Alicia Keys delivered a beautiful medley of her hits for Queen Elizabeth at the Platinum Jubilee "Party at the Palace" in London over the weekend. Unfortunately, some critics felt some type of way after she performed songs about her hometown of New York City. Now the singer has confirmed who actually picked out her set list.
On Tuesday, June 7, Alicia Keys posted a visual recap of her time in London before and after her performance at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee "Party at the Palace." In the video, we can see Keys on a golf cart with her sons Egypt and Genesis as she tells them that the Queen is the one who picked the songs for her set.
"Telling the boys that the Queen requested the songs that I'm singing, and they were like 'You can't refuse the Queen'," Keys says in the video.
"You can't refuse the Queen," Egypt replies. "It's against the law here. Seriously!"
Keys posted the video not long after she received backlash online for performing songs like "City Of Gods" and "Empire State of Mind" during the Queen's celebration in London. She started off with a remarkable rendition of her hits like "Superwoman" and "Girl On Fire" with the support of a live orchestra behind her. Then she segued into her latest single "City Of Gods" and "Empire State of Mind." Both songs are essentially odes to her birthplace of New York City, however, Keys switched up the locations to say "London" in the chorus towards the end.
That didn't seem to matter to citizens of England who were watching at home. The singer was met with harsh criticism online from those who felt like it wasn't the place to perform either songs. Hopefully, her critics will now understand that her orders came straight from the Queen herself. Keys also emphasized that fact in her Instagram caption.
"Every song was requested personally by the Queen Even EMPIRE!! Big lovvveeee!!!!!" Keys wrote.
Watch Alicia Keys' set at the Platinum Jubilee "Party at the Palace" below.