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Adele
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Adele Adkins was born in 1988 in Tottenham in London and grew up with her mother. She had been singing since she was four and, as she puts it herself, became obsessed with voices. In 2006 she finished the BRIT School, a London school for the performing arts. A friend put her demo on Myspace, after which the label XL Recordings approached her. She wrote her first single, Hometown Glory, when she was sixteen, about her own neighbourhood in London.
Music and breakthrough
Her debut album 19 (2008), named after her age when she wrote most of the songs, contained Chasing Pavements and a version of Make You Feel My Love by Bob Dylan. In 2009 she won the Grammy for Best New Artist. The second album, 21 (2011), came out of a broken relationship and became a worldwide success, with Rolling in the Deep, Someone Like You and Set Fire to the Rain. The album won six Grammys. The Bond theme Skyfall (2012), with which she won an Oscar, followed, and then the albums 25 (2015), with Hello, and 30 (2021), with Easy on Me.
Influence
Adele sings with a full mezzo-soprano and writes personal, sensitive songs about love and loss. Critics counted 19 as blue-eyed soul; on 21 there were also influences from American country and roots music. Her songs are often sparsely arranged, so that the voice is at the centre. That she became one of the best-selling artists of the 21st century in this way shows that a classically built song with a strong singer can still reach the whole world.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 12: The Hit FactoryNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Someone Like You Song
In January 2011 Adele released Someone Like You, from the album 21.