Alicia Keys recently had the un-thinkable happen during one of her concerts.
The impromptu moment occurred when the Grammy-award winner performed her hit, "Empire State of Mind," at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Aug. 29. While walking through the crowd as she continued to sing, one fan decided to grab the singer and kiss her on the cheek—which, as seen in a clip shared to social media—led to an understandably stunned reaction.
Now, days later, Alicia is speaking out about her initial thought process at that very moment. "Trust me, I was like what the F--K!!!!!!!!," she commented on Hollywood Unlocked's Instagram page showcasing the video on Aug. 31. "Don't she know what time it is???"
After the video made its way to social media, other fans weighed in on the exchange.
"Immediately no," one person wrote. Another added, "Rescue herrr." While a third commented, "Every time she sings this song, someone does something inappropriate."
It's worth noting that this isn't the first time Alicia has had to go with the flow when her onstage rendition of "Empire State of Mind" didn't go exactly as originally planned.
As a refresher, during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Lil Mama abruptly joined Jay-Z and Alicia onstage as they performed their song, striking a pose toward the end of the duo's performance. And to many fans' surprise, late last year, Alicia revealed that she had no idea what was happening on that stage at the time.
"Basically, I remember absolutely nothing," she told Complex News in a December 2021 interview. "I think I was so focused on performing. Because when you perform, it's a lot. You gotta hit it. You gotta nail it. You gotta kill it. It has to be perfect."
But for Alicia, that moment with Lil Mama is just considered an old memory.
"That was then. You know, she's from New York, too," Alicia said on The Morning Hustle Show in October 2021. "You know, I think she really felt the energy of the record and she loved it and she couldn't hold herself back. Look, this is what my music does to people. What can we say?"