|
Adele |
_cropped.jpg/220px-Adele_-_Live_2009_(4)_cropped.jpg)
Adele in concert, January 2009 |
|
Background information |
| Birth name |
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins |
| Born |
5 May 1988
(age 24)
Tottenham, north London, England, UK |
| Origin |
West Norwood, south London, England, UK |
|
Genres |
Soul,
R&B,
pop[1] |
| Occupations |
Singer-songwriter, musician, composer,
arranger |
| Instruments |
Vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass guitar,
celesta, percussion |
| Years active |
2006–present |
|
Labels |
XL,
Columbia |
| Website |
adele.tv |
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins[2]
(born 5 May 1988), better known
simply as Adele, is an English
singer-songwriter, musician and
multi-instrumentalist. Adele was offered a recording contract from
XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on
Myspace
in 2006. The next year she received the
Brit Awards "Critics' Choice" award and won the
BBC
Sound of 2008. Her debut album,
19, was released in 2008 to much commercial and critical
success. It certified four times platinum in the UK, and double platinum
in the US.[3][4]
Her career in the US was boosted by a
Saturday Night Live appearance in late 2008. At the
2009 Grammy Awards, Adele received the awards for
Best New Artist and
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.[5][6]
Adele released her second album,
21, in early 2011.[7][8]
The album was well received critically and surpassed the success of her
debut,[9]
earning the singer six
Grammy Awards in 2012 including
Album of the Year, equalling the record for most
Grammy Awards won by a female artist in one night.[10][11]
The album has also led to her
receiving numerous other awards, including two
Brit Awards and three
American Music Awards. The album has been certified 16 times
platinum in the UK;[3]
in the US the album has held the top position longer than any other
album since 1985, and is
certified Diamond.[12][13][14]
The album has sold 25 million copies worldwide.[15]
The success of 21 earned Adele numerous mentions in the
Guinness World Records. She is the first artist to sell more
than 3 million copies of an album in a year in the UK.[16]
With her two albums and the first two singles from 21, "Rolling
in the Deep" and "Someone
Like You", she became the first living artist to achieve the feat of
having two top-five hits in both the UK Official Singles Chart and the
Official Albums Chart simultaneously since
the Beatles in 1964.[17][18]
With her third release from the album, "Set
Fire to the Rain", which became her third number one single in the
US, Adele became the first artist in history to lead the Billboard
200 concurrently with three Billboard Hot 100 number-ones.[19]
Adele is the first female in the history of the Billboard Hot
100 to have three singles in the top 10 at the same time as a lead
artist, and the first female artist to have two albums in the top five
of the Billboard 200 and two singles in the top five of the
Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously.[20]
21 is the longest running number one album by a female solo
artist on the UK and US Albums Chart.[21][22]
In 2011 and 2012,
Billboard named Adele artist of the year.[23][24]
In 2012, Adele was listed at number five on
VH1′s 100
Greatest Women In Music,[25]
and the American magazine
Time named Adele one of the most influential people in the
world.[26]
In January 2013, she received an
Academy Award nomination for the song
"Skyfall".[27]
Early life
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born in
Tottenham, north London, England, to Penny Adkins, an English
teenager, and Mark Evans, a Welshman, on 5 May 1988. Evans walked out on
Adele when she was two, leaving her 20-year-old mother to raise her
single-handedly,[28]
for which Adele has still not forgiven him.[29][30][31]
She began singing at age four and asserts that she became obsessed with
voices.[32][33]
Adele has cited the
Spice Girls as a major influence in regard to her love and passion
for music, stating that "they made me what I am today."[34]
Adele impersonated the Spice Girls at dinner parties as a young girl.[35]
To make her look like English R&B and urban contemporary singer
Gabrielle, her mother made an eye patch with sequins, which Adele
later said was embarrassing.[36]
At the age of nine, Adele and her mother, a furniture-maker and adult
learning activities organiser,[37]
relocated to
Brighton.[38]
Despite this move, she remains an ardent fan of her hometown
Premier League football club
Tottenham Hotspur.[39]
Two years later, she and her mother moved back to London; first to
Brixton,[38]
and then to neighbouring district
West Norwood, in south London.[40]
West Norwood is the subject for Adele's first record, "Hometown
Glory", written when she was 16.[41]
After moving to south London, she became interested in
R&B artists such as
Aaliyah,
Destiny's Child and
Mary J. Blige.[42]
Adele says that one of the most defining moments in her life was when
she watched
Pink perform at
Brixton Academy. "It was the
Missundaztood record, so I was about 13 or 14. I had never
heard, being in the room, someone sing like that live [...] I remember
sort of feeling like I was in a
wind tunnel, her voice just hitting me. It was incredible."[43][44]
Aged 14, Adele discovered
Etta James and
Ella Fitzgerald by accident as she stumbled on the artists' CDs in
the jazz section of her local music store and was struck by their
appearance on the album covers.[41]
Adele states she "started listening to Etta James every night for an
hour", and in the process was getting "to know my own voice."[41]
Adele graduated from the
BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon in May 2006,[45][46]
where she was a classmate of
Leona Lewis and
Jessie
J.[2][47]
Adele credits the school with nurturing her talent[48]
even though at the time she was more interested in going into
A&R and hoped to launch other people's careers.[2]
Career
2006–08: Career beginnings
Four months after graduation, she published two songs on the fourth
issue of the online arts publication PlatformsMagazine.com.[49]
She had recorded a three-song demo for a class project and gave it to a
friend[2]
who posted it on Myspace where it became very successful and led to a
phone call from music label XL Recordings.[47]
She doubted if the offer was real because the only record company she
knew was
Virgin Records, and she took a friend with her to the meeting.[47][50]
Nick Huggett at XL recommended Adkins to manager Jonathan Dickins at
September Management and in June 2006 Dickins became her official
representative.[51]
September was managing
Jamie T
at the time and this proved a major draw for Adele, a big fan of the
British singer-songwriter. Huggett then signed Adele to XL in September
2006.[51]
Adele provided vocals for
Jack Peñate's song, "My Yvonne", for his debut album, and it was
during this session she first met producer
Jim
Abbiss, who would go on to produce the majority of her debut album
19, and tracks on 21.[52]
Adele's breakthrough song, "Hometown Glory", was released in October
2007.[51]
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 an
acoustic set and was supported by
Damien Rice.[53][54]
She became the first recipient of the
BRIT Awards Critics' Choice and was named the number-one
predicted breakthrough act of 2008 in an annual BBC poll of music
critics, Sound of 2008.[55][56]
2008–10: 19 and commercial success
19, named for her age at the time she wrote many of its songs,
entered the British charts at number one.
The
Times Encyclopedia of Modern Music named 19 an
"essential"
blue-eyed soul recording.[57]
She released her second single "Chasing
Pavements" on 14 January 2008, two weeks ahead of her debut album,
19. The song reached number two on the UK Chart, and stayed there
for four weeks.[58]
Adele was nominated for a 2008
Mercury Prize award for 19.[59]
She also won an
Urban Music Award for "Best Jazz Act".[60]
She also received a
Q
Awards nomination in the category of Breakthrough Act[61]
and a Music of Black Origin nomination in the category of Best UK
Female.[62]
In March 2008, Adele signed a deal with
Columbia Records and XL Recordings for her foray into the US.[63]
She embarked on a short North American tour in the same month.[63]
19 was released in the US in June.[48]
Billboard magazine stated; "Adele truly has potential to become
among the most respected and inspiring international artists of her
generation."[64]
The
An Evening with Adele world tour began in May 2008 and ended in June
2009. She later cancelled the 2008 US tour dates to be with a former
boyfriend. She said in
Nylon magazine in June 2009, "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".
By the middle of October 2008, it appeared that Adele's attempt to
break into America had failed.[65][66]
Then, she was the musical guest on the 18 October 2008 episode of
Saturday Night Live. The episode included an expected appearance
by then US vice-presidential candidate
Sarah Palin. The program earned its best ratings in 14 years with
17 million viewers. Adele performed "Chasing Pavements" and "Cold
Shoulder",[67]
and the following day, 19 topped the iTunes charts and ranked at
number five at Amazon.com while "Chasing Pavements" rose into the top
25.[68]
The album reached number 11 on the
Billboard 200 as a result, a jump of 35 places over the previous
week.[69]
In November 2008 Adele moved to
Notting Hill after leaving her mother's house, a move that prompted
her to give up drinking.[70]
The album was certified as gold in February 2009 by the
Recording Industry Association of America.[71]
By July 2009, the album had sold 2.2 million copies worldwide.[72]
Adele performing live in 2009.
2010–2012: 21 and greater success
In 2010, Adele received a
Grammy nomination for
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Hometown Glory".[73]
In April her song "My
Same" entered the
German Singles Chart after it had been performed by
Lena Meyer-Landrut in the talent show contest
Unser Star für Oslo (Our Star for Oslo), in which the
German entry to the
Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was determined.[74][75]
In late September, after being featured on
The X Factor, Adele's version of Bob Dylan's "Make
You Feel My Love" re-entered the UK singles chart at number 4.[76]
During the 2010
CMT Artists of the Year special, Adele performed a widely
publicised duet of
Lady Antebellum's "Need
You Now" with
Darius Rucker.[77]
This performance was later nominated for a
CMT Music Award.[78]
Adele released her second studio album,
21, on 24 January 2011 in the UK and 22 February in the US.[8][79]
She said that the album was inspired by the breakup with her former
partner.[29]
The album's sound is described as classic and contemporary
country and
roots music. The change in sound from her first album was the result
of her bus driver playing contemporary music from Nashville when she was
touring the American South, and the title reflected the growth she had
experienced in the prior two years.[79]
Adele told
Spin Magazine "It was really exciting for me because I never
grew up around [that music]."[7]
21 hit number 1 in more than 26 countries, including the UK and
the US.[80][81][82]
An emotional performance of "Someone
Like You" at the
2011 BRIT Awards on 15 February propelled the song to number one in
the UK.[83][84]
Her first album, 19, re-entered the UK album chart alongside
21, while first and second singles "Rolling
in the Deep" and "Someone Like You" were in the top 5 of the UK
singles chart, making Adele the first living artist to achieve the feat
of two top-five hits in both the Official Singles Chart and the Official
Albums Chart simultaneously since the
Beatles in 1964.[85][86]
Both songs topped the charts in multiple markets and broke numerous
sales performance records. In May 2011, Adele caused some minor
controversy with critical statements about high taxes.[87]
Following her performance of "Someone Like You" at the
2011 MTV Video Music Awards, it became Adele's second number-one
single on the
Billboard Hot 100.[88]
By December 2011, 21 sold over 3.4 million copies in the UK, and
became the biggest-selling album of the 21st century, overtaking
Amy Winehouse's
Back to Black,[89][90]
with Adele becoming the first artist ever to sell three million albums
in the UK in one calendar year.[91][92]
"Set
Fire to the Rain" became Adele's third number one single on the
Billboard Hot 100, as Adele became the first artist ever to have an
album, 21, hold the number-one position on the Billboard 200
concurrently with three number one singles.[19]
Adele performing in
Seattle, Washington, on 12 August 2011
To promote the album, Adele embarked upon the "Adele
Live" tour, which sold out its North American leg.[93]
In October 2011, Adele was forced to cancel two tours because of a
vocal-cord haemorrhage. She released a statement saying she needed an
extended period of rest in order to avoid permanent damage to her voice.[94]
The singer underwent laser microsurgery at
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston during the first week of
November.[95][96]
A recording of 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, the highest
one-week tally for a music DVD in four years, becoming the best-selling
music DVD of 2011.[97]
Adele is the first artist in
Nielsen SoundScan history to have the year's number-one album (21),
number-one single ("Rolling
in the Deep"), and number-one music video.[98]
At the
2011 American Music Awards on 20 November, Adele won three awards;
Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, and
Favorite Pop/Rock Album for 21.[99]
On 9 December, Billboard named Adele artist of the year, Billboard 200
Album of the year (21), and the Billboard Hot 100 Song of the
year ("Rolling in the Deep"), becoming the first female ever to top all
three categories.[23][100]
Following the throat microsurgery, she made her live comeback at the
2012 Grammy Awards in February.[101]
She won in all six categories for which she was nominated, making her
the second female artist after
Beyoncé Knowles in Grammy history to win that many categories in a
single night.[102]
Following that success, 21 achieved the biggest weekly sales
increase following a Grammy win since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking
data in 1991.[103][104]
“We are thrilled to honor Adele with an RIAA Diamond award
marking her enormous 21 sales success. Selling more
than 10 million albums in the United States, in less than
two years, is an achievement unparalleled by any other
artist in the past decade, let alone just a few in all of
history. Adele’s unique talent is a gift to music fans, and
her success is certainly cause for a celebration of Diamond
magnitude.”
Adele received the Brit Award for
Best British Female Solo Artist, and
British Album of the Year.[106][107]
Following the Brit Awards, 21 reached number 1 for the 21st
non-consecutive week on the UK Album Chart.[108]
The album has sold over 4.5 million copies in the UK where it is the
forth
best-selling album of all time.[109]
In October, the album past the 4.5 million mark in the UK, and in
November surpassed the 10 million mark in the US.[14][105][110]
Adele is the only artist or band in the last decade in the US to earn an
RIAA
Diamond certification for a one disc album in less than two years.[105]
On 3 April 2012, Adele confirmed that her third album would likely be
at least two years away, stating, "I have to take time and live a little
bit. There were a good two years between my first and second albums, so
it'll be the same this time." She stated that she would continue writing
her own material.
2012-present: Skyfall and future
[111] In October 2012, Adele confirmed that she had been
writing and recording the theme song for
Skyfall,
the twenty-third
James Bond film.[112][113]
The song "Skyfall",
co-written with producer
Paul Epworth, was recorded at
Abbey Road Studios, and features orchestrations by
J. A. C. Redford.[114][115]
Adele stated recording "Skyfall" was "one of the proudest moments of my
life."[116]
On 14 October, "Skyfall" rose to number 2 on the UK Singles Chart with
sales of 92,000 copies bringning its over-rall sales to 176,000, and
"Skyfall" entered the
Billboard Hot 100 at number 8, Adele's first song to debut in the
Top 10, selling 261,000 copies in the United States in its first three
days.[117]
This tied "Skyfall" with
Duran Duran's "A
View to a Kill" as the highest-charting James Bond theme song on the
UK Singles Chart.[118]
"Skyfall" has sold more than two million copies worldwide.[119]
In December 2012, Adele was named
Billboard artist of the year, and 21 was named album of
the year, making her the first artist to receive both accolades two
years in a row.[24]
Adele was also named top female artist.[24]
The
Associated Press named Adele Entertainer of the Year for 2012.[120]
It was reported in January 2013 Adele was working on a new record,
and could be making an appearance at the 2013 Academy Awards to perform
her theme to the
James Bond film Skyfall.[121]
On 10 January 2013, Adele received an
Academy Award nomination for "Skyfall".[122]
Adele will present at the
70th Golden Globe Awards on 13 January and will perform at the
85th Academy Awards on 24 February.[123][124]
Personal life
It was reported in January 2012 that Adele had recently begun dating
charity entrepreneur Simon Konecki.[125]
In June 2012, Adele announced that she and Konecki were expecting a
baby.[126][127]
Adele gave birth to the couple's son on 19 October 2012.[128]
The child is the first for Adele and the second for Konecki, who also
has a daughter with his ex-wife.[129]
Adele bought a flat in
Notting Hill, London in 2008. In February 2012, Adele moved into a
£7 -million, ten-bedroom 10-hectare mansion in
West Sussex with Konecki.[130]
Politically, Adele is a supporter of the
Labour Party, stating; "I'm a Labour girl through and through",[131]
despite in May 2011 having reportedly expressed views on taxation
counter to those of the party.[132][133]
Artistry
Initially, critics suggested that her vocals were more developed and
intriguing than her songwriting, a sentiment with which Adele agreed.[134]
Adele has stated: "I taught myself how to sing by listening to
Ella Fitzgerald for acrobatics and scales,
Etta James for passion and
Roberta Flack for control."[135]
Adele's first album is of the soul genre, with lyrics describing
heartbreak and relationship.[48]
Her success occurred simultaneously with several other British female
soul singers, with the British press dubbing her a new
Amy Winehouse.[2]
This was described as a third
British Musical Invasion of the US.[47]
However, Adele called the comparisons between her and other female soul
singers lazy, noting "we're a gender, not a genre".[48][65][136]
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."[41]
Following the release of her debut album 19,
Kanye West and
Beyoncé Knowles were among the artists vocal in their praise of her
music.[48]
Beyoncé cited Adele as one of the influences for her fourth album,
4.[137]
Madonna expressed a desire to collaborate with Adele, commenting; "I
think she’s brilliant, I love her".[138]
Celine Dion performed "Rolling in the Deep" at her show at the
Colosseum at Caesars Palace, after telling the crowd, "I love Adele so
much. She's amazing."[139]
J. J. Burnel of
The Stranglers is also a fan, stating; "She had me riveted... Of
course she's huge and normally that would turn me off because it's too
commercial. But I was seriously impressed".[140]
Dave Grohl of
Foo Fighters and
Nirvana fame has repeatedly praised Adele in interviews.[141][142]
Former
Guns N' Roses guitarist
Slash stated; "She's great. She's a shot in the arm for this
industry. She writes her own music that's not at all contrived. And
she's managed to sell loads of records which makes her a great example
to the younger artists."[143]
Awards and
accolades
At the
51st Grammy Awards in 2009, Adele won awards in the categories of
Best New Artist and
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.[5][144]
She was also nominated in the categories of
Record of the Year and
Song of the Year.[145]
That same year, Adele was also nominated for three
Brit Awards in the categories of Best British Female, Best British
Single and Best British Breakthrough Act.[146]
Then 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."[147]
With 21 non-consecutive weeks at number 1 in the US, Adele broke the
record for the longest number-1 album by a woman in Billboard history,
beating the record formerly held by
Whitney Houston's soundtrack
The Bodyguard.[104]
21 spent its 23rd week at number one in March 2012, making it the
longest-running album at number one since 1985[12]
and it became the fourth best-selling album of the past 10 years in the
United States.[148]
In February 2012, Adele was listed at number five on
VH1′s 100
Greatest Women In Music.[25]
In April 2012, American magazine
Time named Adele one of the 100 most influential people in the
world.[26][149]
People named her one of 2012 Most Beautiful at Every Age.[150]
On 30 April 2012, a tribute to Adele was held at New York City's
(Le) Poisson Rouge called Broadway Sings Adele, starring
various Broadway actors such as
Matt Doyle.[151]
In July 2012, Adele was listed at number six in
Forbes
list of the world's highest-paid celebrities under the age of 30 having
earned £23 million ($35 million) between May 2011 and May 2012.[152]
On the week ending 3 March 2012, Adele became the first solo female
artist to have three singles in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 at
the same time, and the first female artist to have two albums in the top
5 of the Billboard 200 and two singles in the top 5 of the Billboard Hot
100 simultaneously.[20]
Adele topped the 2012
Sunday Times Rich List of musicians in the UK under 30[153]
and made the Top 10 of
Billboard magazine's "Top 40 Money Makers".[154]
Billboard also announced the same day that Adele's "Rolling in
the Deep" is the biggest
crossover hit of the past 25 years, topping pop, adult pop and adult
contemporary charts and that Adele is one of four female artists to have
an album chart at number one for more than 13 weeks (the other three
artists being
Judy Garland,
Carole King, and
Whitney Houston).[155]
On 6 March, 21 reached 30 non-consecutive weeks at number one on
the Australian
ARIA Chart, making it the longest-running number one album in
Australia in the 21st century, and the second longest-running number one
ever.[156]
At the 2012
Ivor Novello Awards in May, Adele was named Songwriter of the Year,
and "Rolling in the Deep" won the award for Most Performed Work of 2011.[157]
At the 2012
BMI Awards held in London in October, Adele won Song of the Year
(for "Rolling in the Deep") in recognition of the song being the most
played on US television and radio in 2011.[158]
In 2013, Adele was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Original Song for the
James Bond theme "
Skyfall". This nomination came 31 years after the last Oscar
nomination for a Bond theme tune.[159][160]
"Skyfall" is nominated for the
Brit Award for Best British Single at the
2013 BRIT Awards.[161]
Charitable work
In July 2009 she paid £8,000 for a commissioned painting by
Stella Vine in a charity auction in aid of
Keep a Child Alive, a charity which helps African children and their
families living with HIV/AIDS. Adele said she planned to ask Vine to
paint a portrait of "my mum and me".[162]
Adele has performed in numerous charity concerts throughout her
career. In July and November 2008, Adele performed at the
Keep a Child Alive Black Ball in London and New York City
respectively.[163][164][165]
On 17 September 2009, 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.[166][167]
On 6 December, Adele opened with a 40-minute set at
John Mayer's 2nd Annual Holiday Charity Revue held at the
Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California.[168]
In 2011, Adele gave a free concert for
Pride London, a registered charity which arranges
LGBT events
in London.[169]
Adele has been a major contributor to
MusiCares, a charity organization founded by the
Grammys for musicians in need. In February 2009, Adele performed at
the 2009 MusiCares charity concert in Los Angeles. In 2011 and 2012,
Adele donated autographed items for auctions to support MusiCares.[170][171][172]
When on tour, Adele requires all backstage visitors to donate a
minimum charitable contribution of $20 for the UK charity Sands (an
organization dedicated to "supporting anyone affected by the death of a
baby and promoting research to reduce the loss of babies’ lives.").
During the UK and European leg of her
Adele Live tour, Adele collected $13,000 for the charity.[173]
Discography
Tours
Filmography