At 27 and with just three studio albums to her credit, Alicia Keys is already inspiring a legion of younger female artists. One only has to watch American Idol, where aspiring divas sing her hits over and over, as proof of that.

And it appears the poetic songbird is just getting started. On top of Grammy wins, multiplatinum sales and a burgeoning acting career, Keys is a co-founder of Keep a Child Alive, a nonprofit organization that provides medicine to HIV/AIDS-affected children and families in Africa.

Keys took time from her As I Am tour to field questions from Chronicle reporter Joey Guerra about songwriting, collaborating and loving Luther Vandross:

Q: You’ve said your lyrics are usually personal reflections. Are you able to write about someone else’s experience?

A: The majority of my songs have to be a reflection of my life, of my experience. That’s what kind of drives me to write. It has to be something that I understand personally. There has been on occasion, though, times when something has affected me so greatly that’s been another person’s experience. It will make me write in their perspective, or even as an observer.

Q: Is the songwriting process different each time?

A: I promise you that every time I write a song, or every time I’m working on an album, I’m like, “How in the world am I going to do this?” It’s new every time, and there’s no kind of just one way that it happens. I’m definitely sparked by emotions and things that I see with my own two eyes. It pushes me to maybe write in my journal, which I do lot; write in my songbook, which it might just be words; or just sit down at the piano and start with some music. Even just say words into my cellphone or a title.

Q: What’s it like seeing amateurs and new singers try to make your songs their own?

A: As a songwriter, that’s the best thing in the world. That’s what you want. You want people to love your songs so much that they want to sing them. I’ll think of when I was in kindergarten and — I think it was Whitney Houston’s One Moment in Time. That was my song. I’m sure I sang it really badly, but I loved it that much. It’s like that.

Q: How has your music changed since the beginning of your career?

A: Definitely through my own personal experiences and growing up and becoming more mature, I think it’s become more precise and a little bit more clear. I’ve learned so much about how to create a song and different types of songs. It still doesn’t mean that you ever quite know what you’re doing.

Q: Singer or songwriter: Which would you choose if it could only be one?

A: Damn. That’s really hard, and that’s why I do both. If I absolutely had no choice, I think I would choose to be a songwriter. To be able to express that side of myself is essential to my very being, like air. To have to sing songs (by) other people who didn’t quite know me, just their assumptions of me, I feel like it would be a bit of a cage.

Q: Have your trips to Africa and Egypt been musically inspiring?

A: I actually wrote a lot of songs off of pentatonic scales (a scale with five pitches per octave, commonly used in Chinese music) and these darker Arabic scales. I was really into that for a while. I love it. I think it’s very sensual. I think it’s very emotional. I think it’s beautiful. There’s a lot to discover there.

Q: Today, songwriters mostly shy away from overtly political lyrics and messages. Is that a bad thing?

A: I do often think about the way that more societal issues and political issues can be put into the music, especially when we’re in a time that is so tumultuous. It’s constantly about what’s happening in our society and our culture, political choices that are made and what that means.

It’s funny, because when it’s so politically driven on a daily basis, you would think that the music would reflect that a bit more. I think that at one time that was so much more accepted and, in fact, encouraged. I feel that now, when one speaks strongly in a political fashion, it’s often used against them. It deters people from really embracing that beauty of describing the world in its many colors.

Q: What are you listening to these days?

A: Especially for this album (As I Am), I really got into a lot of different styles, kind of rock styles — Van Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker and Janis Joplin — just to really feel that energy and that fierceness and that abandonment. I also started getting into U2, R.E.M., Nirvana and Coldplay, just to kind of feel the soulfulness.

Q: As I Am has collaborations with Linda Perry and John Mayer. Who would you like to team with in the future?

A: I’ve been dying to work with the White Stripes, forever already. I’m trying to make that actually happen.

Q: Some artists — Madonna, Beyoncé — seem to take on different personas onstage. Is it the same for you?

A: I always hope that I was able to make people feel like they were engaged in something personal. I’m very, very much myself onstage. Some people become characters, and they kind of turn into another person. The things I say, the things that I do, the way that I speak, what I’m talking about, it’s pretty consistent with who I am.

Q: Do you have a favorite moment in your current live show?

A: What I purposely wanted to do with this show was really show the diversity of who I am and the way that I love to express myself in many different ways: some of them very big, some of them very intimate. But I love being able to sit down in a room of 13,000 people and just play the piano, like we’re in the living room. I know that’s what people love about me as well. We’re able to just kind of have a moment.

Q: What’s it like being name-checked in tunes by Luther Vandross and Bob Dylan?

A: Luther Vandross is one of my favorite artists. He was such a beautiful person and such a golden voice that will last forever. He called me when I was in Amsterdam. I remember like it was yesterday. It was really late. He was telling me that he did this new song, and he put my name in it. He actually proceeded to sing it to me right there over the phone. That was a beautiful experience.

(Bob Dylan,) I haven’t spoken to directly about it. But I find it kind of cute.

Hip-hop may be dead, but R&B is alive and kicking with artists Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys and Jill Scott holding it down

Rounding up three multiplatinum, Grammy-winning chart-toppers is no small feat, especially when they�re stationed in different cities and different time zones. Did we mention that one of them was on tour (Mary), one had just come off tour (Jill), and the other was between tours (Alicia)?

For us, Alicia, Mary and Jill are the truth and the light in R&B. During the past year, they, along with other female singers, have bumped the �hood boys off the top of the charts. No offense, . fellas, but it�s always ladies first here. As the following excerpts from individual chats with each artist reveal, when it comes to penning hits, embracing success, and keeping ahead of the curve, it�s always about the music.

Essence: One thing you all have in common is that you each had a debut album that was a phenomenal success. How do you feel when you hear those songs now?

Mary J. Blige: It�s been about six months since I�ve listened to What�s the 411? I was in Japan working out, and when I heard it, I could definitely feel my youth, but I could also hear that I�ve always had an old soul. When I think back to that time, I remember that I was singing to escape. I understand that some people are stuck in that place, but I firmly believe that if you don�t evolve and grow, you will die.

Essence: From the outside looking in, it seems that success has been yours since day one, but there probably were, and are, disappointments. How do you cope when a project doesn�t pan out?

Jill Scott: This is life, and if something doesn�t work out, then it wasn�t meant to. I feel that there is a divine plan in all things. All I can do is the best I can do, and if it�s well received, then, yeah. If not, I hope life will give me an opportunity to try again. Do I challenge myself? Absolutely. But beat myself up? I just can�t do it.

Essence: Have you ever regretted folding to pressure from record labels?

Alicia Keys: In the beginning, I didn�t understand the concept of boundaries. I wanted to make sure the music was heard, but there�s a price you pay for that. I did everything and anything to promote my first album, like flying from New York to Los Angeles and back on the same day, which was a bit excessive.

Essence: Have you figured out the ingredients for the perfect song?

Mary: Yes, but I won�t tell. [Laughs] For me, it�s about being real and honest. And the lyrics have to be relatable.

Jill: Oh, I wish I knew. I think Ne-Yo knows. I think Carvin Haggins, who does a lot of writing for Musiq Soulchild, has the ingredients, too. My songs are mostly about life experiences, about being human and falling and getting back up. About loving and losing.

Essence: But aren�t those the ingredients right there?

Alicia: It�s always a bit of a mystery. A song should deal with a widely understood emotion, have a really strong, clear explanation of that emotion and a great melody that makes you want to sing it at the top of your lungs. Then the music should evoke the same feeling as the lyrics. Somewhere within all of that lies the perfect song.

For our complete interview with Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys and Jill Scott pick up ESSENCE’s June 2008 issue now on stands.

From Alicia’s mom Terri: ”There was a moment between the age of 13 and 15 when she told me she just didn’t want to do anything. And she just wasn’t happy with the world. I don’t know what heaviness had come over her, with puberty and everything else. You never know. So she said, ‘Please, Mom, don’t bother me. I barely want to go to school.’ We worked it out, we talked and she got herself together and ended up graduating at age 16 as a valedictorian of her high-school class.”

It was eight songs into her set on Sunday night at Arco Arena, and by that time Keys had shimmied with her dancers, belted through “You Don’t Know My Name” and even taken a break while her back-up singers plowed through “Lady Marmalade.” All that was missing so far was something she’s best known for: playing the piano.

Had Alicia Keys kicked her piano bench to the curb?

It was eight songs into her set on Sunday night at Arco Arena, and by that time Keys had shimmied with her dancers, belted through “You Don’t Know My Name” and even taken a break while her back-up singers plowed through “Lady Marmalade.” All that was missing so far was something she’s best known for: playing the piano.

The “As I Am” tour is all about Alicia Keys the entertainer. It’s a chance for Keys to get liberated from the piano bench, show off some dance steps and sing without that pesky piano getting in the way. Think of it as the Alicia Keys extravaganza, with a 10-piece band and half-dozen dancers helping Keys unleash her diva-dom.

But all of that sensory overload stuff wasn’t nearly as captivating as this: Keys all alone on stage, poised at her baby grand and pouring into her songbook. It just took about a half-hour into the show for this to happen.

But the payoff was worth it, as she romped solo through the sassy blues of “How Come You Don’t Call Me” and sang in breathtaking, bittersweet tones in “Sure Looks Good to Me.” Keys’ woman-at-the-piano routine always rocks the house.

The Mother’s Day crowd swooned and clicked on their camera phones. It was a somewhat small audience of about 7,000, filling Arco to just about half-capacity. The low turnout was kind of surprising given Keys’ sales clout. Her latest album, “As I Am,” debuted at No. 1 and has since sold more than 3 million copies. Then again, spending upward of $120 per ticket was probably too much of a splurge for some, especially given gas and grocery bills right about now.

But those who plunked down for tickets were treated to an energized and well-oiled show. We’re talking more than two dozen songs jam packed into 100 minutes. It was the kind of Keys concert that was meant for making your ears ring, especially with a backing band that bordered on overblown.

At least Keys’ voice was able to project over it all. She had to cancel a couple of shows early in the tour due to vocal problems. And though her speaking voice sounded a little raspy, like when she was plugging the Keep a Child Alive charity, Keys’ singing was perpetually powerful and on point.

Her delivery in “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore” and “Butterflyz” was the kind that’ll blow your hair back.

Speaking of recent vocal problems, show opener Jordin Sparks (a.k.a. the Season 6 “American Idol”) sounded fine despite a well-publicized throat injury in April. So much for our girl not being able to sing again. Instead Sparks sang to a filling arena with an every-girl kind of charm. Sparks still doesn’t have the lung power of Kelly Clarkson, but it was better than having David Archuleta up there.

Fellow opening act Ne-Yo couldn’t boast any vocal injuries or an “American Idol” crown, but he still worked the crowd with smoothed out R&B. His set that was like slow-jam central, featuring a lapdance from one of his back-up dancers and such hits as “So Sick” and “Sexy Love.”

Neither of them can compete with Keys. She’s a triple-threat of talent: A pianist and singer who actually writes her own hit songs. And she can bust a few choreographed moves as well. But it’s her fingers dancing on the piano keyboard that truly carries the show.

• • •

SETLIST

1. “Ghetto Story”
2. “Waiting for Your Love”
3. “Where Do We Go From Here”
4. “You Don’t Know My Name”
5. “Teenage Love Affair”
6. “Lady Marmalade” (performed by back-up singers)
7. “Heartburn”
8. “Sure Looks Good to Me”
9. “How Come You Don’t Call Me”
10. “Butterflyz”
11. “Goodbye”
12. “Prelude to a Kiss”
13. “Superwoman”
14. “I Need You”
15. “Wreckless Love”
16. “Diary”
17. “Tender Love” (Force M.D.’s cover)
18. “My Boo”
19. “Unbreakable”
20. “Like You’ll Never See Me Again”
21. “Go Ahead”
22. “A Woman’s Worth”
23. “Karma”
24. “The Thing About Love”
25. “Fallin’”
26. “No One”
Encore: “If I Ain’t Got You”

A: Everything is spectacular, perfect. You know I did get a little bit under the weather. It sucked. Believe me, if anybody was disappointed, it was me. It’s a terrible feeling to not be able to sing to my full capacity, but it’s very important for me to protect myself.

I’m definitely in this for the long haul, and there’s nothing I’ll do to damage my voice ever. So it was important for me to take those two and just make sure I was 100 percent instead of singing on strained cords. And now I’m back, back, back, back, back.Q: You had to cancel a few of those shows earlier. Is everything back to where it should be?

A: Everything is spectacular, perfect. You know I did get a little bit under the weather. It sucked. Believe me, if anybody was disappointed, it was me. It’s a terrible feeling to not be able to sing to my full capacity, but it’s very important for me to protect myself.

I’m definitely in this for the long haul, and there’s nothing I’ll do to damage my voice ever. So it was important for me to take those two and just make sure I was 100 percent instead of singing on strained cords. And now I’m back, back, back, back, back.

Q: How about Jordin Sparks (an opening act on Keys’ tour)? Are you a fan of “American Idol”?

A: You know I’m not really someone that watches a ton of TV. In fact, I was saying the other day, I was like, “Dang. Like when was the last time I just sat down and watched some TV?” But I used to watch “American Idol” a lot with my grandmother. She really liked it. So I did get into it a little bit, but, yes, that’s what’s up.

Q: Did you ever imagine yourself playing the huge arenas when you first started out playing?

A: Oh, man, that’s like totally without question a dream in every young artist’s mind. I just never forget like one of the first concerts I went to go see. … It was huge. It had to be like, I don’t know, 50,000 people or something crazy. And I remember one of my favorite groups at the time, and still is, was Wu-Tang, and they were really big at the time, and I just remember the announcer saying that Wu-Tang was coming on stage and all 50,000 people starting screaming, “Wu-Tang.” They started chanting, and I’ll never forget how that made me feel. And I was like, “Oh my gosh. One day they’re going to chant for me like that.”

Q: I hear that you’re in preparation for doing a movie on (the piano prodigy) Philippa Schuyler. I was just wondering what led you to be inspired to do that project, and how’s it going?

A: That one is something that’s really exciting for me, because I was brought into that whole process at the very, very beginning. And Halle Berry is producing that, and she just really said that she felt that that was a part that I was born to play.

This woman is very, very interesting and having been born in the ’40s and growing up through the ’50s and ’60s during such a tumultuous time and being half black and half white and also being a classical pianist adds for a lot of interesting dynamics that I don’t think we hear a lot about, not today. (I) wasn’t personally familiar with her story until this time, and the trials and the tribulations and the stresses that went along with her trying to follow her heart, which was to play classical music.

Q: Are there plans or have you already started at all to document the tour with live albums, DVD or anything like that?

A: This tour would be a lot of fun to do that with. (Since) we just started America, we’ll probably start putting that in the works toward the end of this run. But every show we document, so that’s the cool part. And so every show is taped and recorded so it’d be kind of fun to figure out a creative way to either pick the best one or to take pieces of the greatest ones and figure out creatively how we would want to put that together.

It’s a beautiful moment to document, and that’s something I’ve really been getting into a lot, is just really recording everything that goes on, because it’s just amazing and I definitely want to always be able to look back on it.