Adele Laurie Blue Adkins
(born 5 May 1988 in West
Norwood
, South
London
), known professionally as Adele (
), is an English singer. Adele
has described her musical style as "heartbroken soul." She is the
first recipient of the
BRIT Awards
Critics' Choice, which was given to artists who, at the
time, had yet to release an album.
Adele
debuted at number one with her Mercury
Prize-nominated debut album 19 on the UK album chart; the album
has since been certified platinum with sales of more than 500,000
copies in the UK
and over 2.2 million worldwide. After the
album peaked at number fifty-four on the
Billboard 200 chart on 8 July, 2008 (and
number thirty-six on the magazine's "
Top
Heatseekers" chart) Adele performed before 17 million
television viewers on
Saturday
Night Live, propelling her album from number forty-six to
number eleven on the official chart.
In 2009, Adele won two
Grammy Awards,
Best New Artist and
Best Female Pop Vocal
Performance for the single "
Chasing Pavements". The week after the
Grammy Awards aired, the album finally
peaked at number ten on the
Billboard
200. Meanwhile, her single "
Chasing Pavements" reached number twenty
one on the
Billboard Hot
100.
British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown
sent a thank you letter to Adele that stated "With the troubles
that the country's in financially, you're a light at the end of the
tunnel."
Early life and career
Though born in South East London, Adele is of Welsh descent. She
began singing at age 4, when she became obsessed with voices, an
obsession that is ongoing. Adele impersonated the
Spice Girls at dinner parties. As a
preteen she sang
Destiny's Child songs at her mostly black
school. To make her look like the singer
Gabrielle, her mother made an
eye patch with sequins, which she said was
embarrassing. Adele went through a phase where she wore
Slipknot clothing and a studded dog collar.
Adele then claimed she was influenced by the music of
Etta James and
Ella
Fitzgerald in her teens by accident, as she stumbled on the
artists'
CDs on a local
HMV store while looking for a new hairstyle.
She only got to listen to those songs for the first time as she was
clearing her room.
She graduated from BRIT School
in Croydon
in May 2006,
a performing arts school attended by several musicians that have
gained popular and critical acclaim. Adele credits the
school with nurturing her talent. A month later, she published two
songs on the fourth issue of the online arts publication
PlatformsMagazine.com.
19
Adele wrote her first record, "
Hometown
Glory" when she was 16 years old. She then signed to
independent music label
XL Recordings,
which in January 2008 released her second single
Chasing Pavements. The song was co written
with songwriter
Eg White who provided the
orchestration. White won the 2009
Ivor Novello Award for "Songwriter of the
Year" in part for his work on
Chasing
Pavements.
During her teenage years she recorded a demo and gave it to her
friend, Lyndon. He eventually put it on MySpace and it became very
successful there. Adele got a record deal through MySpace. When she
got a phone call, she could not believe it was real because the
only record company she knew was
Virgin
Records. When a friend told her that it was a real record
company, she signed.
She then signed to independent
music
label,
XL Recordings. In January
2008, Adele released her second single, "
Chasing Pavements", hitting #2 for four
weeks in the UK Chart and remaining in the
Top
40 14 weeks after release.
On 4 February, 2008 the album entered the British charts at number
1. Also by that week, the single from the album
Chasing
Pavements had spent a third week at the number 2 position and
another single from Hometown Glory had entered the charts at the
number 32 position.
As of 4
December, 2008 the video for "Chasing Pavements" was the most
played video on the United
States
Basic Cable channel
VH1 for that year. Adele made her United
States television debut on
The
Today Show
Her song
Hometown Glory has been
widely featured on United Kingdom and United States television
shows including
Skins,
Grey's Anatomy,
So You Think You Can Dance,
One Tree Hill and
Secret Diary of a Call
Girl
The album was certified as
Gold
for February 2009 by the
Recording Industry
Association of America. The album sold 230,000 copies in the
United States during the first quarter of 2009 ranking it fourth
among international artists. Adele earned a
Broadcast Music Incorporated
certificate when "Chasing Pavements" was played over 3 million
times on United States radio and television.
As of July 2009 the album has sold 2.2 million copies.
Saturday Night Live appearance: American
Breakthrough
On 19 March, 2008 Adele signed a United States deal which involved
a joint venture between
Columbia
Records and XL Recordings. On 20 June, the album was released
in the United States.
By October 2008, her attempt to break America seemed to have
failed. However, it was announced in October that Adele was booked
for
Saturday Night Live. On the
18 October she was the musical guest with guest host
Josh Brolin. The episode had also been hotly
anticipated because of an appearance by US vice-presidential
candidate
Sarah Palin. Adele performed
"
Chasing Pavements" and "
Cold Shoulder". This appearance has been
credited with a sharp rise in her popularity in the United States.
The day following her appearance,
19 topped the
iTunes charts and ranked #5 on
Amazon.com, while "Chasing Pavements" rose into
the Top 25.
19 was still at the #2 position on iTunes on
22 October. By the week of 26 October the album was at the number
11 position on the
Billboard's
Album charts a jump of 35 places over the previous week. "Chasing
Pavements" was the top debut on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart
for the week of 30 October residing at the number 82 position. Over
half of the 364,000 copies of
19 she had sold in the
United States by 28 January, 2009 had come after her SNL
appearance.
Critical Acclaim
On 10 December 2007, Adele was awarded the first Brit Awards
Critics' Choice Award
At the
51st Grammy Awards held on
8 February, 2009 Adele won Grammy awards in the categories of
Best New Artist and
Best
Female Pop Vocal Performance Adele was also nominated for
Grammy Awards in the categories of
Record of the
Year and
Song of
the Year. During the awards show she performed with
Sugarland . As per English tradition Adele planned
to store the Awards on a cabinet or shelf in her bathroom.
Adele was nominated for a 2008
Mercury
Prize award for
19. She also won an
Urban Music Award for "Best Jazz Act".
Her video for "
Chasing Pavements"
received an
MTV Video Music
Awards nomination in the category of Best Choreography as well
as a 2008
Q Awards nomination in the
category of Breakthrough Act and Music of Black Origin nomination
in the category of Best UK Female.In early 2008 Adele topped in a
poll of music critics Adele topped BBC's new music talent list,
which was compiled from the votes of 150 music critics..
Adele was nominated for three 2009
Brit
Awards in the categories of
Best British female,
Best British single, and
Best British breakthrough
act.
She also received praises from Paul Rees, editor of Q magazine, who
said it was "refreshing to hear something different" after a
thousand years of "identikit bands who want to sound like
The Libertines". Her music was described by
the
Richmond Times Dispatch
music critic as "a perfect backdrop to a lazy afternoon in the
coffee shop".
The Times Encyclopedia of Modern Music
would name
19 an "essential"
Blue Eyed Soul recording.
Adele agrees with critics that have suggested that her vocals are
more developed and intriguing than her songwriting.
Comparison with contemporaries and other female vocalists from
the UK
Adele's success occurred simultaneously with several other British
female soul singers. The British press has dubbed her a new
Amy Winehouse. Also was linked to a
third
British Musical Invasion of
the United States. Adele commented that while this phenomenon was
unexpected she was "proud to be a part of it. I'm very pleased to
be riding the wave". In December she said that
Duffy was The Sound of 2008 and called the
comparisons with other females lazy noting "we're a gender, not a
genre". Adele, comparing herself to Amy Winehouse and
Duffy, said "I think Amy is hardcore," "I
think Duffy is really soft – she's got the pin-up look going on.
She's a proper lady. I think I'm really contemporary. And I'm just
really mouthy!"
By the beginning of 2009 listeners and critics started to describe
Adele as unique. AllMusic wrote that "Adele is simply too magical
to compare her to anyone".
Venus Zine
recognized Adele on its
25 under 25 list of women for her
“distinctive, unusual voice” that “blends the bubbly clarity of pop
with the sophisticated phrasings of jazz and blues.”
Touring and Performances
In 2006 Adele was the opening act for
Jack
Penate. By the end of 2007 she toured as the headlining act.
Following that tour she appeared on
Later with Jools Holland alongside
Paul McCartney and
Björk .
2008
In March Adele embarked on a short
North
American tour.
The following month she played the Coachella
Festival
On 16 June, Adele performed an exclusive set for Billboard
Magazine. The set can be viewed
here.
In
September, she played New York's Webster Hall
and made several television and radio appearances
in that city.
On 6 December, in continuing support of her album, Adele opened
with a 40-minute performance for
John
Mayer at his 2nd Annual Holiday Charity Revue. The Revue was
held at the
Nokia Theatre,
L.A.
Live
in Los
Angeles
, California
.
Adele
performed a Christmas show at The
Roundhouse
in London
. She
opened with
Hometown Glory and then sang
Cold
Shoulder. She followed with acoustic versions of
Daydreamer and
Best for Last then proceeded with
Etta James’s Fool That I Am
before closing with
Chasing Pavements. She performed for
the 2009 edition of
Jools Holland's
New Year's Eve Show.
Late in the year, Adele embarked what according to her website was
a 11 city United States tour. As of 17 December four of the shows
had sold out.
She received "gushing adulation" in Boston
.
In addition to the
Saturday Night Live appearance
discussed above she appeared on American television programs
The Late Show
with David Letterman,
The
View,
CBS Early
Show,
CBS News
Sunday Morning,
Late Night with Conan
O'Brien,
Late Late Show with Craig
Ferguson,
Jimmy Kimmel
Live,, The
Ellen Degeneres
Show..
2009
Adele launched a 15-city
North
American tour that started 9 March.
On 10 June, Adele relaunched the
MTV
Unplugged series with a six song acoustic set.
On 28
June, Adele headlined a three-act bill at the Hollywood
Bowl
in Los Angeles, California, where in addition to
her current songbook, Adele tried out a new song from her
forthcoming sophomore recording. Several times during her
performance she flubbed her lyrics then chastised herself for doing
so.
Etta James, originally slated to
perform but suddenly taken ill, was replaced by
Chaka Kahn.
On 12 July, Adele performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival in
Rotterdam. She said that it was her last show from her "19"
tour.
Adele appeared on
Dancing With the
Stars,
The
Tonight Show with Conan O'Brian. and made a return appearance
on the
Late Show with
David Letterman.
On 17
September, Adele performed at the Brooklyn
Academy of Music
, for the VH1 "Divas" event, a
concert to raise money for the Save The Music Foundation
charity.
Covers and collaborations
Fool That I Am by
Etta James is
Adele's staple cover song.
Adele and
Jack White collaborated on a
cover of
The Raconteurs song
"
Many Shades of Black" which
appeared on the deluxe edition of
19. Adele had started to
work on other material with White before he had to cut it off to
record a
James Bond theme song. In
September 2008, Adele released her version of "Many Shades of
Black" by
The Raconteurs on to her
MySpace page. Adele covered the single at the groups request.
Adele's cover appears on the
B-Side of the
single .
In early 2008, Adele performed a cover of '
Last Nite' by
The
Strokes in
BBC Radio 1's
Live Lounge.
On 23 October 2008 at the
BBC
Electric Proms concert featuring award winning American
composer
Burt Bacharach, Adele joined
Bacharach in singing his composition, "
Baby It's You".
Adele supported Will Young at the 2007 MENCAP Little Noise Sessions a charity concert at
London's Union
Chapel
. In 2008 she was the headliner and performed
a stripped down acoustic that was supported by
Damien Rice. In a duet described by Adele in her
blog as "surreal" she performed with
Alicia
Keys at the
Keep a Child
Alive Black Ball in New York.
Adele performed a cover of Etta James' "I Just Want To Make Love To
You" on Jools' Annual Hootenanny 2008/2009 accompanied by Jools
Holland and his band.
Adele dueted with
Daniel
Merriweather on a track called
Water And A Flame from
his forthcoming album.
Adele has provided vocals for two
Jack
Penate songs. The first song
My Yvonne was on his
2007 debut album while the
second song will be on his forthcoming release.
Future plans
Singer
Laura White has confirmed that
Adele will duet with her at Adele's suggestion. Adele would like to
collaborate in the future with younger singers more than
established ones. She also would like to complete a duet she
started with
Will Young.".
Second album
In January 2009 described her lyrics as "better, they're sharp and
they're witty now".
As of March 2009 Adele was still working on what the album will
sound like. The singer said "I know who I'm working with and duets
and stuff and I'm not trying to be secretive. But I do not want to
say in case it does not work out".. In October Adele said the
Eg White has returned as co writer because
"we've got a bond".
By 3 June, 2009 she had completed five songs for the upcoming
album. She described the material as mostly about boys..
Other pursuits
In July 2008, Adele paid £8,000 in a charity auction in aid of
Keep a Child Alive for a
commissioned painting by
Stella Vine.
Adele said she planned to ask Vine to paint a portrait of "my mum
and me". The money raised helps children and their families with
HIV/AIDS in Africa.
A photo spread shot by
Annie
Leibovitz appeared in the April 2009 edition of
Vogue Magazine. The magazine printed a
feature story in which Adele discussed her fashion
preferences.
Adele played herself performing at a wedding on the 13 May, 2009
episode of the American
prime time
television show
Ugly Betty.
Personal life
Adele cancelled a 2008 United States tour to be with, and drink
with, a former boyfriend. She told
Nylon
Magazine in June 2009 that "I was drinking far too much and
that was kind of the basis of my relationship with this boy. I
couldn't bear to be without him, so I was like, 'Well, OK, I'll
just cancel my stuff then" ... I can't believe I did that ... It
seems so ungrateful".
In
November 2008 Adele moved to Notting Hill
after leaving her mother's house, a move that
prompted her to give up drinking. As of June 2009 Adele was
still sober. Adele claims she has never used drugs.
In October 2009 Adele
was living with her mother in a flat she bought for both in
Battersea
.
Discography
Albums
Awards
References
- See inogolo:pronunciation of Adele.
- Adele: 19 peak at#1 OCC. Retrieved 1 July
2008.
- Billboard Chart History for Adele [1] Retrieved 26 SEP 2008
- Prime Minister Thanks Adele For Keeping Britain
Happy In Dark Times Contact Music 9 June, 2009
- http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2009/05/21/ivor-novello.html
The Telegraph 21 May, 2009
- Coldplay and Elbow dominate Ivor Novello Awards
ContactMusic 21 May,2009
- Billboard presents: Adele Billboard. Retrieved 2 July
2008.
- Perry's Platinum Pucker Recording Industry
Association of America News 23 March, 2009
- U2 Scores Q1's Top-Selling International Artist
Album Billboard 3 April, 2009
- Folk singer Donovan named 'icon' BBC 7 October,
2009
- Adele 'puts career on hold for dog Digital Spy 21
July, 2009
- Saturday Night Live Season 34 Josh Brolin/Adele The
New York Times
- Billboard Artist Biography Adele
- Adele: All That Jazz Venus Zine 1 March,
2009
- Adele Relaunches Unplugged MTV Uk10 June,
2009
- Live: Adele at the Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles Times
29 June, 2009
- Show Tracker: What you're watching Los Angeles
Times 25 March, 2009
- Tonight Show Website
- Washington Post Television listings 30 March,
2009
- Adele, Leona Lewis and Kelly Clarkson for VH1 'Divas' NME
21 July, 2009
- Penate collaborates with Adele BBC 6 April,
2009
- Talking Shop: Adele BBC 7 October, 2009
- Adele five songs into new album NME 3 June, 2009
- "Soul diva Alicia helps raise half a million,
11 July 2008. Retrieved 12 December 2008.
- Adele and aliens invade 'Ugly Betty's' wedding
Zap2it.com 14 May, 2009
- Adele Explains Booze & Love Meltdown
Contactmusic 8 June, 2009
External links
- Official Adele
Site
- Soul singers top new talent list, BBC News website,
4 January 2008
- Sylvia Patterson, Mad about the girl, Adele
Adkins interview, The Observer, 27 January 2008
- Article in The Independent
- Adele at NPR Music
- An Interview with songstress Adele by
Katrina-Kasey Wheeler for examiner.com New York 20 October,
2008
- Interview and Profile by Anthony Mason for CBS News
Sunday Morning
- Soulful and Adventurous, on Either Side of the
Atlantic Interview by Winter Miller for The New York Times 24 December, 2008
- Analysis of Columbia Records decision to break
Adele in slowly Phil Gallo for Variety 5 January, 2009
- Adele: The singer has moved into the fashion
spotlight Zoë Wolffor The Los
Angeles Times 21 June, 2009