Alicia Keys – No One

The Song That Just Wrote Itself

Released on September 10, 2007, “No One” became Alicia Keys’ first solo number one since her 2001 debut “Fallin'” and spent five consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 beginning December 1, preventing Timbaland and OneRepublic’s “Apologize” from reaching the summit. The single also dominated the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for ten consecutive weeks, marking Keys’ return to the top twenty after a three-year absence. What makes this achievement even more remarkable is that Keys described the song as writing itself, one of the last tracks completed for As I Am after she’d already recorded most of the album at her new Oven Studios in Long Island.

The track became the third most successful song of 2008 in both Brazil and the United States, with 3.08 billion listeners on US radio alone, making it the most listened-to song on American radio that year. It topped eleven different Billboard charts including Hot 100 Airplay for fourteen consecutive weeks, the longest run since Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together” spent sixteen weeks at number one in 2005. Internationally, the song reached number one in Croatia, Hungary, and Switzerland, while charting within the top ten in eighteen additional countries. By June 2014, it had sold four million copies in the United States alone, eventually becoming certified diamond in August 2024, her first solo single to achieve that distinction with over ten million equivalent units sold.

Keys co-wrote “No One” with her longtime production partner Kerry “Krucial” Brothers and George M. Harry, a New York producer and mixtape DJ who went by the name DJ Dirty Harry. Brothers had been Keys’ main collaborator since 1998 when they met at Washington Square Park, where she was performing with an R&B ensemble and he was part of the collective Melanin 2000. The two moved in together in Brothers’ Harlem apartment and spent five years developing her sound before releasing Songs in A Minor. For “No One,” Keys later said it felt like divine inspiration, explaining that many songs on the album didn’t happen like that but this one needed to be said. She wanted it to be full force, classical yet vintage, desperate yet triumphant, making people feel her soul.

Recording sessions for As I Am took place at various studios from 2005 until 2007, but the majority of work happened at the Oven Studios, a new facility Keys opened in Long Island with Brothers and chief engineer Ann Mincieli. The studio was designed by renowned architect John Storyk, who had previously designed Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios. Keys played piano, Roland Jupiter-8 synthesizer, vocoder, Mellotron, and programmed the strings herself, while Brothers handled the drum programming. Session musician Steve Mostyn, a longtime Keys collaborator, contributed bass and acoustic guitar. The sparse arrangement featured a music box-like piano line that became instantly recognizable, with Keys holding back on vocal pyrotechnics to let the crisp production lead the way.

“No One” served as the lead single from As I Am, Keys’ third studio album released on November 9, 2007 by J Records. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 742,000 copies in its first week, the largest opening week sales of Keys’ career and the second-largest sales week of 2007. Recording had been interrupted when Keys’ paternal grandmother Vergil DiSalvatore fell terminally ill in 2006, causing Keys to become her primary caregiver. DiSalvatore’s death that year led Keys to reconcile with her estranged father Craig Cook. The album eventually sold seven million copies worldwide and earned triple-platinum certification, spawning three more singles including “Like You’ll Never See Me Again,” which knocked “No One” off the R&B chart after ten weeks, giving Keys seventeen consecutive weeks at number one.

The song has been covered extensively across different genres and platforms. Aretha Franklin recorded a Caribbean-flavored version for her 2014 album Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics, with Keys herself suggesting the reggae approach. The Chipettes performed it with Filipino singer Charice for the 2009 Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel soundtrack, while Prima J created a Spanish version titled “Nadie.” In 2025, Macy Gray released her interpretation as the lead single from Love Songs for Big Hearts and Robots. The song became a staple on talent competition shows, with performances on American Idol, The Voice, and a memorable rendition by ten-year-old Natalie Okri on Britain’s Got Talent that earned a standing ovation. Electronic duo Odesza sampled it for their 2012 track “Above The Middle,” while rapper Toosii loosely covered it in 2019.

At the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in 2008, Keys won both her nominations for the song, taking home Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song, bringing her career total to eleven Grammys. The track also earned the People’s Choice Award for Favorite R&B Song and two ASCAP Awards for songwriting. Keys gave the song a massive promotional push, performing different versions at virtually every awards show. At the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, she transitioned from “No One” into George Michael’s “Freedom ’90,” while at the American Music Awards she performed with dancehall legends Junior Reid, Beenie Man, and Chaka Demus and Pliers. Looking back, Keys told Billboard the song is there for us when we need it most, and singing it together all over the world is magical each and every time. That simple sentiment captures why this song endures, a reminder that no external force can diminish what two people build together when they truly connect.