Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats attended the Gotham Magazine Annual Gala presented by Bing at Capitale on March 15, 2010 in New York City.

Singer Alicia joins previous announcements Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, Cheryl Cole, Lily Allen, Kasabian, JLS, Robbie Williams and the collaboration of Dizzee Rascal and Florence And The Machine.

Ged Doherty, chairman of the Brits Committee, said: “Alicia is a fantastic addition to the show, I can’t wait to see her and Jay-Z perform one of the biggest songs of the year.”

The Brits take place on February 16 at London’s Earls Court Arena and will be shown live on ITV1 from 8pm.

The show will be hosted by funnyman Peter Kay with support from presenters Dame Shirley Bassey, Courtney Love, Cat Deeley and Andy Serkis.

US singer-songwriter Alicia topped the UK album charts for the first time on Monday with The Element Of Freedom.

She last performed at the Brits in 2004.

The two-hour television program, which taped in New York, Los Angeles and London, is intended to raise money for victims of the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake, which by some estimates has killed as many as 200,000 people.

“Why? That’s the question so many of you are asking,” said telethon co-host George Clooney. “Why should be give more? Why should we believe our help can re-build a country where 80 percent of its people live on less than $2 a day, more than 3 million go without clean water and 1 in 3 children dies before the age of 5. If Haiti struggled so much before, then why should we have faith that we can make a difference now. This is a tragedy that reaches across all borders, all boundaries and demands our attention, our help and our compassion as fellow beings. … This is an opportunity to help a neighbor in desperate need and to do it with swiftness, expertise, generosity and love that resides in the best of who we are.”

“My country is in great pain and I know you can help,” Haitian singer and telethon co-host Wyclef Jean said later in the evening. “From the ashes we shall rise, so please give what you can.”

Jack Nicholson, Ringo Starr, Tobey Maguire, Robin Williams, Meg Ryan, Colin Farrell, Chevy Chase, Emily Blunt, Jack Black, Tim Robbins, Steven Spielberg, Ellen DeGeneres, Mel Gibson, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Billy Crystal, Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, John Krasinski, Samuel L. Jackson and Andy Garcia were seen answering phones to accept pledges from callers.

Musical performers included Coldplay, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Shakira, John Legend, Taylor Swift, Christina Aguilera, Sting, Beyonce, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban, Kid Rock, Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Jennifer Hudson.

Jay-Z, Rihanna, Bono and The Edge debuted a song they composed about the disaster, promising Haiti “we’re not going to leave you stranded.”

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Halle Berry, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jon Stewart, Nicole Kidman, Robert Pattinson, Morgan Freeman, Clint Eastwood, Matt Damon, Ben Stiller, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington were among the stars who related some of the heart-breaking and heroic stories from Haiti since the earthquake throughout the telethon.

The celebrities will join the kids to participate in charity work as per their own charity interests. Keys will hand an award to a person charity involved in an AIDS education organization.

Meanwhile, Panettiere, who is an animal rights activist, will work with a volunteer for an ocean research advocacy group.

Also, Timberlake will team up with the founder of a scoliosis education support group.

Mariah Carey’s husband Nick Cannon, who serves as the chairman of Nickelodeon’s TeenNick network, helped initiate the awards.

“One person can make a difference, and it’s my hope that this special will encourage ongoing activism and inspire a new generation of leaders,” Contactmusic quoted him as saying.

The awards will be aired on U.S. TV’s TeenNick on 11 December 2009.

Keys took questions from students — aspiring songwriters — and then put on a half hour show with her full band at NYU’s Skirball Center. Her set included two songs from her forthcoming December album, set to be called “The Element of Freedom.” The first single, “Doesn’t Mean Anything,” is great but sounds slightly like her other big hit, “No One.” That’s fine. But a new song, called “Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart,” has all the earmarks of a smash. You heard it here first. Or rather, the 800 or so people at the Skirball heard it first. This is a song we’re going to be hearing through all of 2010 and right until the Grammys in 2011.

The other songs in her set were just the hits: “Fallin’,” “You Don’t Know My Name,” and “If I Ain’t Got You.” Keys is without a doubt the music star of her generation, a true phenomenon.

Keys told MTV interviewer Sway, who emceed, about her college days: “The only person you can shortchange is yourself,” she advised the students. “I will never forget trying to balance everything. It’s just about choices, you have to make choices.”

Keys said the making of her “As I Am” album two years was very difficult because she was dealing with personnel changes. “I kind of had to find the snakes in the grass,” she revealed —although she’s still with longtime manager Jeff Robinson and J Records, so the snakes, we surmise, were personal. “It’s hard to be the one to change, to end relationships you had for years. I was really trying to find myself. I tend to be a very optimistic person, but I was snappy, and mean. My grandmother was very sick, I was watching her pass away and taking care of her. I was just very, very confused. [Making the record] was very, very difficult for me.”

She overcame it, though. Keys, by the way, named writer-producer Linda Perry as one of her favorite collaborators. And she lavished praise on Stevie Wonder as her musical hero. When asked for tips about how to write a hit song, Keys sang a couple of lines from Bill Withers‘ classic, “Ain’t No Sunshine.” “Just keep it simple,” she advised. “Every time I go into the studio, I don’t know what to do. I say Alright, how I do this again? Part of songwriting is the journey.”

While a-list celebs are currently clogging Salzburg’s city centre for the Salzburger Festspiele (Salzburg Festival), the American singer was spotted doing some rounds on the racing track in the countryside in Lamborghini and Maserati racing cars after an invitation from Austrian car dealer Richard Karner.

The “Fallin’” singer flew in by private jet from her holiday resort in St. Tropez, France.

Walter and Robert Lechner introduced the star to the expensive cars before Keys went on the track. The owners of the Lechner Racing School afterwards said the 28-year-old was a very friendly but also talented student.

Credit: INFDaily.com

Other Mandela pairings include performances by Will.i.am with Jesse McCartney, and Alicia Keys alongside Angelique Kidjo. Stevie Wonder, T-Pain, Queen Latifah, Wyclef Jean, Gloria Gaynor and the Soweto Gospel Choir are also set to take the stage.