Monday, February 18, 2013 11:08am ET by  
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Alicia Keys: "Singing live is my style"

International songstress Alicia Keys says singing live is what defines "her style".

The soulful singer wowed with a live performance of Girl on Fire at US President Barack Obama's second inauguration ball - the same day Beyoncé was slammed for using a pre-recorded track to perform America's national anthem.

Keys insists that singing live is her first love.

She explained to The Telegraph: "That's my style and that's what I love. Even when I'm singing on a record there's a lot of times when I'll fight for a bit of imperfection. I might not have quite hit the note to the perfect pitch but there was a soul in there and feeling that, to me, delivers the emotion of that moment.

She added: "For me, doing a show, the excitement of singing live, and the possibility that you're not gonna be perfect ' that's the thrill of it."

Keys weighed in on the speculation surrounding Beyoncé's controversial inauguration performance last month before the global superstar admitted that the performance wasn't live.

She defended Beyoncé's undeniable vocal ability, gushing: "What I do know is that Beyonce is a great performer and she's an incredible artist with a really, really powerful voice. The one thing that you cannot doubt is that she can sing. She absolutely can sing.

"All the rest of the 'whys' or 'whatever', we know that she can deliver and she did deliver that song really beautifully."

 

 

 

 

Watch Keys' inauguration performance here: