ALICIA KEYS NEW ALBUM "ELEMENT OF FREEDOM" DROPS THIS WEEK & SHE SAY'S SHE WANTS TO DO IT ALL!

No one ever accused Alicia Keys of lacking ambition.
But it seems her hunger to take on new roles has lately reached the point of ravenousness.

In conversation, Keys holds forth on the tasks she's well-known for: singer, songwriter, producer, AIDS advocate, charity czar and, most recently, jewelry maker. But she also ticks off a long list of new goals for herself, including playwright, movie producer, film star, Broadway actress, Web site creator and, oh yes, talk-show queen.

That last bit tumbles out when talk turns to the recent decision by Keys' longtime role model, Oprah Winfrey, to ditch her talk show.
"I'll take over," the singer says with a giggle. "I'd love to host."

She's only half kidding.

Keys may be here to promote her latest CD, "The Element of Freedom," out Tuesday, but it seems what she's really selling is an inspirational message about the power of accepting no limits. "To be able to soar as high as you can go and not be held back," she says, "that's something I think everyone is looking for."

Keys' one-woman example has given her more than just the image of a role model and life coach to the world. It has filled the space in the public conversation about her that most other pop figures cram with bits about their personal lives — or with the scandals and controversies they've stumbled into or instigated.

For a star of such exposure, this 28-year-old New York native has kept her personal life both controversy-free and under rare lock and key. While the press has speculated that Keys has had a lover for years — said to be either her manager/co-writer Kerry (Krucial) Brothers or superstar producer Swizz Beatz — she has never come close to confirming one.

"I never have talked about my personal life, and I never will," Keys declares. "It's become such a silly game that people play, and I prefer not to. We live in such a highly sensationalized culture. Aren't you sick of it?"

Clearly, most people aren't. But at least Keys' privacy provides an oasis of counterprogramming to the too-much-information age.
That's just one element that has made her stand out from the start.

When Keys first came on the scene, with her "Songs in A Minor" album in 2001, she rewrote the role of modern women in R&B. For one thing, she put as much emphasis on her roles as composer and pianist as that of singer. For another, her beauty was never allowed to distract from her musicianship.

To help bring that off, a decision was made early on to introduce her as often as possible as "Miss Alicia Keys," a title that implies both chastity and seriousness. Another important decision involved her choice of clothes. For the most part, Keys appeared in pants, a move that has made her, by now, the female celebrity more associated with covering her legs than anyone this side of Hillary Clinton.

When I was young, it was for protection," Keys explains. "It was about being able to walk the streets in a comfortable way. This was the 42nd St. of pimps and prostitutes. So if you put on a dress, the type of reaction you would get was you'd instantly be looked at as some kind of object. It made me shy away from that. Besides, pants are just as sexy."

That balance — between being taken seriously and looking hot — has worked to a fare-thee-well for Keys. But from the start, her music alone deserved the respect she now ­enjoys. At a time when R&B was riding the coattails of hip hop to stay relevant, Keys' songs referred to a pre-rap era of soul, drawn from the '60s and '70s.

"Music of [that era] has always spoken to me," Keys says. "I've always felt I was born in the wrong time period. I wanted that to come out, but to blend it with the heavier beats of music that was current."

Her ratio of old and new clicked to the point where Keys' debut album scooped up an armload of Grammys and sold over 6 million copies. The CD debuted at No. 1, and so has every Keys album since, including 2003's "The Diary of Alicia Keys," '05's live "Unplugged" and '07's "As I Am," which sold nearly 4 million units.

One wonders if this puts pressure on Keys to make sure her fifth, and latest, release doesn't blow her No. 1 run.

"To have that kind of opening is a beautiful thing," she says. "But if it doesn't debut at No. 1, that doesn't make the music any less great."

The "great" comment shows Keys' rather healthy ego. Similarly, when this famous New Yorker is asked to name her favorite song associated with the city, she doesn't hesitate to name her own: the current single with Jay-Z, "Empire State of Mind." (The song appears in a more fully melodic version on her own CD.)

Her hymn to the city has given Keys a bid at helping create a modern standard. But it also speaks to her genuine love of the town. "You can go to plenty of big cities in the world — Berlin and Beijing and London — but they're nothing like New York," she says. "One of my favorite things is seeing people of all backgrounds here. I know people who are Filipino and black, or Hawaiian and Russian. There are no limits on the variety."

There's that "no limits" thing again. As the conversation unfolds, Keys gets more specific about some of the ways she's pushing against them. She says she hopes soon to announce a major acting role for herself in a Hollywood action film. She's also developing a movie with Miramax about a female deejay (to be played by someone else), and she'd love to write a play that would "update Broadway."

In addition, Keys pines to write for singers besides herself, something she did with great success this year by penning "Million Dollar Bill," the first single off Whitney Houston's comeback CD. The other artist she currently has in her sights? Sade.

If that's not enough, Keys is planning more work in Africa for her charity organization Keep a Child Alive, and she's starting a business called AK Worldwide, which will include a lifestyle Web site, iamsuperwoman.com, launching Tuesday.

Clearly, Keys relishes her growing role as a pan-media mover and shaker, to the point that when it's brought up — in jest — that her original Harlem home may one day bear a plaque commemorating her birth, she takes it seriously.

"Don't worry," she says, "I'm working on it."