Alicia Keys “freaked out” after her musical Hell’s Kitchen received 13 Tony Award nominations on Tuesday.
The Broadway production, which is inspired by the singer’s upbringing in New York City’s neighbourhood Hell’s Kitchen, became the most-nominated musical of the year when the shortlist was unveiled on Tuesday.
Reacting to the news, Keys told The Hollywood Reporter, “I kind of lost it, kind of freaked out, and I was super excited, particularly that all of the collaborators on this project are seeing so much love and so much greatness for their brilliance. I’m so excited for everybody and for Hell’s Kitchen. It’s just like, ‘Whoa!'”
The Fallin’ hitmaker spent 13 years working on the production, which features some of her biggest hits like Empire State of Mind and Girl on Fire as well as new songs. Keys wrote the score and arranged the music.
The show’s nominations included Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, and acting nods for performers Maleah Joi Moon, Shoshana Bean, Kecia Lewis, and Brandon Victor Dixon.
Keys is personally only nominated for Best Musical as her company, AK Worldwide Media, Inc., is listed as one of the producers of Hell’s Kitchen.
The singer also posted a video on Instagram showing her, her husband Swizz Beatz and their sons Genesis and Egypt celebrating the nominations at home. Another video clip showed her popping a bottle of Champagne in celebration.
She captioned the post, “13 TONY Nominations is worthy of popping a bottle at 7am (mind blown emojis).”
