The singer showed off her fresh, bare face while reciting the poem about racial and gender equality during the Sunday night, August 28 event at NYC's Madison Square Garden.
- August 29, 2016
AceShowbiz -
Unlike her fellow musicians, Alicia Keys chose to go make-up free when attending the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. The singer stunned everyone as she showed off her fresh, bare face while walking the Sunday night, August 28 event's red carpet.
Keys still looked flawless, though. Clad in a floor-length red-and-black dress, she's all smiles and appeared confident when she and husband Swizz Beatz posed together for photographers at New York City's Madison Square Garden.
Keys has been make-up free since last May. She explained her decision in an essay posted on Lena Dunham's Lenny Letter. "Every time I left the house, I would be worried if I didn't put on makeup: What if someone wanted a picture?? What if they POSTED it???" she wrote.
"These were the insecure, superficial, but honest thoughts I was thinking. And all of it, one way or another, was based too much on what other people thought of me," she added.
#VMAs: Watch Alicia Keys perform poem to honor anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream Speech" https://t.co/P3hkhhoKsk pic.twitter.com/m2zWkq4xtx
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 29, 2016
In addition to her make-up free face, Keys became one of the highlights of the 2016 MTV VMAs with her tribute to Martin Luther King. In honor of the 53rd anniversary of the famous "I Have a Dream" speech, she recited a poem about racial and gender equality. She also sang it a capella after delivering the first few verses.
"If war is holy and sex is obscene/ Then we got it twisted in this lucid dream/ Baptized in boundaries, schooled in sin/ Divided by difference, sexuality and skin/ So we can fear each other, hate each other," she said.
"We can break these walls/ We can build these walls between each other baby... Or maybe we could love somebody/ Maybe we could care a little more/ Maybe we could love somebody/ Instead of polishing the bombs of holy war," she continued.
"I still believe in that dream that one day our nation is going to rise up and finally, finally be completely about the true meaning of this creed that all women and men are created equal," she said before announcing the winner of Best Male Video.
