Alicia Keys Connects With Past Self in New ‘The River’ Music Video

Alicia Keys released her new “The River” music video ahead of the H*ll’s Kitchen Musical: Deluxe Edition release.

The multi-Grammy Award-winning musician, Alicia Keys, created one of Broadway’s best recent jukebox musicals, H*ll’s Kitchen. The musical earned two Tony Awards at last year’s ceremony for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical and Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical.

The “Empire State of Mind” singer loosely based the coming-of-age musical on her life. The musical centers on 17-year-old Ali as she works through romantic and mother-daughter dynamics. Ali navigates the messiness of being a teenager while discovering her identity and love for the piano.

The musical has been highly praised, and a deluxe edition of the soundtrack was released this week. Before the deluxe’s release, Keys released the new “The River” music video, in which she sings alongside the new Ali actress, Amanda Reid.

Keys wrote about the new music video on Instagram, sharing, “I love this song so much! It speaks to finding your freedom. A conversation between future self and past self.”

The music video is an emotional ballad between the now highly successful Keys and Reid, portraying a teenage version of herself, seeking to make her own path while still a child, especially in her mother’s eyes.

Although Hell’s Kitchen is a jukebox musical, Keys reinvents fan favorites for the story and introduces several new tracks, including “Kaleidoscope.”

In an interview with CBS, the “Girl on Fire” singer stated, “The music was intentionally done to really weave through it in a way quite unexpected. I think you hear a lot of the songs—there are many new songs that I wrote specifically for this—and some of the songs that maybe you’re hoping to hear, that you know you’re hearing them for sure in a way you never heard them before. I know that because as the songwriter, I never heard them like this before, and so a lot of times as we were putting the songs together, I would say, ‘wow, what made me not think about doing this song like this ever in my life?’”

“There are some very special moments that come as big surprises because they’re not done in a way you expect them to be. So, the new music is just as dynamic, and it’s really exciting to be able to introduce new songs through this medium,” Keys continued.

You can check out Alicia Keys’ new “The River” music video off the H*ll’s Kitchen Musical: Deluxe Edition below.