The album launch show is a curious beast: two-thirds of a proper concert subtracted and replaced with canapés. In a swanky ballroom Alicia Keys was just getting the beautiful people going when she was off again, the date of her new release ringing in their ears while a conciliatory glass of wine waited in the next room.

At six songs, the New Yorker’s act was longer than the three tracks she offered the X Factor audience just over a week ago. Her fourth LP, The Element of Freedom, is released on Monday.

The Academy loves her because she unites urban style, pop and classic soul and can embrace in her fanbase both teenage girls and Bob Dylan, who sang: “I was thinking about Alicia Keys, couldn’t keep from crying,” on recent song Thunder on the Mountain. When she sits at her grand piano she seems part of a line that extends way back to Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles but can also easily be linked to the more contemporary sounds of pre‑wilderness Lauryn Hill and hip hop superstar Jay-Z.

Her hit duet with Jay-Z, Empire State of Mind, was reworked here into a slower, rap-free ballad, with lines about the inspiring sight of New York changed to feature London and win over an already converted crowd.

The current top 10 single, Doesn’t Mean Anything, saw her on familiar territory, tinkling the ivories and struggling with love. Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart stepped further outside her comfort zone, built on crashing drums and powerful synth chords as she moved away from her instrument to focus on emotional vocals.

Three old favourites — If I Ain’t Got You, You Don’t Know my Name and No One — completed the setlist. In a new venue not used to gigs, the sound was close to uncomfortably loud but no one could fault it for glamour. A fine appetiser, the main course won’t arrive until next May.