Alicia Keys has won back the title of "new queen of soul" with her new album "Girl on Fire" which marks the singers comeback after marriage and motherhood.
Anyone who's heard even a bit of Alicia Keys' new album, "Girl on Fire," will notice how evident it is that the artist once labeled the "new queen of soul" is buzzing with confidence once again.
"There is no mystery ... it's severely honest. Every line means exactly what it means," Keys said by phone from London, where she performed the track for Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Variety Show earlier this month. "There's no hidden message - I mean it's pretty straightforward."
It's been almost three years since Key's last album "The Element of Freedom," was released but the new album shows no signs of rust for the 31-year-old.
"I can't keep count. I definitely know I have a 2-year-old son, so that says a lot," she said. "We are definitely light-years from my last record, and definitely my first one. But it's a natural evolution at the same time.
"I think its mostly just stepping into your womanhood. I knew I was going to call the album 'Girl on Fire' the minute that the song was done. It felt so right and accurate for what I've been going through and what I've been feeling. [The album] is really about finding your own passion, finding your own flow and standing in your own space. And just being fully and completely yourself," she said.
With this album, Keys worked on her first-ever and biggest collaboration project. The multiple Grammy-award winner worked with Frank Ocean, Bruno Mars, Maxwell, Salaam Remi, Pop & Oak, Jamie xx, Emeli Sandé and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds.
"I never was really so open to doing collaborations in that way, but now in addition to everything else, it felt incredible to do," Keys said. "It was very freeing."
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