Alicia Keys Celebrates Her Birthday With New Song “That’s What’s Up”

Alicia Keys celebrates her 35th birthday today (January 25) and decided to mark the occasion by dropping a surprise song. A sprawling gospel anthem with an uplifting message, “That’s What’s Up” is available to download for free from the R&B icon’s SoundCloud. And as with much of Here, it’s a little rough around the edges and takes a couple of listens to fully process. “You want me to give you a testimony about my life and how good he’s been to me,” she begins over signature piano keys. “I don’t know what to tell you about him. I love him so much with all my heart and soul.”

Things then get a little funky (Alicia’s still on her ’70s Stevie Wonder bent) and the track shuffles along with little asides and adoring declarations. This is shaping up to be an interesting era for the Grammy favorite. None of the songs from Here have connected on radio, although “In Common” is a smash that went begging, and there aren’t a lot of obvious singles left. However, the album works as a larger body of work that sets an unusual tone and shows that there’s more to the Alicia than soaring piano ballads. Listen to her latest below.

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