Alicia Keys Accidentally Threw the Best Knicks Victory Party

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With the Knicks game nearing its end Saturday night, the familiar song “Empire State of Mind” played during breaks in the action, as is typical. The song felt particularly meaningful while watching the Knicks win on one of the many TVs at the Tribeca Film Festival’s closing-night party, which followed the premiere of the Alicia Keys documentary, Girl From Hell’s Kitchen.

At the Alicia Keys documentary screening during the Tribeca Film Festival, the audience was noticeably restless, as the event overlapped with the first half of a New York Knicks game. Even the festival founders, Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, recognized the unfortunate timing. De Niro jokingly mentioned their hearts were with the San Antonio team, but they were fully supporting Alicia Keys. Rosenthal then led the crowd in a cheer for New York.

As soon as the movie finished, everyone – so many people were decked out in blue and orange! – immediately reached for their phones to see how the game was going. Mimi Valdés, who was leading the discussion afterward, did give us a quick score update when she came on stage, but you could still see phones popping up everywhere as Keys and the director talked about the film. It actually made sense though, given the whole night was about celebrating New York!

The documentary followed Alicia Keys as she brought her musical, Hell’s Kitchen, which is inspired by her life story, to Broadway. But the film also tried to do a lot more – it aimed to show viewers what growing up in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood was like, using plenty of visual footage and background information. As Keys explained after a showing, understanding the neighborhood itself was important to understanding her story. The documentary also explored Manhattan Plaza, the affordable housing complex where she spent her childhood, and highlighted some of the other famous people who have lived there, including Larry David and Timothée Chalamet (and many others besides basketball players!).

The documentary also explored Alicia Keys’ relationships with her parents, mirroring the themes of her stage show. It highlighted the significant impact Clive Davis and Oprah Winfrey had on launching her career, with Winfrey’s enthusiastic support during a performance of “Fallin’” being a key moment. However, because the film tried to cover so much ground, some of the most interesting stories – like her mother’s unfulfilled ambitions and the 13-year journey of creating the musical – felt underdeveloped and could have been entire films themselves. Standout moments included Keys working through difficulties with cast member Maleah Joi Moon during recording, telling her former teacher Aziza Miller that Kecia Lewis’s character was inspired by her, and her nine-year-old son, Genesis, documenting opening night with a camcorder, even playfully grilling the cast and crew about who wasn’t performing well – he definitely deserved to be an executive producer!

Walking from the theater to the after-party at Capitale, it really felt like everyone in New York City was experiencing the same thing at once. The bars were packed, people filled the streets, the Empire State Building glowed with blue and orange lights, and buildings were showing the game, bringing strangers together. It was the perfect atmosphere to walk into after seeing a film that celebrated the city’s charm.

Shortly after the Knicks won their game, Alicia Keys appeared wearing a team jacket. She began her performance from an upper balcony before coming down to the main stage, where she sang both classic songs like Barbra Streisand’s “Memories” and her own popular hits—including “Fallin’” which everyone enthusiastically sang along to. She wasn’t the only performer; she brought out Nas to perform “N.Y. State of Mind,” and Shoshana Bean, a recent Tony Award winner who portrayed Keys’ mother in the musical Hell’s Kitchen. Despite just finishing a performance in Lost Boys at the Palace Theatre, Bean joined Keys on stage and wowed the crowd with an incredible rendition of “Pawn It All.” The collaboration between Nas and Shoshana Bean was a particularly exciting moment.

The performance reached its peak with the song everyone had been waiting for – “Empire State of Mind,” which filled all of New York City that night. Alicia Keys began by playing Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” before transitioning into her own hit song. The excited audience sang along to every word. As the event, starting as a Tribeca premiere and ending like a Knicks celebration, came to a close, she shouted, “New York City! This was a New York moment – never forget it!”

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2026-06-15 17:55