Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys and Jewel will be front and center in a new World Gold Council campaign to promote Italian gold jewelry in the U.S. market.

Keys will be featured in a four-page consumer advertising campaign entitled “Gold Expressions,” while Jewel will perform for U.S. retailers at the June launch event of Gold Expressions: the Language of Italian Design.

Gold Expressions, now in its second year, is a collection of new gold jewelry designed and produced annually by Italian goldsmiths, including Roberto Coin, as part of a collaborative effort with the Vicenza Fair, the Italian-based international trade exhibition. The product development initiative features over 430 trendsetting gold jewelry pieces produced by leading Italian manufacturers, aimed at reviving the desirability of gold jewelry worldwide. The GE 2005 collections will debut to U.S. retailers at a live event in Las Vegas on June 2.

In addition to Coin and the Vicenza Fair, Condè Nast Media Group and AngloGold Ashanti, the second largest producing gold mining company in the world, are partnering to bring this campaign of Italian design innovation to the U.S. market.

“The timing could not be better. Gold’s return to the fore-front of the fashion world has catapulted gold designers like Roberto Coin to heightened popularity, not only amongst fashion trendsetters, but among celebrities, as well,” says John Calnon, Managing Director for the World Gold Council U.S. operations.

The four-page advertising insert featuring Alicia Keys will show her wearing renowned Italian designer Roberto Coin’s newest gold jewelry styles and will run in June issues of Vogue, Vanity Fair, W and Architectural Digest. The segment shows Alicia Keys in four images, each coupled with a “Gold Expression” drafted by Keys herself. The section is designed to give an insight into the real Alicia Keys, revealing both her energy and her positive attitude toward life.

At a June 2 event, singer-songwriter Jewel will perform an exclusive concert while wearing Roberto Coin’s most innovative and beautiful new styles of gold jewelry.

The U.S. debut of the GE 2005 Collections marks the third stop on the global tour for this grouping of Italy’s gifted gold jewelry designers and manufacturers.

JCK