Pop piano diva Alicia Keys is wisely steering clear of cluttered release dates November 17 (Kris Allen, Leona Lewis, John Mayer, Katy Perry) and November 24 (Adam Lambert, Rihanna, Shakira, Lady GaGa) for new album The Element Of Freedom. Instead, she’ll go toe-to-toe with Lil Wayne’s Rebirth on December 15.

And while the whole freedom angle with the cover art is pretty evident—Doves in flight! The sky’s the limit!— is Alicia also borrowing from Whitney Houston’s “Queen Of The Night”/Bodyguard schtick, albeit through a shimmery GaGa-ized lens?

Well, that could be up for debate. Alicia does appear on the cover of the latest issue of industry mag Billboard, where she admits, “Whitney is an artist who inspired me from [the time I was] a little girl.”

Keys was also interviewed by DJ Radio Big Boy in late September, and here’s what she had to say about the upcoming album:

“…with every song on this record you gonna get an element of freedom and you’re gonna feel free. And for me I feel like everybody is looking for that, looking for those wings that we can fly and be unstoppable and I’m definitively all about being unstoppable and when you hear this music you’re gonna feel unstoppable so the music just takes you there, it’s very different. It sounds different from me but it feels like me, but it’s a different sound so it’s a freedom in expressing yourself and being yourself.”

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