Alicia Keys teams up with Professor Yunus and social business

Alicia Keys (right) with Professor Yunus.

Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and twelve-time Grammy Award winner singer Alicia Keys met late September at the Clinton Global Initiative, according to a press release. She has been an admirer of Professor Yunus' work and expressed her interest in collaborating with him to promote social business around the world, focusing particularly in Africa. She met Professor Yunus to discuss her possible role in the social business movement. Professor Yunus suggested that she could be a social business ambassador and the artiste readily agreed. As part of the agreement, she will introduce the concept of social business to her audience during her performances.
Keys' debut album, “Songs in A Minor”, earned her five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for “Fallin.” Her second studio album, “The Diary of Alicia Keys” fetched her additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Her third studio album, “As I Am”, was released in the same year and sold six million copies worldwide, earning Keys three more Grammy Awards. Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards and has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Billboard magazine named her the top R&B artist of the 2000-2009 decade, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artistes of her time. In 2010, VH1 included Keys on its list of the 100 Greatest Artistes of All Time.
Alicia Keys is active in Africa in combating HIV/AIDS. She offered to work with Professor Yunus to launch social business programmes to help the AIDS victims, design and operate special villages for HIV/AIDS patients and their families. These programmes will be launched next year in South Africa and gradually expand in other African countries and India.
Professor Yunus invited Keys to visit Bangladesh. She assured him that she would come to Bangladesh as soon as her schedule permits.