Hudson asked her Secret Life of Bees co-star Keys for help when she realised she had been working on her debut for a year.
She says, “I didn’t realise the process would be so long. I’m discovering it as I go along.

“Alicia Keys was one of the people who talked to me about it. I wanted to make sure it was OK because it’s taking so long.
“She told me it took her at least a year to record her album and that’s the process, so don’t worry about it.”

And she turned to Arie when she needed a big hit on the album: “Greatest Creation, which Indie.Arie wrote, is where I see myself and where I’d like to see myself, in saying that my greatest creation is me.”
Hudson will release the album in September (08), admitting “I haven’t named it yet.”

“I’ve been thinking about the next album, since we kind of wrapped up this album,” says Keys, who’s in the middle of the North American tour promoting “As I Am” that comes to the HP Pavilion on Saturday. The set, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in November, still remains in the top 30 of the chart.

“Part of what I’ve been thinking about is, ‘What are the ways that I want to express myself this time?’ ” she says “When I was just finishing recording ‘As I Am,’ I said to myself that I want to do something that’s totally stripped-down, stripped-back, totally piano-based, singer-songwriter; a Joni Mitchell-Carole King type of vibe.

“I might do that, but you never know where life takes you, where the music’s going to take you.”

Keys says her greatest obstacle to creating new music now is finding a chance to do it amid a worldwide tour schedule that has dates booked into 2009.

“At this point I’m trying to find the space to continue to record as I’m on tour,” explains Keys, who recently canceled some performances because of voice health issues. “That’s always a bit of a challenge for me ’cause it takes so much out of me to tour.

“But there’s always that urge to stay creative and write on that more personal side. So the main goal now is to continue to find that quiet space somewhere in the madness.”

Keys is also starting to consider her next single, the follow-up to “Teenage Love Affair.” She says she’s leaning toward “Superwoman,” which she feels encapsulates much of what “As I Am” is about.

“This album really has taught me so much about myself,” Keys says. “And every day I’m learning more and more. The beauty of ‘Superwoman’ is that it’s not about being all-powerful and being perfect, ’cause no one is.

It’s about perfection in our weaknesses and perfection in our imperfection, that we can still keep going, and we can still learn and still remain strong. Even when we’re feeling weak, we can still be superwomen - and supermen. I love what that says about all that I’ve learned this year.

Keys says she and director Gina Prince-Bythewood are still deciding whether she’ll contribute any music to her next film project, an adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd’s novel “The Secret Life of Bees.” Due this fall, “Bees” features Keys acting alongside Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson and Queen Latifah.

She has also been tapped to star as the biracial classical piano prodigy, Philippa Schuyler, in the Halle Berry-produced “Black and White” but says the project is in the scripting stage with its release “a couple of years off.”

Then she sat down at the piano, and the world righted itself.

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