Alicia Keys: new face of Givenchy, compares music and perfumes

She has the Midas touch. Alicia Keys’ latest album ‘Girl on Fire’ won a Grammy for best R&B album this year, and now the 33-year-old singer-songwriter is hoping to score a hit with her new Givenchy perfume.

Showing off her baby bump, Keys, who is expecting her second child with rapper and producer Swizz Beatz, recently presented her new scent in a Manhattan store.

“I love it, because I think that scent is so much like music, you know? It’s the one thing other than music that you can remember, memories that are so far back, you know, they bring up something just in a cellular way and you’ll never forget how you felt or what was going on in your life. And that’s the same with music, so I think that they’re very much related and I love this idea of creating memories with people in every way that I can,” she said.

The artist revealed that motherhood has massively boosted her self-confidence: “It wasn’t until I became a mother that I really recognised the power of a woman, the real strength of a woman, the endlessness of a woman, I like to say the “edgeless-ness”, like there are no edges for us, no boundaries or things that can hold us, restrain us. I didn’t really understand that as much until I was a mother and now that I’m actually able to be a mother the second time around it’s even more exciting because you feel so much calmer,” she said at the New York event.

Alicia Keys is currently working with Pharrell Williams on her sixth studio album, set for release late this year or in early 2015.

Marking a three-decade long career, award-winning French singer and actor Patrick Bruel is touring the world with concerts from Dubai to Los Angeles. Back home, the 55-year-old enjoys a true superstar status.

Ahead of his London concert, he said he hoped to reach out not only to French fans but also to an English audience: “English people who might come to my concet will enjoy a show with songs in French, which have a special kind of energy. That’s what’s extraordinary with music: it can convey very strong feelings even if you don’t understand the lyrics. Many people don’t understand the lyrics of songs even when they are in English. But you can hum a melody and string a few words together without necessarily understanding the meaning – what matters is the musicality.”

Patrick Bruel will be singing a mix of his French hits, some new songs and cover versions of The Beatles, David Bowie and U2 at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

His world tour ends in October with a series of concerts across the United States, from New York to LA.