TORONTO - Neo-soul star Alicia Keys has learned the art of making an entrance.

Her black piano emerged from behind billowing white smoke seemingly floating on a rotating, moving platform at the Air Canada Centre last night before she could be seen pounding away on the keys, performing the classical-meets-soul intro to her latest No. 1, monster-selling album, As I Am.

Backed by a 10-piece band and six dancers, Keys broke away from her instrument for the next several tunes -- Ghetto Story, Waiting For Your Love, Where Do We Go From Here, You Don't Know My Name, Teenage Love Affair and Heartburn. The last four songs were presented in girl-group fashion with two of her backup singers.

Still, it was when she returned to her beloved piano for such stripped-down soulful songs as Sure Looks Good to Me, a cover of Prince's How Come You Don't Call Me, Butterflies, Prelude to a Kiss and Superwoman that Keys really excelled, despite a persistent penchant for costume changes -- she favoured silver, sequined or leather tops over tight black pants and sparkly silver heels -- and choreographed dance moves.

The girl can sing and play with the best of them, not to mention write songs. She's sold 25 million albums and picked up 11 Grammys since her breakthrough record, 2001's Song In A Minor.

Thankfully, by the very end of the two-hour concert, a white piano emerged from beneath a smaller stage closer to the audience so she could perform If I ain't Got You.

She's also a philanthropist and talked last night about her involvement in Keep A Child Alive, encouraging audience members to get involved and "be somebody's angel."

Of the new material, it was the old-school jam Teenage Love Affair, the female empowerment anthems Superwoman and The Thing About Love, the woman-done-wrong song, Go Ahead, the unabashedly head-over-heels-in-love tunes, I Need You, Wreckless Love and Like You'll Never See Me Again, and the ultimate crowdpleaser, No One, that fared best in a live setting.

And by the time she returned to proper piano-playing for Diary and Tender Love, with a thrilling duet partner in backup singer Jermaine Paul, she was on a major roll with other older highlights like A Woman's Worth -- which prompted the first audience singalong -- Karma and Fallin'.

Opening last night were R&B-pop artist Ne-Yo and American Idol Season 6 winner Jordin Sparks.

Ne-Yo proved to be the smoother performer of the two, as he flew around the stage with three female backup dancers scantily clad in white tails and top hats and not much more, while performing such hits as Sexy Love, Go On Girl, So Sick, Do You, Make it Work and Because of You.

Still, there was a slightly cheesy element to the proceedings, particularly when one female dancer writhed around him like a lap dancer in little more than black underwear and a negligee.

But at least Ne-Yo, initially decked out as a song-and-dance man in black tails and top hat in a nod to his upcoming third disc, Year of the Gentleman (due June 24), was attempting to put on a show.

Sparks, 18, meanwhile performed material from her bubblegum-pop-R&B self-titled debut, and was in strong voice after suffering an acute vocal cord hemorrhage earlier this year, even if she's got a long way to go in a live setting.

Pleasant but forgettable comes to mind.