "If I Ain't Got You" at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards on February 13, 2005, Keys toured North America on her Diary Tour from February until April.

"You Don't Know My Name" was released as the lead single from The Diary of Alicia Keys on November 10, 2003. It peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 and atop the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs, becoming her second Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs number one. The song's accompanying music video, directed by Chris Robinson and Andrew Young, features Keys as a waitress at a restaurant and rapper Mos Def playing Michael Harris, her love interest. At the 47th Annual Grammy Awards (2005), the song won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. "You Don't Know My Name" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on August 11, 2020, for shipping 500,000 units in the United States. "If I Ain't Got You" was released as the second single on February 23, 2004. It peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and became her second consecutive Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs number one. The song outpeaked its Billboard Hot 100 position on the 2004 Billboard Hot 100 year end chart, placing at number three, while being number one on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs year end chart. At the 47th Annual Grammy Awards, the song won for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, while being nominated for Song of the Year. "Diary" was released as the third single on May 24, 2004. It became Keys' third consecutive Billboard Hot 100 top ten single, peaking at number eight, while peaking at number two on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs. "Karma" was released as the fourth and final single on November 1, 2004. It became the album's only single to miss the top ten on both Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs, peaking at numbers 20 and 17 on the charts, respectively. At the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, the video earned Keys the award for Best R&B Video. "Karma" was certified gold by the RIAA twice–on September 27, 2005, and on August 11, 2020.

The Diary of Alicia Keys received generally positive reviews from critics; it holds an average score of 71, based on 17 reviews, at Metacritic. The Times said that the album "confirmed her place in musical history". Critics described Keys' music as neo soul and contemporary R&B. Slant Magazines Sal Cinquemani said that it "triumphs" the neo soul "achievements" of Songs in A Minor and is "a deft mix of modernism and classicism, not to mention street and class." Q magazine called it "a proper soul album which hooks you with the first pneumatic beat and draws you deeper with every heady atmosphere and vivid emotion." Jon Pareles, writing in The New York Times, claimed that "it has taken The Diary of Alicia Keys to testify that soul songwriting can survive" and felt that the album "echoes familiar soul sounds, but Ms. Keys sounds undaunted by her sources, and she's learning fast." Rob Sheffield, writing in Rolling Stone, called the album "an assured, adult statement, steeped in the complicated love life and musical dreams of an ambitious young woman who has absorbed enough Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin records to live up to the soul promise of 'Harlem's Nocturne'." Kris Ex of Blender called it "an enthusiastic album full of masterful strokes and electrifying intensity." David Browne, writing in Entertainment Weekly, similarly said that the second half "drifts into a narcotized semi slumber of one earnest, samey retro soul piano ballad after another." Mark Anthony Neal of PopMatters said that it only shows "fleeting glimpses" of Keys' actual sensibilities and said that, although it "clearly evinces Keys's growth as an artist since Songs in A Minor," the album is "clearly laboring to be relevant to the current marketplace and thus suffers from a serious lack of cohesion. Alexis Petridis, writing in The Guardian, found it creatively safe and marred by "anodyne slow numbers studded with knowing references to old records". Uncut found Keys' lyrics boring and filled with a "litany of cliche and hackneyed need a man" wailing. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice rated the album a "dud", indicating "a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought."

+ Release dates and formats for The Diary of Alicia Keys Region Date Edition(s) Format(s) Label(s) Ref. (Reference(s)) France December 1, 2003 Standard, limited Compact disc, CD, CD+DVD BMG Germany United Kingdom RCA United States December 2, 2003 J Japan December 3, 2003 Standard CD BMG December 17, 2003 Limited CD+DVD Australia September 6, 2004 Special Double CD Sony BMG Japan September 22, 2004 Germany September 27, 2004 Various December 1, 2023 20th anniversary CD, download, streaming Legacy, RCA