![]() John Legend and The Roots’ version of “Wake Up Everybody” was poignant for the day (as is their entire 2010 Wake Up! project if you’ve never listened to it), and it provided another opportunity for Keys and Legend to collaborate, but “A Woman’s Worth” is Keys right in her pocket. John Legend & The Roots’ “Wake Up Everybody” feat. ROUND 11: Alicia Keys’ “A Woman’s Worth” vs. I mean… John’s lovingly awkward two-step aside, do we even have to discuss a round with “Tonight” in it? No, we don’t. John Legend’s “Tonight (Best You Ever Had)” feat. Ludacris ROUND 10: Alicia Keys’ “Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart” vs. “This Time” is a Legend sleeper ballad from the largely slept-on Evolver, but “If I Ain’t Got You” has all the things we love about Alicia: the keys, the lyrics about devotional love, and one of her best uses of her raspy alto. ROUND 9: Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You” vs. (Probably because the lyrics reflect early experience staying in cycles with people they knew they needed to move on from.)īut, Keys’ ode to relationships we have no business being in, the Aubrey Graham co-penned “Un-Thinkable,” is undeniable. In my anecdotal experience, if you poll 20 Black women in their mid-late ‘30s and ask them their favorite John Legend track, a good 15 are going to give “Another Again” as their second choice. ROUND 8: Alicia Keys “Un-thinkable (I’m Ready)” vs. I think they’re songs that nobody turns off or skips, but they don’t exactly go back to listen to them when thinking of these artists either. “Teenage Love Affair” and “Heaven” are both good songs for what they are and encourage some head-nodding when played. ROUND 7: Alicia Keys’ “Teenage Love Affair” vs. Common’s “They Say” still holds up now, but Keys wins out for sentiment. Keys’ 2009 “Empire State of Mind (Part II)” was an appropriate tribute to resiliency and potential for current times, even if some viewers were wondering why she chose her solo version instead of the Jay-Z collaboration (my guess at the answer: piano). ROUND 6: Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down” vs. This round should have been a lock for Keys, but John countered with his 2004 seminal ballad “Ordinary People” and sang live at the piano (Alicia didn’t even get all the way into her verse on “My Boo.”) ![]() ROUND 5: Usher and Alicia Keys’ “My Boo” vs. But John’s move into his wedding song tunes, and again utilizing the piano, gave him an edge. #Alicia keys youtube playlist plus#“I forgot about that one!” is always a plus during a Verzuz event, and part of the reason Swizz and Tim insist that participants have a deep catalogue in the first place. ![]() Alicia wins points for “Gangsta Lovin’” being a somewhat forgotten gem in her arsenal. The songs were too different in this round to easily call a winner. ROUND 4: Eve and Alicia Keys’ “Gangsta Lovin’” vs. On the third round, Keys gets into her hits, but Legend counters with his debut jammy jam from 2004’s Get Lifted. John moved into the “things I did with Kanye” portion of his early catalogue (it’s easy, now, to forget that Legend started as part of Kanye’s G.O.O.D Music camp) with the Slum Village jam “Selfish.” A curious choice despite debuting it at the Grammy’s earlier this year, viewers still don’t know the song that well. Kanye West and John LegendĪlicia started the second round with “Underdog,” a track from her 2020 self-titled album. Much like Kirk Franklin and Fred Hammond’s Healing, Alicia and John joined more as a celebration than a battle, jumping on background vocals for each other’s songs and collaborating on select pieces like their collective welcome for the night’s festivities, a rendition of Bob Marley’s very fitting “Redemption Song.” ![]() In fact, one of the few viral moments was between comedian Tony Baker and Teddy Riley in the Verzuz chat at the very beginning of the evening. #Alicia keys youtube playlist full#This Verzuz wasn’t full of the meme-generating moments, technical difficulties, and quotables that have become the secondary appeal of previous matches. Keys, who has also released new music with her self-titled album earlier this year, was a little less focused in her playlist for the night but covered all bases from big hits to newer cuts. He leaned heavily into his deep discography of features and some uncredited assists fans may not have known of. Legend, whose latest studio LP Bigger Love debuted on Friday, used the occasion to remind viewers-many of which were core Legend fans that have drifted since he’s gone more Adult Contemporary with his music-why they loved him in the first place.
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