Background

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born on 5 May 1988 in Tottenham, London, to an English mother, Penny Adkins, and a Welsh father, Marc Evans. Evans left when Adele was two, leaving her mother to raise her. She began singing at age four and asserts that she became obsessed with voices.

Education

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

After building anticipation in Britain with some well-received live performances, Adele (as she now billed herself) 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 (especially with heartbreak) into songs that had wide resonance. She also earned comparisons to Amy Winehouse, another young British singer conspicuously influenced by soul music. (For many fans, however, Adele’s zaftig figure and down-to-earth persona made her the more-relatable star.) 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, including Rick Rubin, 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. Additionally, with worldwide sales of more than 20 million copies by mid-2012, it was credited with helping revive the flagging recording industry.

Following successful throat surgery, Adele performed at the 2012 Grammy Awards ceremony. She also collected six Grammy trophies, including those for album, record, and song of the year (the latter two honoured “Rolling in the Deep”). Days later she received two Brit Awards (the British equivalent of the Grammys). 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. Although some critics felt it did not take enough risks, Adele’s voice was no less powerful, and her ability to sell records remained undiminished. The yearning single “Hello” became a hit in numerous countries, and more than 20 million copies of the album were sold worldwide.

Achievements

• 

  Adele is the first female in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to have three singles in the top 10 at the same time as a lead artist, and the first female artist to have two albums in the top five of the Billboard 200 and two singles in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously. 21 is the longest running number one album by a female solo artist on the United Kingdom and United States Albums Chart. 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 the American magazine Time named Adele one of the most influential people in the world. In 2013, she received an Academy Award as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for her song "Skyfall", written for Skyfall, the twenty-third James Bond film.

Works

More photos

• music

  • 19 2008
  • 21 2011
  • 25 2015

Religion

Adele told Rolling Stone in 2015 that she does not consider herself to be religious, but "[appreciates] religion so deeply" due to the comfort it provided for her grandmother when her grandfather passed away.

Politics

Politically she is a supporter of the Labour Party, stating in 2011 that she was a "Labour girl through and through", although, in May 2011, she advocated a lower tax rate for high-income earners; a view counter to that of the Labour Party.

Views

In 2015, Adele stated "I'm a feminist, I believe that everyone should be treated the same, including race and sexuality".

She is an icon for the LGBT community. On 12 June 2016 an emotional Adele dedicated her show in Antwerp, Belgium to the victims of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, earlier that day, adding "The LGBTQ community, they're like my soul mates since I was really young, so I'm very moved by it."

Quotations: "I don't make music for eyes. I make music for ears."

"I don’t think sadness is always devastating. It can be quite uplifting and joyful as well and sometimes, you have to let yourself be sad in order to move forward, so once I sort of started looking at it like that, I was quite happy to do it and also I felt like I didn’t need to let myself go this time in order to access my creativity, so that was good."

"Be brave and fearless to know that even if you do make a wrong decision, you’re making it for good reason."

"I have insecurities of course, but I don't hang out with anyone who points them out to me."

"People are starting to go on about my weight but I'm not going to change my size because they don't like the way I look."

"I like having my hair and face done, but I'm not going to lose weight because someone tells me to. I make music to be a musician not to be on the cover of Playboy."

"The focus on my appearance has really surprised me. I've always been a size 14 to 16, I don't care about clothes, I'd rather spend my money on cigarettes and booze."

Personality

Being an indifferent person, Adele has performed in numerous charity concerts throughout her career.

Some of her favorite designers include Burberry, Armani, Valentino, and Chloé.

Physical Characteristics: Adele is a mezzo-soprano with a range spanning from C3 to B5. However Classic FM state she is often mistaken for a contralto due to the application of a tense chest mix to achieve her lower notes, whilst also noting that her voice becomes its clearest as she ascends the register, particularly from C4 to C5. 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.

Quotes from others about the person

• Tom Townshend: "Adele is the finest singer of [our] generation".

Interests

• Hobby: cooking.
  
  Favorite Color: green
  
  Favorite Food: Lasagna, Ham.

• Sport & Clubs

  Football, swimming, Tottenham Hotspur football club

• Music & Bands

  Spice Girl, Sinéad O'Connor, The Cure, Dusty Springfield, Celine Dion, Annie Lennox, Beyoncé, Madonna.

Connections

Adele met her partner Simon Konecki, who is 13 years her senior and the founder of Life water and the charity Drop4Drop, in 2011. On June 29, 2012, Adele announced on her website that she was pregnant with the couple’s first child. She spoke to People magazine about being a mother: "I really want to be a mum. I better start getting on with it!" she said. She gave birth to her son Angelo on October 19, 2012.

In early 2017, Adele was spotted wearing a wedding band, sparking marriage rumors. At her January 2017 Grammy acceptance speech, Adele appeared to confirm the rumors by calling Konecki her husband. “Grammys, I appreciate it, the Academy, I love you, my manager, my husband and my son - you’re the only reason I do it,” she said at the time. Although in interviews backstage she referred to Konecki as her “partner,” she confirmed her marriage in March during a concert in Brisbane, Australia.

In April 2019, the singer's representatives revealed that Adele and Konecki had split.

Father:

Mark Evans

Mother:

Penny Adkins

Spouse:

Simon Konecki

Friend:

Lady Gaga

Adele and Gaga are so close they have a nickname for each other. "Mermaids for life!" Adele tweeted in 2013. Then a year later, Gaga shared a handwritten card from Adele that read, "Love you Mermaid," to which Mother Monster responded: "Such a classy girl Adele and a phenomenal mother."

Son:

Angelo Adkins

Friend:

Alan Carr

Alan Graham Carr is an English comedian and television personality.

Friend:

Rihanna (Robyn Fenty)

Adele has been a longtime admirer of Rihanna's music and career, telling Rolling Stone, "Maybe Rihanna can be in my squad! That would be really cool. Oh, God. She’s life itself, isn’t she? I love her." In 2018, Adele wrote a tribute to her friend for the annual Time 100 list, telling fans: "Whenever I've met her, she’s been the most gracious, loyal and funny goofball of an icon."

Friend:

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter

Friend:

Jennifer Lawrence

Adele and Jennifer have been friends since meeting at the 2013 Academy Awards as the actress recalled for Adele’s entry in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People issue in 2016. “Adele is a gift, an international treasure, but she’s also sweet, funny, intelligent and beautiful," the fellow Oscar winner wrote.

Friend:

Emma Stone

Jennifer and Adele have been spotted out with Emma on numerous occasions including this 2015 dinner outing. "Adele and I are a bit harsher; Emma’s never had a bad thought about anybody in her life," the Hunger Games star told Glamour in January 2016. "These two women are really lovely."

Adele also gave Emma a sweet shout-out after the La La Land star won her Best Actress Oscar in 2017.

Friend:

Drake

Drake freaked out when he learned Adele attended his October 2018 concert in Los Angeles. "Oii Champagne Papi blew my mind tonight! Best production I’ve ever seen hands down and way up there with one of my favorite shows of all time. Huge love," she tweeted.

Then in February 2019, they met up to "hang out as friends" a source told PEOPLE about the pair who had dinner and went bowling.

Friend:

Taylor Swift

Taylor and Adele have been friends for a couple years now, with the British singer attending the American pop star's London concert in June 2018, in addition to other stops on the Reputation Stadium Tour. The two have reportedly been spending time together in 2019.

Friend:

Cameron Diaz

Adele and J. Law joined forces with Cameron Diaz at the Women’s March 2018 in Los Angeles on the first anniversary of Trump’s inauguration. "I am obsessed with all the women in my life. I adore them and need them more and more every day," Adele wrote on Instagram.

Friend:

Ellen DeGeneres

Adele was among the lucky people to be invited to Ellen's star-studded 60th birthday party in February 2018.

Friend:

Elton John

Adele and Elton have made friends for years with the mother of one being invited to his 2014 wedding to David Furnish, though she was unable to make it.

Elton's Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour stop in January was also among the last few outings Adele had with husband Simon Konecki before she confirmed their split.

Friend:

Robbie Williams

Adele and Robbie were spotted enjoying a dinner outing together in Malibu, California, in February 2016. "You are an incredibly deserving winner and also an amazing mom. She is an incredible mom. The hardest working mom in show-business," Williams said on Adele's behalf when he accepted her album of the year trophy for 25 at the 2016 BBC Music Awards.

References

• Adele
• Adele: The Biography (Updated Edition)
• Adele: The Other Side
• Adele: A Celebration of an Icon and Her Music