Prelude to a Kiss

Album: As I Am (2007)
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Songfacts®:

  • This piano-driven number was written, produced and arranged by New York-bred R&B singer-songwriter Alicia Keys. It's the twelfth track on her third studio album, As I Am.
  • Keys wrote this ballad as a result of meeting children surviving in difficult circumstances whilst traveling in Africa. The song is a cry for help from someone who is feeling "heavy-hearted" asking for "an angel, to guide me."
  • Keys performed this as the opening number on the charity telethon, Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief that was held on January 22, 2010.
  • This is an entirely difficult song to the 1938 Duke Ellington tune of the same title.

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