These past few weeks have significantly been about this incredibly talented British singer and songwriter. It’s been six long years since her last album and the excitement towards the new Adele has resonated amongst music fans across the globe. Adele is a global phenomenon at this point, and probably can be described as one of the custodians of modern pop music culture. Her music is widely sought after by listeners all over the world and despite the long waiting period everyone has had to endure for this new body of work, including having it’s original release plans shifted because of an excruciating pandemic year, she is not relenting in feeding us with new music. Perhaps it just may be what a lot of people need at this point, a means to let their pains flow through her music which has a reputation for expressing heartaches and aftermaths of pain. Adele has even casually mentioned in an Instagram live that the new album is about divorce, so however the form she has decided to take on 30 and share with the world, we are all ready to take it in on the 19th of November 2021, exactly 5 years, 11 months and 30 days from her last album, 25.
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, (born May 5, 1988, Tottenham, London, England), is an English pop singer and songwriter with a very soulful and strongly emotional voice. Her traditionally crafted songs have made her one of the most broadly popular performers of her generation. She was born to an English mother, Penny Adkins, and a Welsh father, Marc Evans, but was however raised by just her mother as Evans left when Adele was 2. She began singing at age 4 and enjoyed singing contemporary pop music. She got to learn how to play the guitar and the clarinet in that period. Around 1997, Adele, then 9 years old and her mother relocated to Brighton on the south coast of England. Her mum worked as a furniture maker and an adult-learning activities organizer to make ends meet for both of them. They moved back 2 years later and she spent most of her youth in Brockwell Park, playing the guitar and singing to friends. She attended the BRIT School of Performing Arts and Technology, from which she graduated in 2006 as classmates with Leona Lewis and Jessie J. Adele had actually wanted to go into A&R when she was at the school and hoped to launch other people’s careers. This dream however changed when she got discovered and signed into a record label the same year she graduated. She has a son, Angelo James, with her ex-husband Simon Konecki whom she married and separated from in 2018. They started dating in mid 2011 and Angelo was born on the 19th of October, 2012. Her father passed away in may 2021 after suffering from cancer.
Adele’s illustrious music career started in 2006 a few months after she graduated from her performing school from Myspace. A friend posted her songs there where it became successful and attracted the attention of a record label. She eventually got signed at the age of 17 to XL recordings and on the 28th of January 2008, her debut album 19 was released. She wrote most of the album solely, only working with a few writers and producers including Jim abbiss, whom she met while providing vocals for Jack Peñate. Jim produced the majority of the album. The album had a lot of influences from folk rock, indie pop and jazz and had lyrics depicting heartbreak, nostalgia and relationships. 19 was received positively upon release and it eventually became a global success. It reached top 10 in 15 countries, was certified 8x platinum by the BPI and 3x in the US by RIAA.
Her follow up album was 21. It was a hit on arrival. Adele’s music hit deeper than it had on 19 and the ensuing records that the album garnered were proof of it’s absolute intelligence and emotional rollercoaster. It was an album composed in the aftermath of her ended relationship with her then partner, and the singer didn’t hold any bars in exploring the emotions of heartbreak that she had felt and she channeled all that depression into her music, creating evergreen hits like Rolling In The Deep, Set Fire To The Rain, Rumour Has It and Someone Like You. And boy the album did so well, exceeding every expectation that an independent label like XL could be judged by. It topped record charts in more than 30 countries and became the world's best-selling album of the year for both 2011 and 2012. It is the best-selling album of the 21st century, the fourth best-selling album of all time, and the best-selling album by a solo artist of all time in the UK. In the United States, it is the best performing Billboard 200 album of all time, holding the top position for 24 weeks, longer than any other album since 1985 and the longest by a female solo artist in Billboard 200 history. It was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting sales of over 10 million copies in the US.
Having referred to 21 as a "break-up record", Adele labelled her third studio album, 25, a "make-up record", adding it is about "Making up for lost time. Making up for everything I ever did and never did." There may have been some rumors that she had planned to stop music after 21, and that her usherment into motherhood might have been a reason she didn’t quit; she wanted her son to know what she did. Whether true or not, making 25 was most definitely not a mistake in any capacity. 25 was an even more successful project. In its first week, it sold over 3.38 million and 800,000 copies in the US and the UK, a record-breaking number for the soul-genre superstar. Hello off the album is the fastest video to reach 1 billion YouTube views, gathering that number in just 88 days.
It’s been 6 years since the last Adele album. On Friday the 19th of November, her latest album, 30 will be released for all yearning listeners. She has mostly described this album as her most personal project so far at every opportunity she’s gotten. She seeks to speak about the internal turmoil she’s been through since her divorce and to create a record that could possibly help her son understand her better when he grows up. Adele has not shied away from addressing how much she’s suffered from anxiety in the space preceding this album. She has really gone through a lot to defeat some of these problems, finding strength in her ability to become addicted to working at the gym often and changing her body physique, believing that she can use that similar willpower to fight through her emotional mess. Easy On Me already dropped earlier and it seems to be the only song that addresses her divorce, according to her interview on Rolling Stone. But however this album turns out to be, it cannot be denied that Adele is most definitely a huge playmaker in the pop scene and she can always be trusted to deliver amazing music. Cheers to 30, and welcome to the Adele week.
