Alicia Keys Accidentally Threw the Best Knicks Victory Party

As the Knicks game went into its final seconds on Saturday night, the broadcast naturally played “Empire State of Mind” between plays … per usual. But it was a song selection that hit especially hard while watching the Knicks secure victory on one of the several flatscreens set up at the Tribeca Film Festival’s closing-night party, following the premiere of the Alicia Keys documentary, Girl From Hell’s Kitchen.

During the screening of the film, about a quintessential New York City icon staging a musical about her Hell’s Kitchen upbringing, you could still feel the audience grow antsy as they were forced to miss the first half of the Knicks game to watch the documentary. Even Tribeca founders Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, who introduced the film, acknowledged the less-than-ideal timing. “And while our hearts may be in San Antonio tonight, we are 100 percent here for Alicia Keys,” De Niro said before Rosenthal led the audience in a chant of, “Go New York, go New York, go!” 

Naturally, the second the film ended, the audience — many of whom were clad in blue and orange — jumped at the chance to check in on the game. Though the moderator of the talkback, Mimi Valdés, gave a score update when she took the stage, the crowd was still littered with phones discreetly playing the game as Keys and director One9 discussed the film — which at least fit the night’s theme of New York pride. 

Though the documentary’s primary peg was Keys bringing her semi-autobiographical musical Hell’s Kitchen to Broadway, the film attempted to cover an enormous amount of ground. It sought to paint a detailed, B-roll filled picture of the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood to contextualize the singer’s upbringing. “Hell’s Kitchen is a character … it had to be explained,” Keys said after the screening, as did the Manhattan Plaza subsidized-artist housing where she grew up, and the many other celebrities who once resided there, from Larry David to Timothée Chalamet (and other, non-Knicks figures, of course).

It also delved into her relationship with both of her parents — echoing the stage show itself — and the key role that both Clive Davis and Oprah Winfrey played in launching her career. As you can imagine, Winfrey mouthing along to the lyrics of “Fallin’” during a performance on her talk show was a pivotal endorsement. But given how much the documentary strove to cover, the most compelling parts felt like teases — like her mother’s own stalled show-business dreams and the 13-year process of creating the musical (which we hear about more than see), both of which easily could have been the sole focus. Even still, highlights included her working with Maleah Joi Moon through a challenging part of the cast recording, Keys telling her childhood music teacher Aziza Miller that Kecia Lewis’s character was inspired by her, and the singer’s 9-year-old son, Genesis, filming her on opening night with a camcorder of his own — asking hard-hitting questions like who involved in the musical was bad. He should have been made an executive producer, at least. 

The walk from the theater to the after-party at Capitale on Bowery was a reminder that we were in the midst of a monocultural New York City moment. Bars were overflowing with crowds spilling out into the street, the Empire State Building was lit up in blue and orange, and the game was being projected onto buildings for strangers to congregate around. There couldn’t have been a better scene to step out into after watching a documentary romanticizing the magic of the city. 

Not long after the end of the Knicks’ victory, Keys emerged in a Knicks letterman jacket — starting her performance from the indoor balcony before making her way down to the stage in the center of the party — where she performed songs that she grew up with (Barbra Streisand’s “Memories”) as well as her own hits (“Fallin’” had the whole room singing along like Oprah). But she wasn’t alone, bringing out Nas to perform “N.Y. State of Mind” as well as newly minted Tony-winner Shoshana Bean (who played Jersey, a fictionalized version of Keys’ mother, in Hell’s Kitchen). Somehow making it all the way downtown from her Lost Boys performance at the Palace Theatre, Bean took the stage to blood-curdling screams (mine) as she delivered staggering vocal gymnastics on “Pawn It All” with ease. Nas and Shoshana Bean … together at last.

Finally, the performance ended with what the whole room was holding their breath for — and the song that had been ringing out throughout the entirety of New York City that night — “Empire State of Mind,” introduced via Keys first covering Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” before launching into her own anthem. The elated room sang every single word. “New York City!” she shouted out to the crowd as her Tribeca premiere turned Knicks celebration concluded, “This was a New York moment, never forget it.”