Adele - The Voice of a Generation - Discover Her Iconic Music and Journey 

Full Name: Adele Laurie Blue Adkins
Date of Birth: May 5, 1988
Place of Birth: Tottenham, London, England
Occupation: Singer-songwriter
Genres: Soul, Pop, Blue-eyed Soul, R&B
Instruments: Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Bass
Years Active: 2006 - Present

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins MBE (/əˈdɛl/; born May 5, 1988), known simply as Adele, is a British singer and songwriter. She was offered a recording contract with XL Recordings after a friend posted a demo of her music on Myspace in 2006. The following year, she won the Critics' Choice award at the Brit Awards and was named the BBC's Sound of 2008. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 and achieved significant commercial and critical success in the UK. The album was certified quadruple platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US. Her career in the US skyrocketed after her appearance on Saturday Night Live in late 2008. At the 2009 Grammy Awards, Adele won the awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Biography of Adele

Early Life
Adele was born in Tottenham, North London, on May 5, 1988. Her mother, Penny Adkins (born around 1970), is English, while her father, Mark Evans, is Welsh. Evans left the family when Adele was two years old, leaving the young mother to raise Adele alone, and Adele has stated that she would never forgive him. She began singing at the age of four and claimed to be obsessed with voices at that time. Growing up, Adele spent more time singing than reading, stating that the last book she read at six years old was Roald Dahl's Matilda. Adele cites the Spice Girls as a major inspiration, saying, "They helped me become who I am today." She also recalled that she often pretended to be one of the Spice Girls at dinner parties when she was young. She was "devastated" when her favorite Spice Girl, Geri Halliwell, also known as "Ginger Spice," left the group. To make Adele look like the contemporary R&B singer Gabrielle, her mother made her a sparkly eye makeup look similar to the singer's, which Adele found embarrassing.

In 1997, Adele and her mother, who at that time was working as an interior designer and organizing adult education activities, moved to Brighton. Two years later, they returned to London, first to Brixton and then to the neighboring West Norwood in South London. West Norwood became the subject of Adele's first recording titled "Hometown Glory," which she wrote when she was just 16. After moving to South London, she began to admire R&B artists like Aaliyah, Destiny's Child, and Mary J. Blige.

Adele stated that one of the defining moments of her life was watching Pink perform at the Brixton Academy. "She sang 'Missundaztood,' and I was about 13 or 14. I had never heard anyone, especially performing indoors, sing live like that [...] I remember feeling like I was in a ventilation shaft; her voice was urging me. It was amazing."

At the age of 14, Adele stumbled upon Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald while passing by the jazz artists' CD section in a local record store, and she was drawn in by their images on the album covers. Adele said she "started listening to Etta James for an hour every night," and gradually she began to "discover her own voice." Adele graduated from the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in May 2006, the same school attended by Leona Lewis and Jessie J. Adele believes that this school nurtured her talent, although at that time, she wanted to study management and talent discovery, hoping to build a music career for others.

Career (2006–2010): Early Days and Album 19

Four months after graduating, she released two songs in the fourth issue of the music website Platforms Magazine. She also recorded a demo of three songs for a class project and gave it to a friend. This friend posted it on Myspace, which led to her initial success, particularly a call from Richard Russell, the head of XL Recordings. She was skeptical about this enticing offer because the only record label she knew was Virgin Records, and she decided to bring her friend along to the meeting.

Nick Huggett, who worked at XL, introduced Adele to manager Jonathan Dickins at September Management, and in June 2006, Dickins became her official representative. September Management was also managing Jamie T at that time, which gained Adele's trust as she was a fan of Jamie T. Huggett later signed Adele to XL in September 2006. Adele provided vocals for Jack Peñate's song "My Yvonne," which appeared on his debut album, and this was also when she met producer Jim Abbiss, who would produce most of the songs on her debut album, 19, as well as her second album, 21. Adele's breakthrough song, "Hometown Glory," was released in October 2007. She supported Will Young at the MENCAP Little Noise Sessions concert in 2007, a charity event for the Islington Catholic Federation in London.

In 2008, she was the featured artist and performed acoustic sets with Damien Rice. She became the first recipient of the BRIT Awards' Critics' Choice award and was voted the most promising artist of 2008 by the BBC's Sound of 2008, an annual poll of music critics. 19, named after Adele's age when she wrote the songs, debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. The Times' Encyclopedia of Modern Music described 19 as a "foundational" blue-eyed soul recording. She released her second single, "Chasing Pavements," on January 14, 2008, two weeks after her debut album. The single reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and remained there for four weeks. Adele was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2008 for 19. She also won an award at the Urban Music Awards for Best Jazz Act. She received a nomination for the Q Awards in the Breakthrough Artist category and a nomination for the Music of Black Origin award for Best British Female.

In March 2008, Adele signed with Columbia Records and XL Recordings to break into the US market. She began a short tour in North America that month, and 19 was released in the US in June. Billboard remarked, "Adele truly has the potential to become one of the most respected and inspiring international artists of her generation." The global tour, "An Evening with Adele," began in May 2008 and concluded in June the following year.

She later canceled her US tour in 2008 to be with her then-boyfriend. She told Nylon magazine in June 2009, "I thought, 'I can't believe I'm doing this.' It seemed a bit selfish... I was drinking too much, and that was a fundamental part of my relationship with him. I couldn't live without him, and I thought, 'Okay, I'll just cancel everything.'" By mid-October 2008, it seemed that Adele's efforts to break into the US market were nearly failing. She then performed as a guest on an episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live on October 18, 2008. The episode featured vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and received the highest ratings in 14 years with 17 million viewers. Adele performed two songs, "Chasing Pavements" and "Cold Shoulder," and the next day, 19 topped the iTunes chart and ranked fifth on Amazon.com, while "Chasing Pavements" climbed to number 25. The album reached number 11 on the Billboard 200 the following week, a jump of 35 places from the previous week.

In November 2008, Adele moved to Notting Hill after leaving her mother's home, a transition that helped her gradually give up drinking. The album was certified gold in February 2009 by the Recording Industry Association of America. By July 2009, the album had sold 2.2 million copies worldwide.

In 2010, Adele received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Hometown Glory." In April, her song "My Same" entered the German singles chart after being performed by Lena Meyer-Landrut on the talent show Unser Star für Oslo (Our Star for Oslo), a show to select Germany's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. By the end of September, after performing on The X Factor, Adele's version of "Make You Feel My Love" (originally by Bob Dylan) entered the UK singles chart at number four. In a special 2010 CMT Artists of the Year show, Adele performed "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum alongside Darius Rucker. This performance was later nominated for a CMT Music Award.

2011–2013: 21 and Worldwide Fame

Adele released her second studio album, 21, on January 24, 2011, in the UK and on February 22 in the US. Adele revealed that the album was inspired by a failed relationship with her ex-boyfriend. The album's sound was described as a blend of classic and contemporary country and folk. This shift from her first album came after Adele happened to hear a contemporary Nashville song while touring the southern US. The album's title also indicated the transformation she underwent two years prior to its release. Adele stated in Spin magazine, "I find it interesting because I never grew up with that music." 21 topped the charts in 26 countries, including the UK and the US.

Her emotional performance of "Someone Like You" at the 2011 BRIT Awards on February 15 contributed to the song reaching number one in the UK. Her debut album 19 re-entered the UK Albums Chart alongside 21, while both singles "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone Like You" made it into the top five of the UK Singles Chart, making Adele the first living artist to have two records in the top five of the Official Singles Chart and Official Albums Chart simultaneously since The Beatles in 1964. Both songs topped charts in multiple markets and broke numerous sales records. Following her performance of "Someone Like You" at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, the song became Adele's second number one single on the Billboard Hot 100. By December 2011, 21 had sold 3.4 million copies in the UK, becoming the best-selling album of the 21st century, surpassing Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, while Adele became the first artist to sell three million albums in the UK in a single year. "Set Fire to the Rain" became her third number one single on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first artist to have an album at number one on the Billboard 200 while simultaneously having three number one singles.

To promote the album, Adele launched the "Adele Live" tour, which sold out completely in North America. In October 2011, Adele was forced to cancel two tour dates due to a vocal cord hemorrhage. She announced that she needed to take a long break to avoid long-term damage to her voice. In early November 2011, Steven M. Zeitels, director of the Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, performed laser microsurgery to remove a benign polyp from Adele's vocal cords.

A live album from her tour, Live at the Royal Albert Hall, was released in November 2011, debuting at number one in the US with 96,000 copies sold. This was the highest sales for a DVD in four years and became the best-selling music DVD of 2011. Adele became the first artist in Nielsen SoundScan history to have the year's top album (21), the year's top single ("Rolling in the Deep"), and the year's top music video. At the 2011 American Music Awards on November 20, Adele won three awards, including Favorite Female Pop/Rock Artist, Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, and Favorite Pop/Rock Album for 21. On December 9, Billboard named Adele Artist of the Year, 21 Album of the Year, and "Rolling in the Deep" Song of the Year, making her the first woman to top all three categories.

After her vocal surgery, Adele returned to the stage in February 2012 at the 54th Grammy Awards. She won all six awards for which she was nominated, becoming the second female artist in Grammy history after Beyoncé to achieve such a feat in one night. Following this success, 21 experienced its highest weekly sales increase after the Grammy win since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991.

Adele received a Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist and Album of the Year, presented by George Michael. After the Brit Awards, 21 achieved its 21st consecutive week at number one in the UK. The album sold over 4.5 million copies in the UK and is the fourth best-selling album of all time. By November, the album surpassed the 10 million mark in the US. Adele is the only artist in a decade to receive diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America for a single album in less than two years since its release.

In October 2012, Adele confirmed that she was writing, composing, and recording the theme song for Skyfall, the twenty-third James Bond film. The song "Skyfall" was co-written with producer Paul Epworth, recorded at Abbey Road Studios, and orchestrated by J. A. C. Redford. Adele stated that recording "Skyfall" was "one of the proudest moments of my life." On October 14, "Skyfall" reached number two on the UK Singles Chart with sales of 92,000 copies, bringing its total sales to 176,000. This made "Skyfall" the highest-charting James Bond theme song on the UK Singles Chart, tying with Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill." The song debuted at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, selling 261,000 copies in its first three days in the US. "Skyfall" sold over two million copies worldwide and earned Adele a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and an Academy Award for Best Original Song. In December 2012, Adele was named Billboard's Artist of the Year, while 21 was recognized as Album of the Year, making her the first artist to receive both honors in consecutive years. The Associated Press named Adele the Entertainer of the Year for 2012. At the 55th Grammy Awards, her live performance of "Set Fire to the Rain" won the Grammy for Best Solo Pop Performance, bringing her total Grammy wins to nine.

2013–2014: Absence

On April 3, 2012, Adele confirmed that her third album would not be released for another two years, stating, "I need to take time and live a little. The two-year gap between my first and second albums went really well, so I think it will be the same this time." She mentioned that she would continue to write music. At the 2013 Grammy Awards, Adele confirmed she was in the early stages of her third album and had meetings while in Los Angeles for the Oscars, despite previously denying rumors. She also indicated that it was likely she would collaborate again with Paul Epworth. Other potential collaborators included Kid Harpoon, James Ford, Damon Albarn, Phil Collins, Ryan Tedder, and Diane Warren.

In September 2013, Wiz Khalifa confirmed that he and Adele had collaborated on a song for his upcoming album Blacc Hollywood, although it did not make the final cut. In January 2014, Adele won her tenth Grammy for "Skyfall" in the category of Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 56th Grammy Awards. On her 26th birthday in May 2014, Adele posted a cryptic message on her Twitter account, prompting media speculation about her next album. Her tweet read, "Bye bye 25... See you again later in the year," which some outlets interpreted as a hint that her next album would be titled 25 and released that year. Adele was nominated for nine awards at the World Music Awards. In early August of the same year, Paul Moss stated that an album would be released in 2014 or 2015.

2015–Present: Third Studio Album

In late August 2015, Billboard reported that Adele's record label was preparing to release her third studio album in November. On October 20, 2015, the album was revealed to contain 11 tracks. "Hello" marked Adele's spectacular return, breaking records such as the most views for a music video in 24 hours on YouTube (with 27.7 million views, surpassing Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood") and the fastest music video to reach 100 million views in just over four days (previously held by Miley Cyrus with "Wrecking Ball"). The album, titled 25, was released to the public on November 21, 2015, and within a week, it shattered numerous records set by other famous artists. It became the best-selling album of all time in the US, with over 3 million copies sold in the first five days, breaking the record previously held by NSYNC and Britney Spears from 15 years prior. It also became the best-selling album of all time in the UK, with over 700,000 copies sold in its first week. Following its release, 25 broke the world record for the fastest-selling album in history, with Nielsen Music reporting 3.38 million copies sold in its first week. 25 officially entered the record books as the album with the highest one-week sales record for any territory.

Personal Life

In January 2012, Adele confirmed her relationship with charity entrepreneur and former Eton student Simon Konecki, which began in the summer of 2011. In June 2012, Adele announced that she and Konecki were expecting their first child. Their son, Angelo, was born on October 19, 2012. Adele and Konecki successfully sued a UK-based photo agency for violating their privacy by publishing photos of their son in 2013.

Adele has faced criticism from some celebrities, such as Karl Lagerfeld and Joan Rivers, regarding her weight and body image, but she has also received support from many other artists. Adele has stated that she is happy with her weight and would only change it if it affected her health or sex life. In a 2009 interview, she said, "I like to look nice, but I always find satisfaction in fashion. I don't think skinny girls are attractive; you have to be happy and healthy. I have no issues with my appearance. I'd rather have lunch with my friends than go to the gym."

Politically, Adele supports the Labour Party, having stated in 2011 that she is a "proper Labour girl." In May 2011, reports surfaced about her disagreements with the tax system. After the success of her debut album, Adele purchased a home in Notting Hill , London, in 2009. In February 2012, Adele and Konecki moved to a 10-bedroom mansion worth £7 million in a 25-acre estate in West Sussex. Born in Tottenham, she is a supporter of the Tottenham Hotspur football club.

Style

Critics have noted the development of her vocal abilities and songwriting skills, which Adele herself agrees with. She has expressed, "I taught myself to sing by listening to Ella Fitzgerald's precision (acrobatics) and phrasing, Etta James's passion, and Roberta Flack's control." Adele's debut album is rooted in soul, with lyrics that reflect heartbreak. Her success coincided with a wave of other British soul artists, and the British media dubbed her the new Amy Winehouse. This was seen as the third British invasion of the US music scene. However, Adele considers comparisons to other soul artists to be thoughtless and retorts that "we are a genre, not a category." AllMusic has stated, "Adele is simply too magical to compare her to anyone else."

Adele cites Etta James as her biggest musical influence. She has mentioned that while growing up, she listened to music from the Spice Girls, The Cure, Dusty Springfield, Céline Dion, Annie Lennox, and Pink. She asserts that her mother, who is very close to her, inspired her with the music of Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, and Alicia Keys.