On December 15, 2009 Alicia Keys visited The Colbert Report to promote her new album The Element Of Freedom. She gave an interview, and performed the song Empire State Of Mind, together with Stephen Colbert himself, who amazes the audience with a genuine rap. Alicia Keys originally recorded Empire State Of Mind with rap singer Jay-Z, who also featured the song on his album, ‘’The Blueprint 3’’. http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3zfwxzwaldfe
The Element of Freedom, the fourth studio album by Alicia Keys, was officially released on December 15, 2009, and if produced by on J Records in the United States.

Alicia Keys and Jay-Z earlier performed their Empire State Of Mind at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, and later on The World Series. She subsequently released Doesn't Mean Anything as the first official single from her album, followed by Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart. She is slated to start touring in early 2010.http://www.jrecords.com/aliciakeys/aliciakeys_rollingstone_nov_2009.bmphttp://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3zfwxzwaldfehttp://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1623531/20091009/keys_alicia.jhtml http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1625604/20091105/jay_z.jhtml

Stephen Colbert is host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. The show is a comical news show, mainly targetting at conservative politics. Colbert started out on TV shows like Strangers with Candy, but became known after joining The Daily Show. In 2005 he started on his spin-off show The Colbert Report. The show received three Emmy nominations. Colbert wrote the book I Am America (And So Can You!), a fictional description of his life on The Colbert Report.http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/magazine/25questions.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/3673509/Stephen-Colbert-the-second-most-powerful-idiot-in-America.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/12/arts/television/12colb.html

Colbert features the December 21 2009 cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, after supporting the US Skating Team, who lost their major sponsor, the Dutch Bank DSB. Colbert collected $300,000, after asking viewers of his show to make donations.http://digitalsportsdaily.com/frontpage/14867