Whatever she does, whatever musical genres she considers or tries, Adele will always be able to fall back on some basic facts which set her ahead of the pack. One of the key producers of 21, Rick Rubin, probably put it best. He said, ‘She doesn’t carry any of the baggage of many of today’s pop stars and it truly is about the music first and her voice and her lyrics and baring her soul with what she’s saying. I would say what she makes is her art, and at no time does it feel like product.’
This sense of sincerity in her work was indeed a powerful asset for Adele. The 21st century so far has been dominated by cultural scepticism. People no longer believe that pop stars are truly singing live on stage, others doubt the authenticity of the reality-television contests that launch new acts ever year. In an era where trust is at such a premium, Adele has been one act that people feel they can believe in.
It would be hard not to feel love for a person who could be so entertaining in interviews. Her chirpy voice, raucous laughter and ability to constantly go into random streams of consciousness positioned her a million miles from those pop stars whose undoubted good looks are not matched by their personality. For instance, an Australian interviewer once asked Adele how difficult it was to get up and out of bed early in the morning to fulfil a promotional slot on breakfast television. Before long, Adele was off on one of her conversational riffs and turning in all sorts of directions as she did so. ‘I love a card. You know, cards? At birthdays? I collect them. There’s this place in London, in Soho, does the best cards. Upstairs. My friend took me, she knows I love a card. Downstairs. A sex dungeon. Oh my gawd, the toys. All my best mates are gay, they love it. I’ve seen things… nothing like this. My eyes were watering.’ Let us hope she never changes.
Adele herself has said one of the most important benefits of her career was that it allowed her the freedom to include her friends in her journey. On BBC Radio 1, she told Chris Moyles and his listeners, ‘I flew my friends out to New York and I made them come to all the shows. I think they were a bit bored by the end. I get to share it with my friends, which is really nice and I never got to do that before. I don’t like talking about it when I come home, because all I ever do is talk about what I do. So I like to just be normal with my mates.’
She will also hopefully remain entirely star-struck by artists she admires. Adele regularly provoked excitement aplenty in fans and admirers who have encountered her in person. She understood these reactions – because she still has them herself. On just one evening out in America, she saw a galaxy of stars she either admired, fancied or both. Her excitement and nerves were palpable in these words. ‘I was sitting about five rows from [Etta James] at the Fashion Rocks [concert] in New York – nearly died, nearly fainted,’ she said. ‘Justin [Timberlake] was about two rows in front of me and I could smell him and he smelled amazing. Rihanna was really nice about me in a British interview she did, so I was going to walk over and say, “Hi, Rihanna, I’m Adele,” but I got too nervous. I’ve got the biggest crush on Chris Brown and he was all oiled and all moisturised, he looked so perfect. I didn’t say “hello” to anyone.’
A vocal minority have suggested that the reason white soul singers do so well in the British pop charts is because of an inherent racism in the industry and society at large. People point at Adele, Amy Winehouse and Duffy as proof – white girls singing black music. ‘I think it is a very valid point and, if it is the case, I think it’s disgusting,’ said Adele. ‘But, having said that, I don’t think it is the case. I think, if you’re good, you get heard. Whether you’re black, white, Indian or whatever, I think, if you make a good enough record that people believe in, they will push it.’ She accepted that the fact that ‘a Jewish girl, a ginger girl and a Welsh girl’ were all dominating a black genre was ‘weird’, but argued it was not for sinister reasons.
Adele has showed no signs of letting negativity slow her down, but not all her plans have been musical. ‘In five years’ time I’d like to be a mum,’ she said in 2008. ‘I want to settle down and have a family, definitely sooner rather than later.’ She has also spoken of moving to Nashville, Tennessee, to learn about country music. There she would get a chance to truly immerse herself in the genre. She was in the US when she conceived her second album and the effect of America was plain for all to hear. It could be similarly interesting for her to work in Nashville. ‘I might take a few years out and see what it’s like, for my third album or something,’ she said.
Yet she missed the UK when she was overseas, even when she was only away for a few weeks. It wasn’t uncommon for her professional commitments to last longer than that – they frequently ran into months on end. Adele would get particularly homesick for very specific brands such as Lenor fabric conditioner, Flora sandwich spread and, more generally, gherkins. She may have become big in America and beyond but she remained a Brit at heart.
So, she said, perhaps she would end up staying at home to record the record – quite literally, for she is planning to have a studio built in her house. As before, this was as much to do with keeping control as anything. ‘I want to write it all, record it all, produce it all and master it on my own,’ she said. ‘I think it’ll take a lot longer because I want to do it this way. When I move house in the summer, my sound engineer is going to come and help me install a studio and teach me how to use it.’
Given the slight, smooth transition in genre between 19 and 21, lots of people wonder what new influences and styles will be heard on her third album. During a chat with Rolling Stone, she joined in the speculation with a typically humorous, stream of consciousness response. ‘I think I might make a hip-hop record, because all I’m listening to is Nicki Minaj and Kanye West and Drake and stuff like that,’ she said. ‘No, I doubt I’ll make a hip-hop record. I don’t think I’d have the swagger to get away with it, not with this accent anyway. It would be annoying. It would be like a kind of sketch show if I did it.’ So we can rest assured that Adele won’t be rapping about her homies or wearing neck-straining gold chains any time soon.
She has also said that she would never make a full-on country album. Pop was a genre she was a little more tempted towards. However, the huge stage productions which seem to be more or less compulsory in modern pop, particularly for female stars, put her off. ‘I don’t like productions,’ she said. ‘I feel [more] comfortable just standing on a stage with a piano than with a band and dancers and routines and sparkly lights…I’d love to do it, but the thought of it just makes me want to jump off a building.’
She issued teasing comments about the third album, which could be released early in 2012. ‘I have five tracks ready to go,’ Adele revealed in May 2011. ‘One of them is quite upbeat – a real “girl power” type of song.’ She added that she might cover the INXS track ‘Never Tear Us Apart’, saying it ‘is probably my fave song of all time’. Her final remark about the work in progress was: ‘The whole album will have quite a live feel to it.’ The public awaited it with feverish expectation.
She managed her own expectations carefully when it came to how well the next album would perform on the market. ‘I’m not expecting my next record to be as big as this record,’ she said, referring to 21’s gigantic sales. ‘That’s impossible.’ She said that it would be extremely helpful to her writing process to meet another man and have similar dramas to those which inspired her first two albums. ‘I fucking hope I meet someone in that time so I’ll have something to write about,’ she said. ‘But if I’m happy, I don’t think I’ll be writing another album at all!’
These statements proved challenging for Adele’s fans: on the one hand they crave more musical material from their heroine, yet which true fan would want her to endure unhappiness?
Perhaps the answer would be for Adele to make a break with tradition and write material from a happy place. The lady herself was unconvinced such a scheme could work. ‘It would be fucking awful if my third album was about being happily settled down and maybe on my way to being a mum,’ she said. But neithe
r does she want to become the cliched successful music artist who, after becoming rich and famous, writes about the supposed ‘challenges’ of celebrity. Such songs inevitably fail to strike a chord with their fans who cannot relate to the lifestyle of the international superstar. ‘I get annoyed when all singers write about is cars, limos, hotels, boring stuff like missing home, complaining,’ she said. ‘I have a real life to write about.’ At the same time, she would obviously not destroy a fruitful relationship in order to create new material about a broken love. ‘Not yet, maybe about ten records in,’ she quipped. ‘If something is only all right, I make it into a bad thing. I won’t if it’s really good.’
Although she had become a symbol for many heartbroken women, it might be inaccurate to describe Adele as any sort of martyr figure. While she was open about how much men have hurt her, she did not paint herself as an entirely blameless figure in her failed relationships. Indeed, nobody was quicker to list Adele’s failings than the lady herself. ‘I used to think I was such a great girlfriend but I’m not at all, I have my flaws as well,’ she said. ‘I expect too much. At the time I don’t realise that. I expect too much but never tell them. I’d never say, “Look, I’d really like it if you did this for me.” I always moan about it but never tell them to their face. And if someone goes, “Why don’t you just tell him what you want?” I’ll be, like, “Well he should be able to pick it up, to sense it.” I can be stubborn, very, very stubborn, but only in my relationships. I think everything I do is golden, I think I’m Princess Diana.’
Similarly, it would be wrong to describe Adele the person as a musical purist or snob. Some chin-stroking musos have expressed admiration for her classic sound and low-key stage performance but, as we have seen, Adele – as a fan – always loved the sort of music such commentators contrast her with. ‘I adore get-your-tits-out music,’ she said memorably. ‘Katy Perry, Rihanna, Britney Spears and Kylie are all great girls and delivering top music. It’s just that I’m not the right fit to perform like that so I’m going down my own path. I’m a huge fan of pop music. I love it. I don’t listen to music like my own. I just seem to click with acoustic, honest and moving music.’
There is something admirable about an artist eschewing a golden opportunity to take the cultural high ground and instead speaking with such believable admiration of acts such as Perry and Rihanna. Were she to turn on them, she would have plenty of admiring ears. That was not Adele’s style, though. Neither does one have the sense she was merely being polite. Her happy-go-lucky personality was indeed more fitting of someone in the pop world.
Adele’s music could go on to define the second decade of the 21st century. Musically, the first ten years were dominated by reality-television acts and indie bands. Some of those artists, in both categories, were admirable. Leona Lewis, Girls Aloud and Alexandra Burke all gave reality television a good name, while the Strokes, the Libertines and Arctic Monkeys were fine examples of indie rock. However, for each of these admirable six acts, there were countless poor imitations. As the two movements became bandwagons, the public grew tired of each. Who better to refresh our enthusiasm than Adele? Tired of bland, playing-it-safe mediocre reality acts? Adele was enormously talented, bursting with personality and entirely unafraid of ruffling a few feathers with her opinions. Meanwhile, Adele was in all senses a contrast to the bandwagon of skinny young men desperately trying to recapture the excitement of the early years of the Strokes. Though she began by being compared to Amy Winehouse, Adele has simply eclipsed all. She remains, as one influential music magazine put it, simply too magical to be compared to anyone.
The scale of her influence can be seen in how popular her songs have become among the hopefuls who audition for the X Factor and other reality-television contests including American Idol. On the latter show, contestant Haley Reinhart performed ‘Rolling in the Deep’. A long line of wannabes throughout the 2010 season also announced that the song they wanted to sing to showcase their talent was ‘“Make You Feel My Love”, by Adele’. Putting aside the fact that it was a cover version of a song originally written and sung by Bob Dylan, the sheer number of times the request was heard made it harder for producers to create a balanced show.
Adele continued to prove to be a popular choice when auditions began for the 2011 series – and the standard of performance didn’t always do her material any favours. ‘This year the contestants have been mostly murdering Adele,’ revealed host Dermot O’Leary during filming.
Indeed, so tired of poor attempts at Adele’s music did everyone become that new host Gary Barlow took to directly questioning whether contestants had another option. ‘Are you sure that’s wise?’ he asked yet another singer who announced an intention to cover Adele.
Long-serving host Louis Walsh was of the same mind. ‘So far it’s been Adele overkill,’ he said during a break in filming. ‘I love her, she’s fabulous – but you have to be really good if you are going to take on an Adele song. Most people just aren’t up to the task.’
Soon, the judges and producers considered imposing a moratorium on Adele covers.
However, when a reality-show contestant does justice to an Adele song, it makes for captivating television. Two acts who had successfully covered Adele on UK reality shows were Rebecca Ferguson and Ronan Parke. In the 2010 series of the X Factor, Ferguson sang ‘Make You Feel My Love’ during the live finals. Her rich, soulful voice delivered the song well. It was one of the less vulnerable performances that runner-up Ferguson gave. Walsh was impressed: ‘I can definitely see you getting a recording contract.’
Even Simon Cowell was full of admiration. ‘That was absolutely fantastic,’ he said, adding that she could become an ‘ambassador for Britain’.
The following year, in Britain’s Got Talent, 12-year-old singer Ronan Parke also covered ‘Make You Feel My Love’. It was surprising that such a young contestant could so brilliantly sing such a song. ‘It was effortless,’ said judge Amanda Holden.
Simon Cowell added, ‘I have to say that you totally and utterly nailed that. I tell you what, if Adele’s watching now I think she’d be really happy.’
Adele herself is aiming for more happiness in all aspects of her life after enduring the contrasting twin narratives of huge success and terrible heartache. Among other plans on the horizon for her in the summer of 2011 included a crack at giving up meat. ‘I’m trying to be veggie,’ she said in July. ‘Whenever I’m about to eat meat I always see my little dog’s eyes.’ She also revealed that she had tried to give up smoking. Despite the fact that her time away from tobacco improved her voice, she had eventually decided that life without cigarettes was not a price worth paying. ‘I gave up smoking for two months,’ she said in June. ‘It was fucking grim. I had laryngitis about a week before the album came out and it was so frightening. I stopped smoking, drinking, eating or drinking citrus, spicy foods or caffeine. It was so fucking boring. When my album went to [UK] No 1 and in America, I just sat in my room and watched telly because I couldn’t go out and talk to anyone! My voice was better when I wasn’t smoking. Within a week I noticed it had changed, but I’d rather my voice be a bit shit so I can have a fucking laugh!’
She was aware that she is a role model to many. Mothers often approach her in the street to tell her that they are so happy that their daughters are fans of her. For Adele, this brought with it a weight of responsibility that she was not entirely at ease with. ‘It’s a bit worrying,’ she admitted. This goes a long way to explaining her down-to-earth personality, and refusal to take herself at all seriously during her media appearances. ‘Sometimes I get letters from people asking me to sign wedding photos because their first dance was to “Make You Feel My Love” and I start crying and then I’ll sign them,’ she said.
Adele remains a reluctant hero and one who is keen to knock over any pedestals her fans might have in mind for her. She continues to be uncomfortable with some parts of being famous – particularly the stranger elements of those who follow her. ‘The othe
r day I was up north and there were these – well, I don’t think they were fans actually, they were like eBayers,’ she told the Sun. ‘I’d be at the venue, they’d be there. I’d leave the venue and they’d be there. Then they started taking pictures of my dog doing a shit and stuff like that. It was really weird. I was on my own taking Louis out for a walk. One of them just got in the lift with me and I got really panicky. Luckily there was a cleaner on the floor I was on. I was just thinking – imagine being someone like Cheryl Cole or Katy Perry or Gaga, where you’ve got to be conniving to have a normal day. That scares the life out of me. I don’t think I’d be able to carry on doing music if it got to that point. I don’t think it ever will – I don’t think I’m the kind of artist where that will happen.’
Away from her career, the urge to continue to be a genuine person was high on her priority list. She has spoken of loathing the idea of fame changing her as it has so many other stars. She has insisted that she has never been more normal than she has been since becoming a worldwide celebrity. She is a sharp woman, though, and so is more than familiar with the traps that lie ahead. Occasionally, she has said, she would find herself momentarily acting up. One day, during a long and draining photo shoot, she found herself sitting up a ladder, smoking a cigarette. When she accidentally dropped it, she asked one of her team to pick it up and return it to her. Her request was given short shrift and denied.
She still tries to ignore both the praise and the criticism that her music has been met with. At this stage in her career, it is praise that almost exclusively comes her way, although there has been some criticism and she is fully aware that in times there might be more. For any artist, the healthiest response is to shrug off both praise and criticism as far as possible. ‘That stuff goes right over my head,’ she said. ‘I’m 22. So those things don’t really interest me! I just love singing, innit?’ she said. ‘I mean, I’m really proud of making some people really proud in England. I’ve never seen my mum so happy. She’s like, “Oh, well, this is just ridiculous now, surely not, fuck off Adele.” It makes me.… really emotional actually. It’s pretty overwhelming. It’s very extreme. I wasn’t ever expecting any success like this,’ she said.
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