Watch: Alicia Keys Plays Intimate Concert in the Desert to Launch Partnership With Hennessy Paradis

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Alicia Keys kicked off a new partnership with Hennessy Paradis Tuesday, with a private concert and dinner in Joshua Tree, California.

Held at the famed Kellogg Doolittle House, the intimate event saw Keys perform a 20-minute set of her greatest hits, against a backdrop of rolling boulders and starlit desert skies. It was the perfect setting to launch her new Hennessy campaign, appropriately dubbed “Paradis(e) Is On Earth.”

Keys is the first-ever female brand partner of Paradis, which is considered one of the finest cognacs in the luxury spirits space and the “crown jewel” of the Hennessy portfolio. Executives for the brand say the partnership was especially felicitous as Hennesy Paradis’ sixth-generation Master Blender Maurice Fillioux de Gironde used music as his inspiration in creating the “melodic blend” of the Maison’s rarest eaux-de-vie. 

As part of the new partnership, Keys appears alongside renowned pianist Lang Lang in a new global campaign for Hennessy Paradis, which finds the two artists playing dueling pianos high atop Utah’s Paradise Canyon.

An accompanying press release calls the two artists “modern day conductors,” adding that the campaign video “explores the meeting of minds between the virtuoso talents, who share values of culture and beauty exemplified through emotion, sensation, and contemplation.”

The campaign video was first screened for guests at the event on Tuesday, which began with sunset drinks at the Kellogg Doolittle House, a sculptural Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired residence designed by architect Kendrick Bangs Kellogg in the 1980s.

Guests were then escorted to a open courtyard, where Keys performed a five-song set of fan favorites, including “Empire State of Mind,” “Like You’ll Never See Me Again” and “If I Ain’t Got You,” the latter of which had guests like Troye Sivan, Moses Sumney and Gabrielle Union singing along in the crowd.

Standing at a grand piano and accompanied by the violinist Sherie, Keys opened her set with her cover of Prince’s “How Come You Don’t Call Me,” which she first covered on her debut album, Songs in A Minor.

Buy Hennessy Paradis $1299

Created in 1979, Hennessy Paradis is a French cognac made from 100 eaux-de-vie (a category of fine brandy that translates to “water of life”) aged for up to 130 years. At once delicate and complex, notes of cardamom, rose petals, silky honey and dried fruit combine to create a truly harmonious blend as elegant as the hand-shaped bottle Paradis comes in.

Hennessy Paradis is available at fine liquor stores across the country. You can also order a bottle online.