Adele
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| Adele |
Adele released her second studio album, 21, in early 2011. The album was well received critically and surpassed the success of her debut,earning the singer numerous awards in 2012, including a record-tying six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year; two Brit Awards, including British Album of the Year, and three American Music Awards. The album has been certified 16 times platinum in the UK, and is the fourth best-selling album in the UK of all time.In the US it has held the top position longer than any album since 1985, and is certified Diamond.The album has sold 30 million copies worldwide.
The success of 21 earned Adele numerous mentions in the Guinness Book of World Records.She is the first woman in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to have three simultaneous top 10 singles as a lead artist, and the first female artist to simultaneously have two albums in the top five of the Billboard 200 and two singles in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100.21 is the longest running number one album by a female solo artist in the history of the UK and US Album Charts.In 2011 and 2012, Billboard named Adele Artist of the Year. In 2012, Adele was listed at number five on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Music,and Time magazine named her one of the most influential people in the world.In 2013, she received an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for her song "Skyfall", which she wrote and composed for the James Bond film of the same name. After taking a three-year hiatus, Adele released her third studio album, 25, in November 2015. The album debuted at number one in most major markets and broke first week sales records in a number of countries, including the UK and US. The lead single, "Hello", debuted at number one in many countries around the world, and became the first song in the US to sell over one million digital copies within a week of its release.
In 1999, two years later, she and her mother moved back to London; first to Brixton, and then to neighbouring district West Norwood, in south London.West Norwood is the subject for Adele's first record, "Hometown Glory", which she wrote and composed in 2004, when she was 16.Adele graduated from the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon in May 2006,where she was a classmate of Leona Lewis and Jessie J.Adele credits the school with nurturing her talent even though, at the time, she was more interested in going into A&R and hoped to launch other people's careers.
Career (2006–10)
Four months after graduation, she published two songs on the fourth issue of the online arts publication PlatformsMagazine.com.She had recorded a three-song demo for a class project and given it to a friend.The friend posted the demo on Myspace, where it became very successful and led to a phone call from Richard Russell, boss of the music label XL Recordings. 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. Nick Huggett, at XL, recommended Adele to manager Jonathan Dickins at September Management, and in June 2006, Dickins became her official representative.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.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 both the majority of her debut album, 19, and tracks on 21.In June 2007, Adele made her television debut, performing "Daydreamer" on the BBC's Later... with Jools Holland.Adele's breakthrough song, "Hometown Glory", was released in October 2007.
By 2008, Adele had become the headliner and performed an acoustic set, in which she was supported by Damien Rice.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.The album 19, named for her age at the time she wrote and composed 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.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.Adele was nominated for a 2008 Mercury Prize award for 19.She also won an Urban Music Award for "Best Jazz Act."She also received a Q Awards nomination in the category of Breakthrough Act 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 embarked on a short North American tour in the same month,and 19 was released in the US in June. Billboard magazine stated of it: "Adele truly has potential to become among the most respected and inspiring international artists of her generation."The An Evening with Adele world tour began in May 2008 and ended in June 2009.
2011–14: 21, worldwide recognition and hiatus
Adele released her second studio album, 21, on 24 January 2011 in the UK and 22 February in the US.She said that the album was inspired by the break-up with her former partner.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.Adele told Spin Magazine: "It was really exciting for me because I never grew up around [that music]."21 hit number 1 in more than 26 countries, including the UK and the US. An emotional performance of "Someone like You" at the 2011 Brit Awards on 15 February propelled the song to number one in the UK.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.Both songs topped the charts in multiple markets and broke numerous sales performance records. 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.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,with Adele becoming the first artist ever to sell three million albums in the UK in one calendar year."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.
To promote the album, Adele embarked upon the "Adele Live" tour, which sold out its North American leg.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 to avoid permanent damage to her voice.In the first week of November 2011 Steven M. Zeitels director of the Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston performed laser microsurgery on Adele's vocal cords to remove a benign polyp.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.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.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.[85] 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 woman ever to top all three categories.
Following the throat microsurgery, she made her live comeback at the 2012 Grammy Awards in February.She won in all six categories for which she was nominated, making her the second female artist in Grammy history, after Beyoncé, to win that many categories in a single night.Following that success, 21 achieved the biggest weekly sales increase following a Grammy win since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991.Adele received the Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist, and British Album of the Year presented to her by George Michael.Following the Brit Awards, 21 reached number one for the 21st non-consecutive week in the UK.The album has sold over 4.5 million copies in the UK where it is the fourth best-selling album of all time.In October, the album passed the 4.5 million mark in the UK, and in November surpassed the 10 million mark in the US.As of 2014, the album has sold 30 million copies worldwide.She has sold an estimated 40 million albums and 50 million singles worldwide.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.
Musical style and vocals
Adele's first album, 19, is of the soul genre, with lyrics describing heartbreak and relationship.Her success occurred simultaneously with several other British female soul singers, with the British press dubbing her a new Amy Winehouse.This was described as a third British Musical Invasion of the US.However, Adele called the comparisons between her and other female soul singers lazy, noting "we're a gender, not a genre".AllMusic wrote that "Adele is simply too magical to compare her to anyone."Her second album, 21, shares the folk and soul influences of her debut album, but was further inspired by the American country and Southern blues music to which she had been exposed during her 2008–09 North American tour An Evening with Adele.Composed in the aftermath of the singer's separation from her partner, the album typifies the near dormant tradition of the confessional singer-songwriter in its exploration of heartbreak, self-examination, and forgiveness. Having referred to 21 as a "break-up record", Adele labelled her third studio album, 25, a "make-up record", adding it was about "Making up for lost time. Making up for everything I ever did and never did."Her yearning for her old self, her nostalgia, and melancholy about the passage of time, is a feature of 25, with Adele stating, "I've had a lot of regrets since I turned 25. And sadness hits me in different ways than it used to. There's a lot of things I don't think I'll ever get 'round to doing."
Adele possesses a two-octave and a three-note mezzo-soprano vocal range.Rolling Stone reported that following throat surgery her voice had become "palpably bigger and purer-toned", and that she had added a further four notes to the top of her range.Initially, critics suggested that her vocals were more developed and intriguing than her songwriting, a sentiment with which Adele agreed.She 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."Her voice has received acclaim from critics. In a review of 19, The Observer said, "The way she stretched the vowels, her wonderful soulful phrasing, the sheer unadulterated pleasure of her voice, stood out all the more; little doubt that she's a rare singer".BBC Music wrote, "Her melodies exude warmth, her singing is occasionally stunning and, ...she has tracks that make Lily Allen and Kate Nash sound every bit as ordinary as they are."For their reviews of 21, The New York Times?'chief music critic Jon Pareles commended the singer's emotive timbre, comparing her to Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, and Annie Lennox: "can seethe, sob, rasp, swoop, lilt and belt, in ways that draw more attention to the song than to the singer".Ryan Reed of Paste magazine regarded her voice as "a raspy, aged-beyond-its-years thing of full-blooded beauty",while MSN Music's Tom Townshend declared her "the finest singer of generation".
Awards and achievements
At the 51st Annual Grammy Awards in 2009, Adele won awards in the categories of Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.She was also nominated in the categories of Record of the Year and Song of the Year.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.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." 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.21 spent its 23rd week at number one in March 2012, making it the longest-running album at number one since 1985,and it became the fourth best-selling album of the past 10 years in the United States.
In February 2012, Adele was listed at number five on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Music.In April 2012, American magazine Time named Adele one of the 100 most influential people in the world.People named her one of 2012 Most Beautiful at Every Age.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.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.
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.Adele topped the 2012 Sunday Times Rich List of musicians in the UK under 30 and made the Top 10 of Billboard magazine's "Top 40 Money Makers".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).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.
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.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. In 2013, Adele won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the James Bond theme "Skyfall". This is the first James Bond song to win and only the fifth to be nominated (after "For Your Eyes Only" (1981), "Nobody Does It Better" (1977) (from The Spy Who Loved Me), "Live and Let Die" (1973), and "The Look of Love" (1967) (from the original Casino Royale)."Skyfall" won the Brit Award for Best British Single at the 2013 Brit Awards. 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, and she received the award from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace on 19 December 2013.In February 2013, she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.
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