Many took to Twitter to praise Keys for her attitude – but others commented on her appearance, pointing out that she, unlike fellow judge Miley Cyrus, wasn’t wearing any makeup for the show.

However, this should have come as no surprise to the Girl on Fire’s loyal fans, as the singer has made no secret of the fact that she believes makeup erodes self-esteem.

In fact, she recently penned a powerful essay explaining why she believes it’s time for women to ‘uncover up’.

“We all get to a point in our lives (especially girls) where we try to be perfect,” Keys wrote in Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner’s feminist newsletter, Lenny.

This usually happens in school, she continued, when young girls are placed under intense pressure to conform to the world’s narrow beauty standards. Whether this is having your “unique hair” laughed at, so that you brush it into a tight bun, or coming face-to-face with schoolgirls in makeup for the first time, it all amounts to one thing: “hiding a piece of who you are in order to fit into a picture of what others seem to see as perfection.”

And once the 35-year-old first established herself in “the harsh world of entertainment” fifteen years ago, the pressure to “cover up” increased. “Everyone had something to say” about her appearance, she said.

Slowly, over time, her self-esteem became more and more damaged, forcing her to become a “chameleon… constantly changing so all the ‘they’s’ would accept me.”

Alicia Keys' empowering #nomakeup revolution: “I don’t want to cover up anymore”