While a global tour in support of her forthcoming new album was originally slated to bring Alicia Keys' catalog to life for fans throughout 2020 until COVID-19 stepped in and ruined concerts for everyone, the temporary setback hasn’t halted the artist’s plans to keep steadily releasing new singles.
For the latest, "So Done," Keys is joined by Khalid. Both the track and video arrived on Thursday night, with the latter starring American Honey's Sasha Lane. Andy Hines, whose previous credits include videos for Anderson .Paak and others, directed the visual that sees the duo performing in a prom-like scenario. Catch it up top.
The track was penned by Keys and Khalid in collaboration with Ludwig Göransson. In a statement accompanying the release, Keys gave fans some insight on what she was aiming for when crafting the song.
"I'm so excited to share 'So Done' with the world," she said. "We call it a trance! The energy is inescapable! Collaborating with Khalid on this one was very special. This song is about being done with changing yourself for the sake of others and letting go of any one else’s ideas of how your life should look."
As for that tour, fans can now expect Keys to take Alicia: The World Tour on the road in the summer of 2021. A new album, described as a "counterpart" to Keys' recently released book More Myself: A Journey, is due this fall via RCA.
And on Friday, Billboard's Carl Lamarre published a new interview with Keys that sees the Grammy winner reflecting on the process behind "So Done," as well as her chosen forms of self-care.
"I usually don't write with people that I don't know, just because it's such an intimate space," she said of the new single. "I haven't written with [Khalid] before. And we also collaborated with Ludwig Göransson, who's Childish Gambino's main producer. None of us have written ever together before. But it was super amazing. It was pure energy and pure light."
On the topic of self-care in the pandemic era, Keys—who previously likened the process of penning her book and the new album to therapy—was especially candid.
"I find that being able to just honestly express [things] in a way where it's not lingering, or taking 20 more years because you held it in for so long, has given me truly a beautiful self-care mechanism," she said.
Read the full thing here.
