Alicia Keys was reportedly “sweating bullets” while her son was bidding on prizes at a gala dinner recently.
The Girl on Fire singer has four-year-old Cyrus with husband Swizz Beatz and the star took him along to the Harlem School of the Arts 50th anniversary gala on Monday night (05Oct15). The little boy soon got into the auction, bidding $8,500 on a private gumbo dinner with the executive chef of The Cecil and Minton’s jazz club in Harlem. Alicia realised Cyrus was legitimately bidding when auctioneer CK Swett asked if he was five.
“No, he’s four!” she laughed, according to Page Six, before CK told Cyrus: “Your mom was sweating bullets there for a second.”
The family missed out on the dinner but Alicia encouraged her boy to keep raising his paddle to secure them a trip to a private resort on Guana Island in the British Virgin Islands. Alicia paid $21,000 for the vacation and helped raise over $1 million for HSA students.
It was a big night for the 34-year-old, as she was also honoured at the event which took place at the Plaza Hotel in New York, with her mother Terria Joseph in attendance. Alicia took the chance to thank her parent for giving her the foundations to build her music career.
“I can only say, ‘Thank you,’ and it will never ever be enough,” she gushed. “I want to thank her for all the Sundays she played Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington... I want to thank her for being my mother, my father, my best friend and my biggest fan even when nobody knew about me... Without her, there would be no me... I love you mama.”
Cicely Tyson, Kehinde Wiley, opera singer Jessye Norman and Steinway & Sons were also honoured at the gala.
