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Alicia Keys is a girl on fire!

Alicia is keeping busy with a new album, a benefit gala for sick children in Africa, and not to mention she is smoking hot on the cover of Complex magazine.

The 31-year-old singer is gearing up to release her first album as a mother and married woman. Girl On Fire is her fourth studio album and Alicia openly expressed why she decided to give it such a powerful name: 

“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!”

VIDEO: 2012 MTV EMAs: Alicia Keys, Carly Rae Jepsen, Rita Ora & More Perform In Europe

Aside from hearing the title track being blared every commercial break during the Olympics, Alicia insists that fans of hers will be able to identify with many songs from the album. The standout of the collection is “Brand New Me,” which Alicia calls “the anchor” of the record. It’s a “telling-somebody-off” song that feels like it’s been a long time coming.

“Don’t be mad that I’m different,” Alicia explains about the song. “Don’t be mad that I’m changed. Don’t be mad that I’m grown. You can’t affect me the way you once did. You can’t be mad. Like, how could you be mad?

Alicia goes on to say:

“Becoming my new self, some people didn’t understand me anymore. Some people who I knew for years—we couldn’t be on the same page anymore. That’s OK because that’s part of growing, too. The hardest thing is to trust yourself, to know that what you’re feeling is valid. A lot of times we dismiss our feelings. I realized that I can trust myself and say, ‘No, I’m not comfortable with that.’ That was the toughest part. When I finally had the bravery to do that, that’s when I started to feel on fire.”

VIDEO: BEHIND THE SCENES: Alicia Keys Explains The Meaning Behind “Girl On Fire” Visuals 

We can already feel the album’s intensity and we haven’t even heard the entire thing yet. To read more on Alicia, pick up the December/January issue of Complex when it hits newsstands later this month. 

SOURCE: Complex