Adele is a British Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter.
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born in 1988 in North London, England. Adele became interested in music at a young age and started singing at 4 years old. She spent most of her time singing and was influenced by the Spice Girls who she impersonated at dinner parties. In her early teens Adele discovered Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald records at a local shop. She had previously only heard chart music and found the songs a revelation along with the idea that some people have proper longevity and are legends. Adele attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology and while there, she cut a three-track demo for a class project that was eventually posted on her MySpace page. Executives at XL Recordings heard the tracks and four months after she had graduated from school, she was signed to the label.
In 2007 Adele’s first single “Hometown Glory” was released and followed in January 2008 by “Chasing Pavements”, both singles were hugely popular with “Chasing Pavements” reaching number two on the UK Chart where it stayed for four weeks. Two weeks after the release of “Chasing Pavements” her first album ‘19’ was released. The album title referred to the age she was when writing the majority of the songs. The album debuted at number one on the British album chart and was well received by critics. The Times Encyclopaedia of Modern Music named 19 an “essential” blue-eyed soul recording. Adele received an Urban Music Award for “Best Jazz Act and nominations for a Q Award in the category of Breakthrough Act, a 2008 Mercury Prize for her debut album and a Music of Black Origin nomination in the category of Best UK Female.
In March 2008 Adele signed a deal with Columbia Records and XL Recordings for her foray into the United States. She toured North America in the run up to 19 being released in June in the U.S. but she did not gain much success until she performed on Saturday Night Live. Her performance led to 19 climbing from No. 40 on iTunes to No. 1. At the 2009 Grammy awards, Adele took home Best New Artist and was named the “Sound of 2008” by the BBC. She also won the Critics’ Choice prize at the BRIT Awards.
In January 2011 Adele released her much anticipated follow-up album, ’21’. The album continued Adele’s appreciation for classic American R&B and jazz and was hugely successful, selling 352,000 copies within its first week. After emotional performance of “Someone like You” at the 2011 Brit Awards Adele had two Top 5 singles – “Rolling in the Deep” and “Someone Like You” – and a pair of Top 5 albums in the same week. She became the only artist besides the Beatles and 50 Cent to achieve that milestone. ’21’ stayed at No. 1 for 11 weeks, breaking the solo female artist record previously held by Madonna’s Immaculate Collection for consecutive weeks atop the album charts. ’21’ has sold over 4.5 million copies in the UK where it is the fourth best-selling album of all time. It has sold 30 million copies worldwide and 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.
In 2012, Adele won six Grammy Awards including Album of the Year and was named one of Time magazines 100 most influential people in the world. A year later she won a seventh Grammy for Best Pop Solo Performance for her single “Set Fire to the Rain”. She also won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for “Skyfall,” the theme song for the 2013 James Bond film of the same name. In June 2013, Adele was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to music. She was named one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4.
In addition to her musical career, Adele is also a supporter of MusiCares, a charity organisation founded by the Grammys for musicians in need. She performed at the 2009 MusiCares charity concert in Los Angeles and in 2011 and 2012, she donated autographed items for auctions to support the charity. She has performed at numerous other charity concerts including the Keep a Child Alive Black Ball in London and New York City in 2008 and a free concert for Pride London, a registered charity which arranges LGBT events in London in 2011. During the UK and European leg of her Adele Live tour she collected $13,000 for the UK charity SANDS.
Adele is also a role model for body positivity. In 2012 Karl Lagerfeld told Metro newspaper that she was ‘a little too fat’, a comment that sparked outrage and eventually an apology. Adele responded by saying that she would only change her body if she felt that it would help either her health, or her sex life. She stated that the most important thing people should do is be happy with themselves and appreciate their bodies.
Adele will release her third album, ’25’ in November 2015. The album is a ‘make up record’ where she is making up for lost time, making up for everything she ever did and never did and getting to know who she has become without realising.