Alicia Keys goes make-up free at VMAs as she honours MLK

Singer Alicia Keys chose to go make-up free at

MTV

Video

Music

Awards as she honoured

Martin Luther King

with a poem about racial and gender equality.

Clad in a floor-length red-and-black dress,

Keys

was all smiles and appeared confident when she and husband Swizz Beatz posed together for photographers at New York City's Madison Square Garden.


In addition to her make-up free face, Keys became one of the highlights of the 2016 MTV VMAs with her tribute to

Martin Luther

King. In honour of the 53rd anniversary of the famous 'I Have a Dream' speech, she recited a poem about racial and gender equality. She also sang it a capella after delivering the first few verses.

Listen to the songs of Alicia Keys on Gaana.com

Keys has been make-up free since last May. She explained her decision in an essay posted on Lena Dunham's Lenny Letter. "Every time I left the house, I would be worried if I didn't put on makeup: What if someone wanted a picture?? What if they POSTED it," she wrote.

"These were the insecure, superficial, but honest thoughts I was thinking. And all of it, one way or another, was based too much on what other people thought of me," she added.