Alicia Keys Promises 'New Me' on Next Album, 'Girl on Fire'

Alicia Keys promises to unveil a "new me" on her next album, which the singer says is called Girl on Fire and "is about new beginnings, new perspectives and fresh starts."

Few album announcements sound as breathlessly excited as Keys did in a post yesterday on her website, though she offered more details about how the new music makes her feel than about the album itself. "You’ll be learning more about it soon," she wrote, "but let me just say before making this record, in some ways I felt like a lion locked in a cage . . . I felt like a girl misunderstood that no one really knew, I felt like it was time to stop making excuses for any part of my life that I wanted to change. Once I made that choice I became a Girl on Fire, the lion broke free!!"

Keys recorded mostly in New York, though she notes that "on some cool and memorable occasions, I traveled to different places, and worked with many collaborators, (some old friends, some new)."

There's no release date or track listing yet for Girl on Fire, though Keys recently leaked a song, "New Day." The album follows Keys' 2009 release The Element of Freedom. It's looking like the singer will be keeping busy, though: she's also set to appear as a mentor on the upcoming season of America's Next Top Model.