No one can take credit for Alicia Keys’ talented voice except Keys herself. But her mastery of piano? That credit goes to her mother, Terria Joseph. According to Smithsonian Magazine, Joseph, born Terria Augello, moved from Ohio to New York City to pursue her dream of being an actress. During a brief relationship with Craig Cook, who was a flight attendant, she got pregnant and gave birth to her first and only child on Jan. 25, 1981.

Keys told O Magazine in a 2004 interview that her mother and father were “never really together” and that Joseph worked two or three jobs to make ends meet and help her daughter pursue her dreams. The Scottish-Italian single mom enrolled the “Diary” singer in piano lessons when she was 7. Even when Keys begged her to drop the lessons because they didn't have much money, Joseph refused.