Alicia Keys opens up about aging and her thoughts on natural beauty

"You get more beautiful as you get older," Keys told The Cut.

Video byAlyssa Gregory
November 29, 2023, 3:02 PM

Alicia Keys is opening up about aging in an inspiring way.

"I think you get more beautiful as you get older," the Grammy Award-winning musician, 42, told The Cut in a cover interview published Monday.

She continued, "I feel like there's something about it. Your heart opens more. You have a quality about you that is so much stronger in a way. I really know that you become more beautiful as you recognize these things about yourself, as you become wiser, as you become older, as you become more yourself, who you actually are."

PHOTO: Alicia Keys attends the "Uncharted" premiere during the 2023 Tribeca Festival at BMCC Tribeca PAC on June 10, 2023 in New York City.
Alicia Keys attends the "Uncharted" premiere during the 2023 Tribeca Festival at BMCC Tribeca PAC on June 10, 2023 in New York City.
Manny Carabel/WireImage via Getty Images, FILE

Keys also spoke about feeling comfortable in her own skin, saying that she loves being more "conscious" and "aware" of what she thinks.

"I love being in touch with what I think and being comfortable knowing that what I know is the right thing for me, that I don't have to seek so much validation from everybody else to decide if that's a good thing for me or not," she said.

The "Girl on Fire" singer was stylishly photographed for the cover of the outlet's November/December 2023 issue, titled "The Joy of Being Alicia Keys."

Styled by Jessica Willis, she was photographed wearing a Louis Vuitton ensemble that included a buttoned vest and brown balloon trousers. She finished the look with a pair of flat black Church's shoes and Bulgari jewels. Her natural curls flowed down her back and her makeup was kept clean.

Keys has long been an advocate of natural beauty, and she has frequently ditched hyper-glam looks to show off looks that are more subtle, yet still luminous.

While hosting the 2019 and 2020 Grammy Awards, for example, she wore little to no makeup. She has donned similarly stripped-down looks for other major occasions, including the 2017 and 2018 Grammys, the 2016 BET Awards and MTV Video Music Awards, and the 2021 Billboard Music Awards, to name a few.