In a time of plunging record sales, singer, songwriter, pianist and actress Alicia Keys remains a star. She’s got the numbers and awards to prove it.

More than 5 million copies of the 27-year-old singer’s latest album, “As I Am,” have been sold since its November release. “No One,” a single from the album, won two Grammy awards. Keys also performed for this year’s Grammy awards broadcast, singing a duet with Frank Sinatra by means of one of his vintage filmed performances.Keys, a beautiful and truly talented young woman, is on her way to having a sustained career of the kind Sinatra had.

“Like the Isley Brothers, like the great Lena Horne,” she said recently during a teleconference with reporters. “You can’t believe how fantastic they are to be able to span generations and generations. And even with Frank Sinatra not living anymore, he’s still a tremendous influence on the world. I would love to be in a category like that.”

Speaking May 14, the 10th anniversary of Sinatra’s death, Keys recalled her electronic pairing with Ol’ Blue Eyes during the Grammy broadcast.

“We went through all of these different edits of the video and then deciding who would sing what and when he would appear,” Keys said. “I thought it was a really exciting idea and, furthermore, my grandfather was a huge Frank Sinatra fan. So that really brought me back to my childhood.”

Keys particularly loves Sinatra’s rendition of the George and Ira Gershwin song, “Someone To Watch Over Me.”

“Oh! I love his phrasing,” she said. “The way that he takes the words and brings them up and down. It’s beautiful. When I was practicing to sing and harmonize with him, a lot of it was about concentrating on his phrasing, so that I could match it. It was very complex and his breath control is bananas!”

Keys’ Italian-American mother raised her in New York City. She came under the influence of generations of music there, everything from Frederic Chopin and Erik Satie to Oscar Peterson and Fats Waller to Tupac Shakur and Jay-Z.

“I grew all around New York City,” she said. “It’s such an exciting place because you see so many styles of everything. I saw everything from street musicians to little trios in the train station to my brothers on the corner beat-boxing and rhyming. And great jazz spots would be open all night long, and the musical, theatrical side of Broadway. There’s this huge diversity in culture and music that just floats from everywhere in New York.”

The singer-pianist put her music studies and hybrid soul, hip-hop and jazz style to good use in her CD debut, 2001’s “Songs In A Minor.” It sold 10 million copies internationally and won five Grammy awards. Follow-up “The Diary of Alicia Keys,” released in 2003, continued her multimillion-selling success.

Keys’ latest album, “As I Am,” represents a sharpening of her already formidable skills.

“I’ve learned so much about how to create songs,” she said. “It still doesn’t mean that you ever quite know what you’re doing, because it’s like a gift.”

Performances reflect her growth, too.

“I never wanna be stuck in a box,” Keys said. “People know me for playing the piano, so sometimes people get caught up on that being the only thing that I do. But I’m young, I love to have fun, I express myself in tons of ways.

“So, from the beginning all the way to the end I want it (her concerts) to be a constant ascension. That’s what I’m focusing on and, also, honesty, truth and bringing people into my world. Not like they’re just watching something. They’re a part of this thing.”