Songs in A Minor is the debut studio album by American singer and songwriter Alicia Keys, released on June 12, 2001, by J Records.

[15][18] She recorded the songs "Rock wit U" and "Rear View Mirror", which were featured on the soundtracks to the films Shaft (2000) and Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), respectively.

described the music as "old-school urban sounds and attitude set against a backdrop of classical piano and sweet, warm vocals".

[25] USA Today's Steve Jones wrote that Keys "taps into the blues, soul, jazz and even classical music to propel haunting melodies and hard-driving funk".

Music called the album "a gorgeous and ambitious melding of classic soul structures and values to hyper-modern production technique".

[27] The album's opening track, "Piano & I", begins with a rendition of Ludwig van Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, combined with a hip hop beat.

[13][30] The music critic for PopMatters felt that the song was credible, but fell short from the original and Stephanie Mills's 1980s cover.

[32] "A Woman's Worth", the second single released from the album, is a "gospel-tinged"[33] song that recommends that men show respect to their female partners.

[33] "Mr. Man" contains elements of Latin American music[33] and was described as a "sexy and soulful duet", in which Jimmy Cozier "adds his spice".

[34] The album ends with the hidden track "Lovin' U", which Christian Ward of NME compared to works of the musical group the Supremes.

[33] In advance of Songs in A Minor, "Girlfriend" was serviced to urban contemporary radio as a promotional single in early 2001 to "introduce" Keys to the general public.

Davis also wrote a letter to Oprah Winfrey, asking her to allow Keys, along with Jill Scott and India Arie, to perform on her show.

At the BET Awards 2011 on June 26, Keys performed a medley of songs, including "Typewriter", "A Woman's Worth" with Bruno Mars and "Maybach Music" with Rick Ross and "Fallin'".

On June 28, Keys performed "Fallin'", "Butterflyz" and "Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down" on Good Morning America.

"[40][42] To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Songs in A Minor, the album was yet again re-released on June 4, 2021, with four bonus tracks, including the previously unreleased "Foolish Heart" and "Crazy (Mi Corazon)".

[37][46] It became the most played song in the United States at the time and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

[57] Its plot continues from the video for "Fallin'", which revolves around Keys' travel to her imprisoned boyfriend, and picks up where it left, depicting his release from prison and tries to acclimate to society.

[62] Reviewing the album in NME, Sam Faulkner described the balance between contemporary music and retrospective as "an act of pure genius".

[26] The Washington Post's Richard Harrington wrote favorably of Keys' musical influences on the album and expressed that she has "vocal maturity and writing instincts beyond her years".

[71] PopMatters critic Mark Anthony Neal praised Keys' performance on the album and called it "a distinct and oft-times brilliant debut from an artist who clearly has a fine sense of her creative talents".

[13] Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice, said that the "grace and grit" of the first half warrant the "auspicious debut" label and that, after some "bores that threaten to sink the project midway through," Keys sustains the album with the songs at the end.

[63][68] The New Zealand Herald's Russell Baillie stated that Keys "might indicate abundant talent aligned to neatly reverential vintage soul style", but expressed that the songs "don't add up to anything particularly memorable".

[31] Rolling Stone's Barry Walters perceived her singing as more mature than her songwriting, but commended Keys for her "commanding presence" on the album.

[64] In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine perceived the album's music as "rich enough to compensate for some thinness in the writing" and called it "a startling assured, successful debut that deserved its immediate acclaim and is already aging nicely".

[63] Barry Walters wrote in a later article for Rolling Stone, "the album has aged well – excepting a drum-machine beat or two, it feels timeless.

"[73] In the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2011), Colin Larkin said Keys had fused urban R&B, hip hop, and blues on what he called "a minor classic of modern soul".