Guess who recently sold more albums in a week than any other artist in history? Ta-ta, Tay-Tay… Adele is back.
There are 25-plus reasons why Adele was CLEO‘s covergirl in January. That’s because in a world of Kardashians, Hadids, Delevingnes and Hemsworths, Adele is – well, just Adele. She doesn’t have any famous parents or siblings or sex tapes or scandals. She’s just really, epically her. That’s a pretty prodigious reason, granted. But the allure of this particular pop singer isn’t just a voice. Or a good publicity team. Or a good voice combined with a good publicity team. She’s one of those more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts phenomenons. Like Nutella donuts or really satisfying shower sex. In just a matter of minutes, her latest single Hello manages to elicit raw emotion even a screening of The Notebook can’t match. Just how she manages to do this when pop culture is largely distracted by lips and butts and dancing sharks is something of a marvel. So how, exactly, has she managed it?
Well, she’s what your gran would probably describe as an old soul. And the thing about old souls is, they’re usually pretty comfortable in the world. They’re not going around trying to be someone else. They’re not oblivious to the world around them either – they simply pick and choose the contemporary leanings they like and discard the rest. And that, in a nutshell, is Adele. She’s a bouffant-toting, 60s-frock wearing Grammy award-winning singer who takes pot shots at Taylor Swift and praise from Justin Bieber. She’s also (sorry, Iggy) the realest.
Speaking about her hit Someone Like You (a little break-up ditty she wrote a while back, you might have heard it) she said, “I had come to terms with the fact that I’d met the love of my life but it was just bad timing.” Yeah, so, pretty much something we’ve all said to a girlfriend over a vino at some point. Although we were probably just saying it to hear how it sounded, rather than because we actually believed it. But then, you kind of feel like that’s why Adele wrote it: to mull over how the words sounded when she sung them out loud and to see if she could convince herself that she really was over him. There’s no sass, no bravado, no take-it-or-leave-it ’tude that typifies other popstar’s lyrics. There’s just a lot of agony with a twist of defeat. So, yep, basically the end of every break-up you’ve ever had. We’re guessing she may have even penned the lyrics, “I stalked your new girlfriend on Facebook, it looks like she’s probably a great cook” and then crossed them out.
And, just quietly, can we talk about body confidence? Because we can’t talk about Adele’s irrepressible relatability if we don’t talk about body confidence. Not that she likes talking about it. You can all but hear her eyes rolling when a reporter even tries to ask a question about it. “Like it matters,” those rolling peepers seem to say, “I don’t make music for eyes. I make music for ears.” (That last part is an actual Adele quote, as it happens.) But of course, she’s a savvy gal. She knows her average shape and size are part of her appeal. And they are average. In the way the majority of the population are average. Because that’s what average means. Only she seems to take on that label with more relish than most. “I enjoy being me; I always have done,” she says. “I’ve seen people where it rules their lives, you know, who want to be thinner or have bigger boobs, and it wears them down. And I don’t want that in my life.”
An incredibly refreshing attitude for anyone at any age, let alone someone who’s only 27. But while we’re on the subject of age, let’s talk 25. Not only the name of what was arguably the most anticipated album of the decade so far, but the age Adele was when she started writing it. “I do it every album,” she told i-D. “I buy a new pad, sniff it – ’cause smell is important – and then I get a big, fat Sharpie and write my age on the front page. 25 has five exclamation marks after it ’cause I was like, ‘How the f*ck did that happen?!’ 21 to 25.” So now you know the story behind 19 and 21 to boot. Here’s hoping we get a 28 and don’t have to wait for a 32. The smooth British crooner does apologise for the wait on 25, by the way. “I’m sorry it took so long, but, you know, life happened,” she said in an open letter she penned to her fans after its release. When she says “life”, she means becoming a parent for the first time, something she’s characteristically candid about. “I gave birth a few nights before the Skyfall premiere,” she shares. “That’s why I didn’t do anything for it. He was about to drop out my fanny at, like, any moment.” Speaking of candour, she’s equally outspoken about filming the video for Hello, including her teary turn. “I had to cry and everything,” she said. “You know what, I feel like a bit of a c*nt after saying for all these years I’d never act, because I really enjoyed it.”
As per her own hilarious admission, acting was certainly never in her master plan, despite having graduated from the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in London back in 2006. Although, considering she signed her first recording contract not long after, there probably wasn’t much time to even think about it. Going on to produce the longest-running number-one album by a female solo artist in the history of both the UK and US album charts no doubt sealed the deal. In case she was in any doubt, having Hello become the first song to sell more than a million copies in a week is a mighty tight reminder. She is Adele: hear her roar. You get the feeling she could have been born in any decade or any century and still have found her place in culture. Girl’s killing it.
While being a polished but profanity pin-up isn’t necessarily a recipe for success, it works for Adele. Yet in saying that, she’s kind of like the human version of KFC. OK sure, you might be able to figure out what the 11 herbs and spices are, but darned if you can put the ingredients together in the same way as the original. And so fascination abounds. She intrigues the public and celebrities alike. And so, this old soul will continue doing what she does best… making us all blubber in the car on the way to work. Or, as she likes to put it, “I will be making records for the rest of my life.” Still, if you’re going to pick up anything the singer puts down, don’t bother making it her thoughts on motherhood, her opinion on fame or even make it her views on body image. Make it her thoughts on the kind of people to surround yourself with day-to-day. This sums it up quite nicely: “I have insecurities of course, but I don’t hang out with anyone who points them out to me.” Hello… we think we just found a new motto.
