Alicia Keys is one of the most talented and decorated women in R&B history. To celebrate her on her 42nd birthday, we put together a gallery of photos to highlight her beauty. Click inside to check it out!

Alicia Augello Cook was born in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. From a very early age, she loved music and singing. She found her love for the piano at six years old and started receiving classical piano training by age seven. Cook enrolled in the Professional Performing Arts School at the age of 12, where she took music, dance, and theater classes and majored in choir. She would go on to be signed by Columbia Records when she was 15. As time progressed, she continued to master her crafts, learning how to produce and engineer her own music. After disputes with Columbia and a brief stint with Arista Records, Cook ended up with J Records where she would release her critically acclaimed debut album Songs in A Minor in 2001.

With nine albums under her belt (with the most recent dropping in November of last year), she has sold over 90 million records worldwide, making her one of the world’s best-selling music artists. Some of her other accolades include being named by Billboard as the R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Decade (2000s), 15 Grammy Awards, 17 NAACP Image Awards, 12 ASCAP Awards, and an award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and National Music Publishers Association. She is also lauded for her philanthropy, humanitarian work and activism. She has been awarded Ambassador of Conscience by Amnesty International and also serves as the Global Ambassador of the nonprofit HIV/AIDS-fighting organization Keep a Child Alive (which she co-founded). She has starred and made cameos in countless movies and commercials. If all this isn’t enough, she is still a devoted wife and mother.

She was definitely on to something when she said ‘This girl is on fire.’ We’ve been extremely blessed to be able to witness the greatness of Alicia Keys over the years. To celebrate her 42 years of life, enjoy a gallery of her most beautiful photos!