Alicia Keys released her seventh studio album Alicia on September 18, 2020

1. Release date and the pandemic delay: how the schedule changed

Keys originally announced Alicia for March 20, 2020, then the album was pushed to May 15 and ultimately to September 18, 2020; outlets and encyclopedia entries attribute the postponements to the global disruption of the COVID‑19 pandemic and the suspension of normal promotional activity ^{[1] [3] [4]}. Industry reporting at the time placed Alicia among many high‑profile releases that were deferred so artists would not compete with pandemic news cycles and because traditional rollout activities (in‑store appearances, arena tours) were impossible ^{[1] [3]}.

2. What counts as “seventh studio album”: consistent cataloguing

Multiple discography sources identify Alicia as Keys’s seventh full-length studio album, following 2016’s Here and preceding subsequent projects like KEYS and Santa Baby , establishing consensus on its numeric place in her catalogue ^{[1] [4] [3]}. Fan and music wikis, mainstream press and Grammy coverage all use the same ordinal framing, which reduces ambiguity about whether Alicia should be counted as her seventh studio LP ^{[5] [2]}.

3. Confirmation across mainstream outlets and encyclopedias

Encyclopedic entries (Wikipedia, Wikiwand, Grokipedia) and major music outlets (Pitchfork, NME, Grammy.com) explicitly record the September 18, 2020 release date and describe the album’s rollout, singles and promotion — a broad agreement among independent reporting sources makes the release date factually well‑supported ^{[1] [6] [3] [7] [8] [2]}.

4. Singles and promotion leading into the release

Before the album arrived, Keys released multiple singles — including “Show Me Love” (with Miguel), “Underdog,” “Time Machine,” and collaborations such as “So Done” (with Khalid) — which were used to sustain momentum despite delays and to preview the record’s themes ^{[8] [3] [7]}. Reporting notes that the album’s digital reissue in December 2020 also incorporated later singles like “A Beautiful Noise,” a voter‑engagement duet with Brandi Carlile ^[4].

5. Critical and chart context included in reporting

Contemporary summaries cite the album’s chart performance and subsequent recognition: Alicia debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 and became Keys’s eighth top‑10 U.S. record, and it later won a Grammy for Best Immersive Audio Album at the 2022 Grammys — facts reported in encyclopedic and artist overview sources ^[4]. These data points underscore commercial and industry recognition tied to the release date and campaign ^[4].

6. Areas where sources diverge or are silent

All provided sources agree on the September 18, 2020 release date and the album’s status as her seventh studio record. Available sources do not mention any credible conflicting release date after September 2020 nor do they dispute the album’s ordinal placement (not found in current reporting). Some later pieces about Keys’ 2021 double album KEYS label that project as her seventh studio album in their headlines ^[9]; those headlines reflect different counting conventions in later coverage but do not contradict that Alicia was released in 2020 as her seventh album ^[9].

7. Why this matters: cataloguing, promotion and pandemic history

Accurate dating and ordinal labelling matters for music historians, chart records, licensing and for fans tracking an artist’s creative arc. The sources show Alicia’s rollout was shaped directly by the pandemic — a common industry pattern in 2020 — which explains multiple postponements and a heavier reliance on staggered single releases and later reissues to maintain visibility ^{[1] [3]}.

8. Bottom line

The statement “Alicia Keys released her seventh studio album Alicia on September 18, 2020” is supported by multiple independent sources including encyclopedias and major music outlets; the album’s postponements earlier in 2020 due to COVID‑19 are well documented in the same reporting ^{[1] [3] [7] [2]}.