Alicia Keys Scores First Diamond Certification For “Empire State Of Mind”
Alicia Keys is officially a diamond-certified artist per the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
As of Wednesday (July 24), “Empire State Of Mind,” her collaboration with JAY-Z, earned its Diamond certification with over 10 million units sold since its release in 2009.
Keys celebrated by tweeting, “Empire is diamond!!!!!!!!,” as Roc Nation made the formal announcement.
This marks Keys’ first Diamond single and Hov’s third. His first came in 2023 with his Kanye West collab, “N***as In Paris” from their 2011 joint album, Watch The Throne. His second came back in May when Rihanna’s “Umbrella” achieved the feat.
Just last month, the record acquired over one billion streams and the pair reunited to perform it at the 2024 Tony Awards.
“1 Dream. 1 Song. 1 Billion streams. Thank you! We love you. What’s next….,” Keys teased ahead of the surprise performance.
When speaking on the New York City pride the single exudes and initial reservations about releasing it, Keys told Billboard in 2017, “When we first finished ‘Empire,’ we all wondered if it would be too ‘New York.’ We wondered if everyone would be able to understand it. Little did we know EVERYONE would understand it because it’s not just about New York, it’s about the HOPE that New York represents; the possibility. The chance to follow your dreams no matter who you are or where you come from.”
“Empire State of Mind” spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2009, and has since become one of the biggest records within their respective discographies.
Back in 2021 during her appearance on Drink Champs, she confessed that the collab nearly didn’t happen.
“In this particular case, [JAY-Z] had the record. He was reaching out to me to do the record for a minute. And for whatever reason, the people that represented me did not tell me about the record,” Keys explained. “I don’t know why […] Could you imagine if ‘Empire’ never got to me?”
Then while recording her verse, the Hell’s Kitchen native reflected on how the song itself wasn’t coming together either. “The first time I recorded it in L.A., the s**t just didn’t work. I thought it sounded good but [JAY-Z] called me and was like, ‘You think you can do them vocals again?’ I was like, what? What’s wrong with my vocals? My vocals are fresh. But to be honest and to be fair, I was sick. And you could kind of hear it. I went back in, I did it in New York, the energy was right. You can’t do a New York record in L.A. That’s just wrong.”
She later went on to record an acoustic version of “Empire State Of Mind” for her album, The Element Of Freedom.