BlackBerry announces Alicia Keys as ‘Global Creative Director’

BlackBerry has announced a new position, Global Creative Director, and hired its own in-house celebrity to fill the role: Alicia Keys. Keys was apparently chosen for renewing her “long-term relationship” with BlackBerry after straying during its bling-less doldrums, as she illustrated with a long anecdote about her romance with the newly “fly” platform. Though Keys says she’ll be working closely with BlackBerry developers and is “fascinated by technology,” her role is more similar to that of another celebrity: Will.i.am, who was previously named Director of Creative Innovation of Intel. All in all, it’s quite the turnaround from calling herself an “iPhone junky” last year — how the heart does wander.

BlackBerry is also trying to pull in some other big names: Neil Gaiman and Robert Rodriguez (referred to as the “world’s most inspirational people”) will be using the platform for a film and art/storytelling project, respectively. We’re not quite sure yet what that will mean in practice — though BlackBerry’s been pushing its typing chops pretty hard, so making somebody write a novel on their phone isn’t out of the question. Keys, meanwhile, will be taking the BlackBerry on tour and will use it to create a music video for every city she visits. All these projects will involve collaborating with new BlackBerry 10 adopters, throwing some potential celebrity interaction in to sweeten the deal for anybody who’s on the fence.