Today is Alicia Keys’ birthday and in the spirit of this special occasion, we should all avoid pointing out exactly how shaky she sounded during a Los Premios 40 Principales concert in Madrid, Spain last evening. So, as you watch her performances, I want you to think of at least one good thing to say.

At this point we all know that Alicia Keys doesn’t really sing; she simply yells and hopes that the notes happen to land in the right key. In fact, that’s exactly what she did when she performed at the Commander-In-Chief Ball this evening and luckily, it generally worked in her favour.

Five years ago, if it was suggested that Rihanna would eventually sound better than Alicia Keys live, the person making that assumption would have been stoned. However, that is exactly happened throughout 2012, at least until yesterday’s episode of La Meilleure Chanson de L’annee.