Alicia Keys appeared on The Ellen Show to perform her new single “Underdog” and also took the opportunity to talk about her reaction to Kobe Bryant’s death ahead of Sunday’s Grammys.
“Underdog” comes off Keys’ upcoming eighth album Alicia, which will be released March 20th, and the singer told Ellen DeGeneres why she decided to name the album after herself. “I couldn’t think of anything, obviously, and so I just went with that,” Keys said of the title. “Truly, I’ve realized that I’ve never been more fully myself. And I’ve never been more fully Alicia than I am in this moment.”
The singer also spoke about hosting the Grammys following the news of Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash. “We were all freaking out because obviously hearing the news about Kobe and his daughter was so tragic and none of us can still believe it right now to this day,” Keys said. “It was definitely a crazy feeling because literally minutes before we were going to do something else and we had to really figure out, ‘How could we properly honor him in his house on this night?’”
She added of the onstage tribute, “It just so happened that Boyz II Men was there already that night and we wanted to do something special and create something that felt like it was the right thing.”