About two months before recording The Element of Freedom, Alicia Keys witnessed an event that would have a profound influence on her creative process: a Fleetwood Mac concert.

“It was my sister’s birthday, and she wanted to see them,” says Keys, 29, referring to longtime best friend Erika Rose. The R&B singer/songwriter knew of the veteran band but wasn’t entirely familiar with its catalog. “So everyone was like, ‘What? You don’t know these songs?’ ”

Other vintage pop acts also informed Freedom, her fourth studio album, which arrives today. Keys started “to experiment with keyboards from the late ’70s and ’80s. … I listened to a lot of Genesis, The Police, Tears for Fears— people who hadn’t been staples for me.” (Read more… )

Alicia Keys tomorrow releases her fifth album, “The Element of Freedom,” in which she blends her flair for old-school soul with the scratchy punch of hip-hop arrangements. The 28-year-old Keys was in Paris late last week when Journal rock & pop critic Jim Fusilli caught up with her on the phone for a conversation about her music and new approach.

The Wall Street Journal: Does ‘The Element of Freedom’ sound to you like an extension of what you’ve been doing or like something entirely new for you?

It feels a mixture of both. It feels a bit like an extension, but also that I’ve been able to grow to the next level. I’m glad about that. The album is a representation of a certain time in my life, and an understanding of what it means to decide what’s good for me and to create around that. Now that I feel like I’ve gone to the next level, the test for me is to see how much I’ve learned and continue to move forward. (Read more… )

VIBE: Do you feel like your sound has become more pop with the last two albums, as compared toSongs in A Minor?
Alicia Keys: I really don’t define music. I think music is music. It’s emotional. It describes a feeling not a category… With traveling, I definitely have been exposed to more diversity in music. So I think it comes through naturally. I’m not very conscious when I make music. I live in my heart, not my mind.

What about this album most excites you?
I love the way all the songs feel different and new. I love that sonically it’s different and there are even moments when people have had to ask me if it was me. I love how it has my foundation but still colors outside the lines.

What new musical or instrumental skills have you picked up in the past few years?
Great question! I’ve learned more about layering and how to make different sounds. I’ve learned to always explore and go into new territory by finding new pieces of equipment. Also, always being around new people makes me learn more.

What about New York City inspired you to become a musician?
The electric streets, the diversity, the different mixtures of people and foods and languages, the darkness, the light – You can find everything here. It made me want to speak of all the things that I saw and learned and all the things that hurt me and made me want more and want to become better.

What type of business moves are you looking to make in the next few years?
Through music, through production of films and television, writing and conceptualizing Broadway to make a new updated Broadway outlet. I’m launching a lifestyle Web site called iamasuperwoman.com on Dec. 15 with a worldwide search for a chief writer and I’m also launching my collaborative jewelry line, the Barbers Daughters in 2010, beautiful handcrafted and engraved one of a kind pieces with the most beautiful words on them.

Fox 411 recently sat down with R&B’s reigning diva Alicia Keys in Jay Z’s dressing room backstage at her American Express Keep a Child Alive concert in New York City.

Jay arrived just before the show started to get loose before performing his smash duet, “Empire State of Mind” with Alicia.  While Jay laughed and joked around backstage, Alicia gave us the scoop on how they came to create “New York’s Anthem” in “Empire State of Mind.”

While Alicia enjoys her time with Jay-Z, she also loves country crooner Tim McGraw!  W also learned that Jay Z is no male diva.  (The hip hop legend only requested bottled water for his dressing room and nothing else!) (Read more… )

After taking the world by storm with her memorable appearance on Jay-Z’s triumphant “Empire State of Mind,” Alicia Keys has now switched gears for a highly anticipated collabo with Beyonce on her forthcoming LP, “The Element of Freedom.”

On her latest album, this R&B good girl doesn’t just sing—she soars. And when scandal threatens to derail Alicia Keys, she does what any self-respecting diva would do and simply flies above the haters

Alicia Keys is hunched over a sparkling black Yahama piano in the middle of an old creaky warehouse turned film studio in Brooklyn. It’s so cold inside the wide, desolate space that you can see your breath. The R&B singer, clad in a charcoal gray minidress adorned with silver sequins, is a trooper though. Her legs look long and lean in gray-and-black-spiked boots, and her thick tresses are gathered in a neat braid at the crown of her head. As the 12-time Grammy winner performs on this brisk October day, at least 50 people hover around her—adjusting lights, moving equipment, and shouting instructions. Keys’ voice rises above the ruckus. “This is your last shot!” she shouts playfully at the director, who has persuaded her to reshoot a scene for her video “Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart,” the second single off her highly anticipated fourth studio album, The Element of Freedom. It’s past 2 p.m. and the singer still hasn’t eaten lunch, plus she’s due in wardrobe. Her manager steps in to speed things up. bAnd Keys chimes in, “I’ve got some place to be.” (Read more… )

Billboard exclusive with Alicia Keys on the music video set of her new single, “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart”! Check out what she has to say about the new album and what it means to her!

Whenever Latin pop sensation Alejandro Sanz writes music, he sets off on a “long mental journey” to find inspiration. But when Alicia Keys surprised the singer at a party in New York by joining him in an impromptu jam session, Sanz knew then that he’d found his muse.

“I simply grabbed a guitar and we started to improvise, singing and playing. After that, we decided then that we needed to do something together,” he said in an interview. “Working with her was such a marvelous thing. She’s a great artist, a great woman, and it turned out to be something marvelous between us.”

The end result is reflected in their new duet, “Looking For Paradise.” (Read more… )

Today Alicia called in to NY’s Hot 97 morning show. You can download the interview here or listen below: