ADELE, MY FAVOURITE SINGER

Today I want to tell you about one of my favourite singers, Adele. I love her for her amazing voice and her ability to turn her intimate experiences into songs.

HER CAREER

Adele is an English pop singer and songwriter, born on May 5 1988, in London, whose soulful, emotive voice and traditionally crafted songs made her one of the most broadly popular performers of her generation.

As a child, Adele enjoyed singing contemporary pop music and learned to play the guitar and the clarinet. While she honed her talents at a government-funded secondary school for the performing arts, a friend began posting songs Adele had written and recorded onto the social networking Web site Myspace. Her music eventually caught the attention of record labels, and in 2006, several months after graduating, she signed a contract with XL Recordings.

After building anticipation in Britain with some well-received live performances, Adele released her first album, 19, in 2008 (the title referred to the age at which she penned most of the tracks). The recording debuted at number one on the British album chart, and critics praised Adele’s supple phrasing, her tasteful arrangements, and her ability to channel her intimate emotional experiences into songs that had wide resonance.

A performance on the television program Saturday Night Live helped introduce Adele to American audiences, and in early 2009 she won Grammy Awards for best new artist and best female pop vocal performance for the lush bluesy song “Chasing Pavements”.

For her next album, Adele enlisted a number of songwriters and producers to collaborate with her. The result, 21 (2011), was a bolder and more stylistically diverse set of material, with singles ranging from the earthy gospel- and disco-inflected “Rolling in the Deep” to the affecting breakup ballad “Someone like You.” Both songs hit number one in multiple countries, and, despite a vocal-cord ailment that forced Adele to cancel numerous tour dates in 2011, the album became the biggest-selling release of the year in both the United States and the United Kingdom. 

Following successful throat surgery, Adele performed at the 2012 Grammy Awards ceremony.  Days later she received two Brit Awards. The sales spike for 21 after both events further confirmed the singer’s emergence as a commercial juggernaut. In 2013 Adele won the Grammy for best pop solo performance for “Set Fire to the Rain,” from her concert album Live at the Royal Albert Hall (2011), and she picked up an Academy Award for the brassy theme song she provided for the blockbuster James Bond movie Skyfall (2012).

Adele returned in 2015 with the album 25. The yearning single “Hello” became a hit in numerous countries, and more than 20 million copies of the album were sold worldwide. In addition, 25 earned Adele five more Grammys.

My favourite song by Adele is “Someone like you” and I have some curious things to tell you about this song

What inspired it?

She wanted to write a song about heartbreak, her own heartbreak.

How long did it take to write it?

Not counting whatever time Adele had spent sitting on the edge of her bed writing that first verse, it took two days.

Who wrote it?

Adele co-wrote 'Someone Like You' with American singer-songwriter Dan Wilson, who was previously the frontman of the band Semisonic.

What is “Someone Like You” about?

'Someone Like You' is about a man who broke up with Adele. The track sums up the now defunct relationship that the album 21 is all about. Lyrically, the song talks about the end of Adele's first "real relationship" with her long-time friend and lover, and shows her confronting his new marriage.

What happened with her relationship?

Adele has said that she began writing the song on her acoustic guitar following the break-up of her 18-month relationship with the 30-year-old man she assumed she would marry. A few months after their split, he was engaged to someone else.

Where was the video filmed?

The music video was filmed in Paris, France, by English director Jake Nava. The video is in black and white and sees Adele walking along a road and singing the song alone. Eventually, she enters a building in which she sees her ex-lover. After seeing her, he walks away. It has received over 1 billion views on YouTube.

How big a hit was it?

'Someone Like You' was a huge success, topping the charts in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the United States, as well as reaching the top ten in many other countries. As of late 2015, it had sold over 1.5 million copies in the UK alone, making it the second best-selling single of the 2010s and the third-best-seller of the 21st century.

MICHELA M.