Adele

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins MBE (born on May 5, 1988) is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She is one of the world’s record-breaking selling artists, with over 120 million records sold. Born and raised in the Tottenham district of London, she began singing at the age of four and began her artistic career in 2006 after graduating in music from BRIT School and signing a contract with XL Recordings.

Adele was discovered by the label through musical demos posted on her profile on the social network MySpace. In 2007, she received the Critics’ Choice award from the Brit Awards and reached the top of the BBC Sound of 2008. Their debut album, 19, was released in January 2008 and was well-received commercially and critically. It has been certified Platinum 8 times in the United Kingdom and three times in the United States. The album yielded four singles, including “Hometown Glory”, the first song written by Adele at age 16, based on her life in the suburb where she lived, West Norwood, London. An appearance she made on Saturday Night Live in late 2008 boosted her career in the US. At the 2009 Grammy Awards, Adele received the Awards for New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Full name	Adele Laurie Blue Adkins
Birth date	May 5, 1988
Birthplace	Tottenham, London
Nationality	English
Fortune	£130 million (2021 estimate)
Stature	1.75m
Spouse	Simon Konecki (m. 2018; Div. 2021)
Child(s)	1
Alma mater	BRIT School
Occupation	Singer Songwriter
Period of activity	2006–present
Music career
Gender(s)	Soul pop R&B
Vocal extension	Mezzo-soprano
Instrument(s)	Vocal
Record label(s)	XL Columbia Melted Stone
Signature
Official website
Adele.com

Adele reached the pinnacle of her career by releasing her second album, 21, with which she surpassed several records and dominated the Us and United Kingdom charts with the single “Rolling in the Deep”. 21 has sold over 30 million copies worldwide.

The success made Adele receive mentions in the Guinness Book more than ten times. Being the first woman to have at the same time two singles and two albums simultaneously in the top 5 of the British charts, this fact, which only the band The Beatles had achieved in 1964, being the first artist to sell more than 3 million copies of an album in a year in the United Kingdom and with the third single from the album, “Set Fire to the Rain”, becoming the first artist in history to lead the Billboard 200 consecutively three times in first place. For breaking the video record to reach one billion views in a shorter period on YouTube, 88 days. She also surpassed records for artists such as Michael Jackson, Oasis, ‘N Sync, Whitney Houston, Madonna and Beyoncé.

The singer was named at the fifth position on VH1’s list of the “100 Greatest Women in Music”. By Time magazine, she was voted one of the most influential people in the world.  She was also listed at number six on Forbes‘ list of celebrities under the age of thirty best paid and successful in 2011.  In 2013, Adele was listed as vh1’s fifteenth sexiest artist. Adele has been a member of the British Order of the Empire since 2013, when she was awarded by Prince Charles for her contributions to the British recording industry.

In 2012, he released “Skyfall”, which he co-wrote and recorded for the James Bond film of the same name. The song won the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for “Best Original Song”, as well as a Grammy and a Brit Award for British Single of the Year. After a three-year break, Adele released her third studio album, 25, in 2015. It became the best-selling album of the year and broke first-week sales records in the UK and the United States.

25 was her second album to receive the diamond certificate in the U.S. and won five Grammy Awards, including the second album of the year won by the singer and four Brit Awards. Among the top awards won during her career are fifteen Grammy Awards, nine Brit Awards, eighteen Billboard Music Awards, an Emmy, a Golden Globe and an Oscar. In 2011, 2012 and 2016, Adele was named Billboard Artist of the Year.

Biography of Adele

Childhood and adolescence

Adele was born on 5 May 1988 in Tottenham, London, the daughter of an English mother, Penny Susan Adkins, and a Welsh father, Mark Evans. She is the first and only daughter of Penny, who was dropped by her then-boyfriend, Mark, when Adele was 2. The couple had encountered difficulties in their relationship because of Mark’s alcohol addiction after his father’s death from cancer. Because of this, she was raised only by her mother and did not maintain any affective relationship with her father. She has a half-brother named Cameron O’Sullivan, Mark’s son, born between 1994 and 1995, with whom, similarly, Adele does not have a close relationship.

She began singing at the age of four and claims to have become obsessed with voices. Growing up, Adele spent most of her time singing instead of reading; in 2009 the singer reported that the last book she read assiduously was Roald Dahl’s Matilda when she was six years old. In 1997, at the age of nine, she and her mother, who had previously found work as a furniture manufacturer and organizer of adult learning activities, moved to Brighton on the south coast of England. In 1999, they returned to London, first to Brixton and then to the neighboring West Norwood district to the south, which inspired Adele to write her first single, titled “Hometown Glory”, from album 19, written by her at the age of sixteen. After moving, Adele became interested in R&B artists such as Destiny’s Child, Lauryn Hill and Mary J. Blige.

In May 2006, she graduated from BRIT School, the same school where kate nash, amy winehouse and Jessie J. From childhood she enjoyed music and had family support. BRIT School made her make a greater desire to enter the artistic career, where, shortly after graduating and posting musical demos on My Space, she signed a recording contract with XL Recordings, becoming one of the most successful artists of recent times.

In 2006, Adele recorded three music demos for a class Yomde and sent them to a friend who posted on MySpace, where it became a big hit and caught the attention of XL Recordings. After exchanging some emails and phone calls, she signed a record deal with the label and recorded her first studio album.

Adele career

2006–10: Early career and 19

Four months after graduation, she published two songs on the fourth arts edition of the PlatformsMagazine.com. She recorded demos of three songs for a class project and gave them to a friend. The friend posted the demos on MySpace, where it became very successful and led to a phone call from Richard Russell, head of XL Recordings. She doubted the offer was real because the only record label she knew was Virgin Records and took a friend to the reunion.

XL’s Nick Huggett recommended Adele to artistic entrepreneur Jonathan Dickins of September Management, who in June 2006 became her official representative. Huggett then signed Adele to the label in September 2006. Adele provided vocals for Jack Peñate on the song, “My Yvonne”, for her debut album, and it was during this session that she met her first producer, Jim Abbiss, that she would produce most of the tracks from her debut album, 19, and tracks at 21. In early 2007 she played in bars in North London for about ten people on a silent tour. In June 2007, she made her first television appearance, playing “Daydreamer” on the BBC’s Later with Jools Holland.

On October 22, 2007, their debut single, “Hometown Glory” was published. In 2008, Adele won her first Brit Award. The Critics’ Choice Award opened at the awards and Adele won it as the critics’ choice before the release of her debut album. On January 28, 2008, Adele released her debut album, titled 19. Since its debut the album has been acclaimed by critics and sales, selling to this day about 10 million copies worldwide. The album debuted at number one and received three platinum certifications in the UK and two Grammys in 2009.

Adele’s rise in the United States began after a performance on Saturday Night Live in 2008. In its appearance, the show had its highest audience in fourteen years, with seventeen million viewers. Adele sang “Chasing Pavements” and “Cold Shoulder” the next day and 19 topped the iTunes charts and topped the Amazon.com Top 5, while “Chasing Pavements” climbed into the Top 25. The album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200 as a result, a jump of thirty-five places over the previous week. The album was certified gold in February 2009 by the Recording Industry Association of America. The name of the album refers to the age Adele was when she composed it.

“Hometown Glory”, peaked at number nineteen on the UK Singles Chart and number three in Belgium. The second single, “Chasing Pavements”, released on January 11, 2008, peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and eleventh on the Billboard Hot 100, and also made it into the Top 10 of five other countries. The third single was “Cold Shoulder”, released on April 28, 2008, peaking at number eighteen on the UK Singles Chart and third in Belgium. And the fourth and final single, “Make You Feel My Love”, released on October 27, 2008, cover of Bob Dylan’s song on the 1997 album Time Out of Mind, peaked at number four in the UK and Scotland, and entered the Top 5 of two other countries. Adele recorded “Make You Feel My Love” on the recommendation of Jonathan Dickins who loved the song.

Adele was nominated for a 2008 Mercury Prize for 19. She also won an Urban Music Award for “Best Jazz Artist”. She also received a Q Award nomination in the Breakthrough Act category and a Music of Black Origin nomination in the UK’s Best Woman category. In March 2008, Adele signed a contract with Columbia Records and XL Recordings for her foray into the United States. In May 2008, she began her first tour, An Evening with Adele, for album 19 which featured 53 shows that went through North America, Europe and Asia and ended in July 2009.

She later canceled the dates of the 2008 Us tour to be with an ex-boyfriend. She told Nylon magazine in June 2009, “I’m like, ‘I can’t believe I did this.’ You seem so ungrateful. I was drinking a lot and that was the basis of my relationship with this kid. I couldn’t bear to be without him, so I thought, ‘well, I’ll cancel my stuff then.’” She referred to this period as her “crisis of early life”. She is also known for her dislike of flights and attacks of longing when she is away from her native London.

In July 2008, Adele paid £8,000 for a painting commissioned by painter Stella Vine at a charity auction for Keep a Child Alive, a charity that helps African children and their families living with HIV/AIDS. Adele said she planned to ask Stella to paint a portrait of her and her mother.

In November 2009, Adele collaborated on the song “Water and a Flame” from Daniel Merriweather’s debut album Love & War. She participated in an MTV Unplugged in the United States in the same year.

At the 51st Grammy Awards in February 2009, Adele received the Award for Best New Artist, as well as the Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Chasing Pavements”, which was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. In 2010, she received another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, this time for the single Hometown Glory. During the 2010 CMT Special Artists of Year, Adele performed a duet of Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” alongside Darius Rucker. The duet was later nominated for a CMT Music Award.

2011–14: 21 and worldwide recognition

Adele released her second studio album 21 on January 24, 2011, in England and on February 22 in the United States on Columbia Records and XL Recordings. The album achieved great commercial and critical success, selling two hundred and eight thousand copies in the first week of UK sales debuting at number one on the UK Albums Chart and also topped the sales charts in several countries.

21 also debuted very well in the United States reaching number one on the Billboard 200 selling three hundred and fifty-two thousand copies in the first week. As well as album 19, 21 is also a reference to the age the singer was when she did so. The album has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. The production and co-composition of the album featured producers such as Paul Epworth, Dan Wilson, Ryan Tedder, Fraser T. Smith and Francis White.

“Rolling In The Deep” was released as the album’s first single on November 29, 2010. The song peaked at number one in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland, and was in the top ten of the biggest hits in Austria, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand and Norway and won several awards. Soon after, Adele released “Someone Like You” as the second single. The song was inspired by the end of a relationship. Following a live performance at the 2011 BRIT Awards, the song “Someone Like You” reached number one on the UK charts, while the album also remained number one in the country.

The Official Charts Company announced that Adele is the first artist to achieve, still alive, a song and an album as number one at the same time in England since The Beatles in 1964. It is the first time an artist has charted the top two spots on UK albums since The Corrs in 1999. The album stayed eleven consecutive weeks at number one, before being knocked off the top by Light Wasting of the Foo Fighters. The following week, however, she regained first place where she stayed for another five weeks. In July 2011, “Someone Like You” became the first song to sell over a million copies in the UK this decade.

On July 4, 2011, “Set Fire to the Rain” was released as the third single of 21. On October 28, during an interview with Billboard, Columbia Records revealed that “Rumour Has It” would be released as the album’s third single, however, the song’s version was undone and “Set Fire to the Rain” was released as the third single. The song’s live performance, taken from its video album, Live at the Royal Albert Hall, won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance. On November 5, 2011, “Rumour Has It” was declared the fourth single by the 21st.

To promote the album, in March 2011, Adele embarked on the Adele Live tour, which sold out her participation in North America. The tour ended in October 2011 and some shows were canceled due to voice problems. In October 2011, Adele was forced to cancel dates due to a vocal cord hemorrhage. On October 28, 2011, Columbia Records announced that Adele would undergo surgery. The singer released a statement saying she needed a long rest period to avoid permanent damage to her voice.

In the first week of November 2011, Steven M. Zeitels, director of the Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, performed laser surgery on Adele’s vocal cords to remove a benign polyp. In February 2012 she revealed that the surgery was successful in an interview with 60 Minutes, returning to perform the same month at the Grammy ceremony.

Adele released the iTunes Festival: London 2011 EP on July 14, 2011. The EP was recorded on July 7, 2011, and was released in digital download format. The singer was on the cover of the March 2011 issue of Vogue Americana magazine and was also on the cover of the same magazine in the October 2011 issue of the United Kingdom. On November 29, 2011, it was released Live at the Royal Albert Hall, which was recorded on September 22 during their tour.

By December 2011, 21 had sold over 3.4 million copies in the UK and became the best-selling album of the century, surpassing Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black. Soon after, journalist and author Chas Newkey-Burden wrote a dele’s official biography that was released in January 2012 by LeYa.

The TV series Glee has already made versions of “Rolling In The Deep”, “Rumour Has It”, “Someone Like You”, “Turning Tables” and “Chasing Pavements”. Adele also had the hits “Rolling in the Deep”, “Someone Like You” and “Set Fire to the Rain” on the soundtracks of Rede Globo’s soap operas. In October 2012, “Rolling In The Deep” was voted Song of the Year at the BMI Awards, being performed more than two million times on American radio and television, the equivalent of being heard repeatedly for over twelve years.

In February 2012, 21 was declared the seventh best-selling album of all time in the UK. Soon after, in December 2012, according to the Official Charts Company, the album became the fourth best-selling album of all time on British soil, surpassing several works by big names in music such as (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? of Oasis and behind only Queen’s Greatest Hits and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band of The Beatles. In the United States, the album has sold over ten million copies and is the first to sell three million digital copies in the country.

In October 2012, Adele released the theme song for the film 007 – Operation Skyfall, a film from the James Bond saga. The track “Skyfall” was officially released as a single on October 5, 2012, the 50th anniversary of Dr. No’s release and being the singer’s first new work since the release of 21. The song was composed by her and her collaborator Paul Epworth, who also worked with the singer on the hit “Rolling In The Deep”. “Skyfall” was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, a studio famous for its expressive recordings for the Beatles and in its arrangement featured an orchestra of 77 musicians.

About twenty-four hours after the song’s release on the internet, it reached number one of iTunes downloads in quarantine and six countries, including Brazil and Portugal. Skyfall has sold over two million copies worldwide. In January 2013, the song won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the following month became the first theme song in 50 years of the James Bond franchise to win the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Academy Award for Best Song. “Skyfall” also won the Grammy Award for Best Written Song for Visual Media.

On April 3, 2012, Adele confirmed that her third album would probably be at least two years away, stating, “I have to have time and live a little. There was a good two years between my first and second album. It’s going to be the same this time.” She stated that she would continue writing and composing her own material. At the 2013 Grammy Awards, she confirmed that she was in the early stages of her third album. She also stated that she will likely work with Paul Epworth again. In September 2013, Wiz Khalifa confirmed that he and Adele had collaborated on a song for their fifth studio album, Blacc Hollywood, although the collaboration was not part of the final tracklist.

On the eve of her 26th birthday in May 2014, Adele posted a cryptic message via her Twitter account, which sparked media discussion about her upcoming album. The message “Bye-bye 25… by the end of the year” was performed by some in the media, including the Daily Mail, in the sense that their next album would be titled 25 and released at the end of the year. In early August, Paul Moss suggested that an album would be released in 2014 or 2015. However, in the October 2014 accounts filed at Companies House by XL Recordings, they ruled out a 2014 release.

2015–17: 25 and Adele Live 2016

Ryan Tedder, the producer who also worked with Adele at 21, revealed in an interview that on her third album, Adele is making the best sound compared to her last two albums, 19 and 21, that she is at her best and remains her favorite artist in the world. In January 2014, songwriters Phil Collins and Diane Warren claimed to have written songs with Adele for the 21st successor, although the tracks did not enter the album.

On August 27, 2015, Billboard reported that XLS’s record label, XL Recordings, intended to release their third studio album in November 2015. Danger Mouse contributed one song, while Tobias Jesso Jr. wrote a track and Ryan Tedder is back in the mix after producing and co-writing “Rumor Has It” on 21. At the 72nd Venice International Film Festival in early September 2015, Sia announced that her new single “Alive” was co-written by Adele, and was originally intended for Adele’s third album. On October 17, 2015, in a commercial for The X Factor UK program, a 30-second excerpt from the singer’s new album “Hello” was released. On 22 November 20, 2015, she confirmed through her official website that she will release her new album, titled 25, on November 20, 2015.

In an open letter, Adele explained a little the concept of the new album. According to her, 21 was about love disillusionment and 25 talks about knowing the person she became without even realizing it. “Turning 25 was a turning point for me, a slap in my mid-20s. Being on the line between being an old-age teenager or a full adult made me decide to be who I’m going to be for the rest of my life without a moving truck packed with my old ladies. I miss everything, my past, the good and the bad, but only because I can’t go back. When I was there, I wanted to get out. So typical”.

Adele also believes that 25 will be her last album at her age as title, believing that 25 would be the end of a trilogy. Soon after, through her Instagram account, the singer spoke about the release of the single “Hello”, which would be released on the 23rd, at four o’clock in the morning, this same month. Also, the site Pitchfork Media reported that the release would take place on Friday, October 23, along with the premiere of the clip, directed by filmmaker Xavier Dolan, famous among moviegoers for indie films such as Mommy, J’ai tué ma mère and Laurence Anyways. Billboard confirmed the information. The official music video was released 30 minutes after the release of the single from the new album.

Within hours, the new single reached the top of more than 100 countries through the iTunes platform. The album 25 also did not sit behind, reached the top on the same platform in more than 90 countries. The album has compositions by Adele in partnership with the likes of Max Martin, Ryan Tedder, Greg Kurstin and Bruno Mars. 25 has 11 tracks in the standard version, and the Target version accompanies three more bonus tracks: “Can’t Let Go”, “Lay Me Down” and “Why Do You Love Me”.

The music video for “Hello” broke Vevo’s most-watched music video record in twenty-four hours, totaling twenty-three million views, later updated by VEVO itself to twenty-seven million and seven hundred thousand views as the actual record number, dethroning the old record that belonged to “Bad Blood”, by American singer Taylor Swift. The music video also broke the video record to reach the one billion views mark in the least time in YouTube history in 2 months and 28 days. The old record was “Gangnam Style” by Korean Psy which took five months and eight days for such a feat.

In an interview with BBC Radio, the singer revealed why it took so long to release an album: “I made an album about being a mother, and it was very boring,” commented the artist, who discarded the entire album to start one from scratch.

” It was really hard. Have some free time… I kind of lost the habit of comporting,” she told the interviewer, about the time she spent caring for her son and also about her career within the exercise of motherhood. Meanwhile, their aforementioned new single broke other records: it became the most performed song on the streaming service Spotify in 24 hours, being played nearly 5 million times, 1.88 million in the United States alone. Thus, Canadian singer Justin Bieber’s single “Sorry’ was released hours before “Hello”. Even in the midst of the streaming era, the song became the most successful in U.S. record history, selling nearly one million and one hundred thousand and surpassing the record of rapper Flo-Rida who had his single “Right Round” with over six hundred and thirty-six thousand copies sold in a week of sales.

With all this success, “Hello” debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Also, with her return to music, her last album, 21, released in 2011, climbed thirty-five positions on the Billboard 200 chart on the same Billboard, surpassing albums released last year and even in this same current year 2015, where it has been for more than two hundred and forty-five consecutive weeks.

Following the release of her new album, Adele recorded the live TV special, “Adele at the BBC”, where she sang some songs from the same album. The special was recorded on November 2 and presented on the day of the release of 25, being her first televised performance since the 2013 Oscars. She also performed her new singles and made an appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 21, the day after the official release of her album. The singer performed the Adele Live in New York City concert at Radio City Music Hall on November 17, which was broadcast on NBC the following month. In March 2016, she printed the cover of American Vogue magazine, in which she posed in a photo shoot for Annie Leibovitz and gave an interview talking about her career, motherhood and others.

On November 27, 25 debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and became the best-selling album in UK chart history in its first week, with over 800,000 copies sold. The album debuted at number one in the United States, where it sold a record 3.38 million copies in its first week, the biggest week of sales of an album since Nielsen company began monitoring sales in 1991. 25 also broke the first-week sales records in Canada and New Zealand.

25 became the best-selling album of 2015 in several countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, spending seven consecutive weeks at number one in each country, before being replaced by David Bowie with his album Blackstar. It was the best-selling album worldwide in 2015, with 17.4 million copies sold. 25 has sold over 20 million copies globally. Adele’s seven weeks at the top of the UK Albums Chart took her total to 31 weeks at number one in the UK, with her three albums surpassing Madonna’s previous record for most weeks at number one for a female act.

According to the Sunday Times, in 2015 for the fourth year running Adele was named as the UK’s richest artist under 30. In the same year it was estimated that, among singles and albums, Adele has sold over 100 million records, making her one of the world’s record-breaking musical artists. She began her Adele Live 2016 world tour on February 29, which is supported on the album 25. The latest dates were held in 2017, and her name was changed to Adele Live 2017. Starting in Europe, Adele Live 2016 included four dates at the Manchester Arena in March 2016, six dates at the O2 Arena, London, with other dates in Ireland, Spain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, among others. Their North American tour began on July 5 in St. Louis. Paul, Minnesota.

The part included six nights at Madison Square Garden in New York, eight nights at staples center in Los Angeles, and four nights at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada. Adele broke Taylor Swift’s record of five shows for most consecutive sold-out shows at Staples Center. The tour featured 122 shows that passed through Europe, North America and Oceania. She performed in Lisbon on May 21 and 22 at the Altice Arena. Adele played at the 2016 Glastonbury Festival, which took place on June 25 in England, to an audience of 160,000 people, her biggest show to date.

In February 2017, Adele paid tribute to George Michael at the Grammy Awards, performing the song “Fastlove” in honor of the musician who passed away in December 2016. Due to technical difficulties that occurred during the performance, Adele decided to stop and restart, explaining, “I can’t screw it up for him”.

As part of her world tour in February and March 2017, Adele performed in Australia for the first time, performing in outdoor stadiums across the country. Her first two shows in New Zealand sold out in a record 23 minutes, and a third show was announced, with all tickets sold out in less than 30 minutes. Adele sold over 600,000 tickets for her eight-date Australian tour, setting stadium records across the country; her Sydney show at ANZ Stadium on March 10 was attended by 95,544 people, the largest solo show in Australian history, a record she broke the following night with over 100,000 fans. Adele completed her world tour with two concerts, dubbed “The Finale“, at Wembley Stadium. London on 28 and 29 June.

She announced the shows at the “football house” by video singing the anthem “Three Lions” of the England national football team and also the theme song of the BBC’s weekly football program, Match of the Day. Adele had added two other concerts at Wembley after the first two had sold out, however, she canceled the last two shows after damaging her vocal cords. As a show of support, fans gathered in front of Wembley Stadium to perform their songs at an event titled “Sing for Adele”. In November 2017 she was the second highest-paid singer of the year according to Forbes, second only to singer Beyoncé and ahead of Taylor Swift. The singer amassed a total of $69 million as a result of ticket sales for her 25th album world tour. In 2018, her fortune was estimated at £147.5 million.

2018-present: 30

Adele began working on her fourth studio album in 2018. On May 5, 2019, the date of her 31st birthday, Adele posted several black and white photos of herself celebrating her birthday along with a message on her Instagram account, reflecting on the previous year. The message ended with “30 will be a drum recording and bass to bother you”. Outlets, including NME, considered the post as an indication of the sound of the new album and that it would be released soon. On February 15, 2020, Adele announced at the wedding of her friend Laura Dockrill that her fourth studio album would come out in September 2020. However, she later announced that her fourth album had been postponed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

On October 24, 2020, Adele made her first television appearance in about four years on Saturday Night Live, where she hosted the show with musical guest H.And.R.. On November 19, 2021, Adele released 30, the fourth studio album and the first unreleased album of the artist in almost 6 years. On November 30, 2021, Adele announced a Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, which would take place from January 21, 2022, to April 16, 2022. On January 20, she announced that the residency would be postponed due to “delays in deliveries and to COVID”.

On February 8, 2022, the singer performed at the Brit Awards ceremony performing the song “I Drink Wine”, from her new album, on top of a piano. On the same occasion, he took the award in the categories “Artist of the Year”, “Album of the Year” for 30 and “Song of the Year” by Easy on Me.

Musical characteristics

Adele influences

Adele cited the Spice Girls as a major influence on their love and passion for music, stating that “they did what I am today”. Adele impersonated them during family dinners as a child. She stated that she was “heartbroken” when her favorite member, Geri Halliwell, ginger spice, left the group. She also stated that as she grew up, she heard Sinéad O’Connor, The Cure, Dusty Springfield, Celine Dion and Annie Lennox.

One of Adele’s first influences was singer Gabrielle, whom she has admired since she was five years old. In adele’s elementary school days, her mother slapped her with sequins that she used to act as Gabrielle in a school talent contest. After moving to South London in 1997, she became interested in R&B artists such as Aaliyah, Destiny’s Child, Lauryn Hill and Mary J. Blige. Adele says that one of the most remarkable moments in her life was when she watched Pink perform at Brixton Academy in London.

She states: “It was the Missundaztood album, so I was about 13 or 14. I’ve never seen anyone sing like that live […] I remember feeling like I was in a wind tunnel and your voice hitting me. It was amazing”.

In 2002, at the age of 14, Adele discovered Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald when she went through the artists’ albums in the jazz section of her local music store. She was attracted by the appearance of album covers. Adele claims that she then began listening to Etta James “every night for an hour”, and in the process was beginning to know her own voice. Amy Winehouse’s first studio album Frank inspired her to start playing guitar and guitar, stating, “If it wasn’t for Amy and Frank, I wouldn’t have picked up a guitar, I wouldn’t have composed ‘Daydreamer’ or ‘Hometown’… And I wrote ‘Someone Like You’ on guitar too (…) If I hadn’t listened to Frank this wouldn’t have happened”.

Amy Winehouse was a major influence on her, as was Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Dusty Springfield, Carole King, Roberta Flack, Ella Fitzgerald, Dolly Parton and Beyoncé Knowles. Beyoncé also cited Adele as one of her influences for her fourth album 4. Adele wrote on her Instagram after Aretha Franklin’s death: “I can’t remember a day of my life without the voice and music of Aretha Franklin filling my heart with so much joy and sadness”.

She is also a fan of Lana Del Rey, Grimes, Chvrches, FKA Twigs, Alabama Shakes, Kanye West, Rihanna, Frank Ocean and Stevie Nicks. In 2017, she described Beyoncé as a particular inspiration, calling her “the artist of my life” and added, “The other artists who mean as much as Beyoncé to me are all dead”. Adele cited Madonna’s Ray of Light as an influence on her album 25.

Céline Dion sang Adele songs during some concerts and said, “I like Adele so much. She’s fantastic”. Dave Grohl, Slash, Stevie Nicks and Pharrell Williams also praised Adele in interviews.

Musical style

Her musical style is predominantly soulful, with influences from R&B and pop. Adele’s first album, 19, follows the soul genre, with lyrics describing love, relationships and heartbreak. Her early success occurred simultaneously with several other British soul singers and the English press, called her the new Amy Winehouse. This was described as the “third British musical invasion of the US”. AllMusic wrote that “Adele is simply too magical to compare her to anyone”.

Her second album, 21, shares the same folk and soul influences from her debut album, but was further inspired by American country and Southern blues music, which the artist had been exposed to during her first North American tour in 2009.

Composed in the aftermath of Adele’s separation from her partner, the album typifies the tradition of confessional composition in its exploration of heartbreak, self-examination, and forgiveness. Having referred to 21 as a “breakup record”, Adele labeled her third studio album, 25, a “conciliation record”, adding that it was about “making up for the lost time. Making up for everything I’ve done and never done.” Her longing for her former me, her nostalgia and melancholy about the passage of time, is a feature of disc 25, with Adele stating, “I’ve been regretting some things since I turned 25. […] That age was decisive for me. It was the transition from becoming a full-fledged adult”.

Voice

Some professionals identify Adele’s voice as a dramatic half-soprano with extension ranging from C₃ to C₆. However, classic FM radio reported that her voice is often confused with a contralto due to the application of a tense mixed voice with chest predominance, while also noting that her voice becomes clearer as it extends, particularly from C₄ to C_5.

Rolling Stone reported that after throat surgery her voice became “remarkably larger and purer-toned”, and that she had added four higher notes to her vocal range. Initially, critics suggested that her vocals were more developed and intriguing than her compositions, a feeling Adele agrees with on her debut album, where she talks about relationships and broken hearts. She stated, “I learned to sing by listening to Ella Fitzgerald for stunts and scales, Etta James for passion and Roberta Flack for control”.

Her voice was acclaimed by critics. In a review of 19, The Observer published: “The way she stretched the vowels, her wonderful phrasing, the sheer absolute pleasure of her voice, stood out even more; little doubt that she is a rare singer”. BBC Music wrote: “Her melodies exude heat, his singing is occasionally impressive and, … she has tracks that make Lily Allen and Kate Nash sound as common as they are”. For her 21 stakes in The New York Times, music critic Jon Pareles praised Adele’s timbre, comparing it to Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark and Annie Lennox: “[Adele] can do a lot of things, but the way she performs makes her attract more attention to the song than to the singer”. Tom Townshend of MSN declared her “the best singer of our generation”.

Personal life of Adele

During the Summer of 2008, Adele began a relationship with Slinky Sunbeam (which possibly inspired the creation of album 21), but in 2009 the courtship ended. After other casual relationships, in January 2011 she began dating businessman Simon Christopher Konecki, a former student of Eton College and CEO of Drop4Drop, a philanthropic NGO for cleaning and distributing drinking water in needy countries. In February, after a month of dating, the couple moved in together in a mansion valued at £6 million in the English countryside. The big house was once inhabited by Paul McCartney. In June 2012, she announced on her official website that she was pregnant.

The singer gave birth to Angelo James Adkins on October 19, 2012, born in a normal birth in London. Her son has a paternal half-sister, five years her birthday, the result of her ex-husband’s first marriage. Initially, Adele did not reveal her son’s name to the public, but in a post-Golden Globe interview she affectionately nicknamed it “Little Peanut”, which in Portuguese means “Little Peanut”. Shortly after, the press found out the child’s name. Adele and Konecki sued a British photo agency for unauthorizedly publishing images of their son’s face taken by paparazzi during family outings in 2013.  In 2014, the process was won.

Adele claimed to have suffered postpartum depression after the birth of her son, Angelo: “I was obsessed with my son. I felt very inadequate, I felt I had made the worst decision of my life”, she declared. Interviews revealed that she cried for three months after the birth of her son, revealing that the pregnancy was not planned, and that she already knew that she could face a new depression after childbirth, because in adolescence she was attending psychotherapy, because at the time she faced depression due to low self-esteem because of her excess weight.

Initially, she didn’t tell anyone about her new depressive crisis, only her husband Konecki knew, but after a year she overcame depression through individual psychotherapy and collective therapy, with women who experienced the same situation. Adele revealed that during her adolescence and early adulthood, she underwent psychiatric treatment, and took antidepressants and anxiolytics to treat her anxiety and panic attacks.

In 2013, the singer got three tattoos. Adele tattooed the letter “A” behind the ear, tattooed the word “Paradise” on her left hand and tattooed the number “1921” on her wrist, which represents her first two albums released. Previously, Adele had two tattoos on her left wrist, the writing “One Penny” that honors her mother and the other are three points in a row “… ” in which it indicates that she is friends with the members of the band The Civil Wars. In the same year, Adele tattooed birds on her back.

Stylist Karl Lagerfeld, in February 2012, sparked controversy by saying about Adele’s weight in an interview: “She’s a little too fat but has a beautiful face and a divine voice,” Lagerfeld later apologized to the singer and her fans. In early 2013, American comedian Joan Rivers satirized the artist’s weight on an American talk show. Asked about her body, Adele said in an interview with SiriusXM Town Hall in 2015:

“I have problems with my body image, of course, but I don’t let it dominate my life. There are bigger issues going on in the world than thinking about how I feel about myself and things like that. There’s only one of you, so why do you want to look like someone else? Why do you want to have the same hair as everyone else and have the same opinions as them?”
Adele, 2013

In August 2015, Adele stated that due to constant shortness of breath due to obesity, which was impairing her performance on stage, she decided to radically change her lifestyle: She began to exercise daily, losing 50 pounds, and she had this success after stopping drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes, where she also stopped eating red meat, processed foods and drinking soft drinks: “I started to feel better and better, both physically and emotionally,” she said. Adele chose to dedicate herself to her family, leaving her artistic career in the background. The artist turned down an offer of 80 million pounds (about 110 million euros) to promote her third album, for wanting to devote herself to her own health and the creation of her son.

Politically, she is a Labour Party supporter, claiming in 2011 that she was “a Labour girl altogether”, although in May 2011 she advocated a lower tax rate for high-income people; contrary to that of the Labour Party. In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, she stated, “I’m a feminist. I believe that everyone should be treated the same, including race and sexuality”.

In early 2017, some tabloids began speculating that Adele and Konecki had secretly married when they were spotted wearing matching rings on their ring fingers. During her acceptance speech at the 2017 Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, Adele confirmed her marriage by calling her husband Konecki. She subsequently clarified her marital status in March 2017, telling the audience at a show in Brisbane, Australia: “I’m married now”. The couple formalized the marital union in 2016 in a civil ceremony, attended only by family and close friends. Due to constant marital disagreements, Adele divorced in 2019. The separation was amicable, and Adele did not ask for alimony, and neither Simon demanded money. The former couple became a neighbor, so that the son did not miss his father after he left home. In 2021, the divorce was finalized.

Public image

Adele, in 2012, was considered by Chris Molanphy of Rolling Stone as the “Queen of Pop” in a count of sixteen artists that in this ranking also included Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, among others. It is also considered by Guinness Book of Records editor Craig Glenday as “a wonderful model for aspiring singers”. In 2013, she was listed as number five of the “100 Greatest Women in Music”.  On the other hand, Time magazine ranked her as one of the most influential people in the world. On July 3, her wax statue was exhibited at the Madame Tussauds Museum in London.

Philanthropy of Adele

Adele has performed in several concerts and philanthropic events during her career. In 2007 and 2008, she performed at The Little Noise Sessions, held at London’s Union Chapel, and concert proceeds were given to the Mencap organization, which works with people with learning disabilities. In July and November 2008, she performed at Keep A Child Alive, an institution that treats children and families affected by HIV in London and New York, respectively. On September 17, 2009, she performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for vh1’s Divas event, a fundraising concert for Save the Music Foundation. On December 6, Adele opened with a 40-minute set of John Mayer’s 2nd Annual Holiday Charity Revue, held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. In 2011, the singer gave a free concert to London Pride, an LGBT community charity, which held events in London.

Adele was a major contributor to the MusiCares Foundation, a Grammy Award-founded charity for musicians in need. In February 2009, Adele performed at a beneficial MusiCares concert in Los Angeles. In 2011 and 2012, she gave her autographed items to support MusiCares.

When Adele was touring Europe she asked fans who attended her to make a donation of at least $20 to the UK Charity Sands, an institution dedicated to “supporting anyone affected by the death of a baby and promoting investigations to reduce the loss of newborn lives.” During her tour of that region, $13,000 was raised for charity.

On 15 June 2017, Adele attended a vigil in west London for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire, where, while keeping a low profile, she was only spotted by a small group of fans. Four days later, she showed up at Chelsea fire station and took cakes to the fire department. Station manager Ben King stated, “She came in, had a cup of tea at the barracks, and then joined us for the minute’s silence”. In tribute to the victims, at her first show at Wembley Stadium on June 28, Adele held a fundraiser with her fans to donate funds to help the victims of the fire, rather than wasting money on “overpriced wine”.

Discography

• 19th (2008)
• 21 (2011)
• 25th (2015)
• 30th (2021)

Filmography

Year	Title	Notes
2007	Later… With Jools Holland	Episode: June 8, 2007
2008		Episode: April 1, 2008
	Never Mind the Buzzcocks	Episode: October 4, 2008
	Saturday Night Live	Episode: “Josh Brolin / Adele”
	BBC Electric Proms	October 22, 2008
	Sound	Episode: December 6, 2008
	Jools’ Annual Hootenanny	Episode: December 31, 2008
2009	Ugly Betty	Episode: “In the Stars” – singing “Right as Rain”
	Never Mind the Buzzcocks	Episode: July 23, 2009
2011	Later… With Jools Holland	Episode: May 6, 2011
2012	Live at the Royal Albert Hall	Program that features the highlights of a concert given by Adele on September 21, 2011, as part of her Adele Live tour.
2015	Adele at the BBC	Television special
	Saturday Night Live	Episode: “Matthew McConaughey / Adele”
	Adele Live in New York City	NBC television special, also executive producer.
2016	Glastonbury 2016	Adele starred in pyramid stage at music festival
2020	Saturday Night Live	Episode: “Adele / H.And.R.”
2021	Adele: One Night Only	American television special by CBS with performances of the album 30, and an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
	An Audience with Adele	British TV special by ITV with performances of the album 30, and patleia with celebrities.

Tours

Shows as lead artist

• An Evening with Adele (2008–2009)
• Adele Live (2011)
• Adele Live 2016 (2016-2017)

Residence

• Weekends with Adele (November 18, 2022 – March 25, 2023)

Adele awards and nominations

Adele’s list of awards and nominations consists of 426 prizes won. At the Grammy Awards in 2009, Adele was nominated for 4 categories, having won in 2 categories, for New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

At the 2012 ceremony, Adele won six awards, winning in all categories in which she was nominated. She won Best Recording of the Year for “Rolling in the Deep”, Album of the Year for 21, Song of the Year for “Rolling In the Deep”, Best Pop Solo Performance for “Someone Like You”, Best Pop Album by 21 and Best Music Video – short version for “Rolling In the Deep” and became the artist with the most awards won in a single night at the awards, thus tying with Beyoncé Knowles who achieved the same fact in another ceremony. Adele won three American Music Awards in 2011 and at the Billboard Music Awards, she won 12 awards in 2012.

At the BRIT Awards, Adele has 9 awards won out of 13 nominations. Critics’ Choice in 2008, British Album by 21 and Adele as British Solo Artist (female) in 2012 and Best British Single for Skyfall. In 2009 she received three award nominations but did not win. In 2016 Adele won three awards out of four nominations received, Best British Solo Artist (female), British Single of the Year for “Hello”, British Album of the Year for 25 plus the honorary global success award given to Adele at the ceremony..

Adele won twelve awards out of eighteen nominations at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards at: Top Artist, Top Digital Songs Artists, Top Digital Media Artist, Top Radio Songs Artist, Top Billboard 200 Artist, Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Female Artist, Top Pop Artist and Top Billboard 200 Album (21), Top Pop Album (21), Top Streaming Song (audio) (“Rolling In The Deep”), Top Alternative Song (“Rolling In The Deep”).

In 2013, the singer won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song with her song “Skyfall”, made for the twenty-third film in the 007 franchise. The single also won the Oscar award for the same category becoming the first theme song in 50 years in the James Bond franchise to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song. In 2014, Adele won her tenth Grammy Award, with “Skyfall”, in the category of Best Written Song for Visual Media.

At the Ivor Novello Awards in 2012 and 2016, she was named Composer of the Year by the British Academy of Lyrists, Composers and Authors. In 2016, Adele was nominated at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Musical Performance on Talk Show for her performance of “Million Years Ago”, contained on album 25 on the Today Show and also received 4 nominations for the television special Live in New York City. In February 2017, she won in all five categories she had been nominated for, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Record of the Year, making Adele the only artist to win in those three categories in one night twice.

References (sources)

«Waiting for New Albums From Rihanna, Adele, Frank Ocean, and Robyn». Vogue;  «Adele slams David Cameron as a Wally». Daily Mirror; Article, Wikipedia; «Songs About What Went Wrong, but Performed So Right». The New York Times;  «In the Studio: Adele Goes Country on Fall Disc». Rolling Stone.