Alicia Keys ‘Didn’t Feel Like Myself’ When She Became Famous: ‘I Had to Conform’

Alicia Keys opens up to PEOPLE in the latest digital cover about how the entertainment world “was like an alien universe” when she first became famous

When Alicia Keys rose to fame, she was just a teenager — and before long, she’d been thrust into a spotlight she wasn’t exactly ready for.

It was 2001 when Keys released her debut album Songs in a Minor, and the album was a smash hit, notching No. 1s like “Fallin’” and earning the star her first five of 16 total Grammy awards, including best new artist.

But Keys, now 44, tells PEOPLE in the latest digital cover that she found the entertainment world difficult to navigate, especially as she struggled with constant acne breakouts.

“I always felt like on top of being a young girl just entering into the music business, exploring, being on television and performing under hot lights and sweating and just [being] in a whole new universe—it was like an alien universe,” she says. “I didn’t feel like myself. I felt like I had to conform to everybody’s expectation of what they thought I was or should be.”

She continues: “And it really took quite a lot of discipline and a lot of time before I got to the place where I realized that I didn’t have to be this person, that I didn’t have to fulfill other people’s dreams of me. I could actually just be who I am.”