Alicia Keys has removed the word 'perfect' from her vocabulary

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The 40-year-old star felt under pressure to present a perfect image of herself early in her career, but Alicia now believes that being "perfectly imperfect is the magic".

She shared: "I did feel like I automatically had to be perfect. I felt like somehow I had to be this image or this perfection that people expected of me."

However, the 'If I Ain't Got You' hitmaker admits that her outlook has changed over recent years.

Speaking during TIME magazine's Voices of the Future Women's Summit on Monday (08.03.21), Alicia explained: "I've actually decided to remove the word 'perfect' from my vocabulary 'cause I think it's detrimental ... And so being perfectly imperfect is the magic, and now I know that."

Alicia previously admitted to suppressing some aspects of her personality as her profile increased.

She said: "I'm not as comfortable [with] the parts that are very vulnerable or even angry.

"Anger is not an emotion that I'm very in touch with, and I realised that that's because my mother has always had a really big, strong personality. Because of that I've always kind of had to manage her emotions and be the peacekeeper. And so I got used to that."

Alicia signed her first recording contract when she was just 15 years old. However, she's always felt like an "outsider" in the music business.

She explained: "I have felt like an outsider.

"I think I learned along the way how to fit into multiple circumstances in different places, different spaces, different people. But I always felt like I was from another planet or another time, and I didn't really belong here."