Singer Alicia Keys is so confused by society's views on love and war, she felt compelled to write about them on her new album, Here.
The 35-year-old songwriter addresses the controversial issues in a fresh track called Holy War, in which she condemns the notion that "war is holy and sex is obscene".
"We get so afraid to talk to our kids about sex, or we wanna hide all of our body parts and don't let anybody see the beauty of love and lovemaking, yet we let kids play (warfare video game) Call of Duty all day and all night, and that's, like, no problem?" she muses to Rolling Stone, before declaring: "It's very confusing and twisted."
Keys describes her sixth album, which is released on Friday (04Nov16), as the best one she's made yet, revealing she was unafraid of challenging herself musically or making bold political statements while writing songs.
"It's a contemplation of who we are and how we really can choose who we want to be," she explains to USA Today. "Do we want to build walls and have all that fear or do we want to break those walls and get to feel someone? You know, we act like things can only be negative. We can absolutely continue to grow and be more accepting and understanding. We’re all works in progress, all of us."
Alicia's message of love and unity is also clear in her new song Blended Family, in which the mother of two celebrates tribes of all kinds.
"We really have come together in such a beautiful way to support each other and teach our kids that life is about love... and that family has no definition except love," Keys, who is also stepmother to husband Swizz Beatz's three children from previous relationships, declares. "We’re taught in our fairytales that it's the mommy and the daddy and the brother and the sister and the doggy and the fence... but there's a beautiful variety."
