Adele (artist review & behind the music)

Adele, birth name Adele Laurie Adkins, born 5th of May. Adele was born in Tottenham, London, and was raised by a single mother. She began singing at age four. At the age of 11, they moved to West Norwood ( South London). West Norwood is the subject of her first record 'Hometown Glory', which Adele wrote at age 16. She graduated fom the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon in May 2006, where she was classmate of Leona Lewis & Jessie J. Se would publish songs on the online arts publication PlatformMagazine.com. She recorded a three-song demo for a class project and gave it to a friend who posted on Myspace. It became very successful and it lead to XL Recordings' interest in her. Adele was then signed to XL by Nick Hugget in September 2006.
Her breakthrough song 'Hometown Glory' was released October 2007. Her debut album titled '19' (which as titled after he at the time of composition), debuted at number one & has officially been certified 4x plattinum in the United Kingdom. She had numerous performances and events to boost her career & later won awards for 'Best New Artist' & 'Best Female Pop Vocal Performance' at the 2009 Grammy Awards.
The album has sold an estimate of 5million copies as of November 2011 (recent). It was indeed well-written and had great vocals, she recieved  recognition through it and personally, it made me like her, but Adele was not my favorite, to me she was just another 'good' artist.
My interest in Adele developed when the anticipation for her to give birth to her '21' era began. After she released the album, everyone talked about her. When I heard the album, it sounded so close to perfection, I instantly became a fan, all I wanted do was listen to Adele and after I heard the story behind the music, I concluded that she had put together a masterpiece.

21

Released beginning of January 2011, 21 (also titled after her age at the time of compostion) became Adele's second studio album. What made it so special for me was the fact it was inspired by the aftermath of the singer's seperation from her partner of 18 months. The confessional songwriting explores themes of anger, revenge, heatbreak & forgiveness.

The album's lead single 'Rolling In The Deep' expresses her anger and revenge. Adele says her producers told her to be 'bitchy' when writing the song. "You're gonna wish you never met me, tears are gonna fall, Rolling In The Deep", "Go ahead and sell me out and I'll lay your ship bear". It is a very powerful song with strong vocals. This song soared the charts worldwide, reaching number one in 11 countries, spending 7weeks atop the Billboard, also the best-selling song  2011 & scoring the most nominated video of the year with its video where we see Adele sitting on a chair in a empty abandoned house that represents her emptiness/lonliness, and there are strong drumbeats and vibrating glasses full of water that represent her heartbeat & fragility.

Adele then released her second single for her 21 era, Someone Like You (unsure of the exact dates). This song is about the end of Adele's relationship with her ex-boyfriend. After a well-recieved emotional performance at the 2011 BRIT Awards, Someone Like You topped the UK charts & became the first ever single to sell a million units in the UK. It also came for 'best-selling single in the UK in 2011' & was later accompanied by a video of Adele walking through the streets with a sad facial expression. Personally, I think the video was appropriate for the song since Adele has never been a video girl and it is simple and sends a message out about her loneliness. Adele said "I wrote the song because I was tired of being such bitch with 'Rolling In The Deep' & 'Rumour Has It'. I was really emotionally drained from the way I was portraying him, because even though I'm very bitter & regret some parts of it, he's still the most important person that has been in my life and had to write it to feel OK with myself & OK with the two years I spent with him, and when I did, I felt so freed".

"I wrote this song at the end of my bed, I had a cold, I was waiting for my bath water to run, I had found out he had got engaged to someone else", said Adele.
She also confessed that it might also take her 10 years to get over that rationship. (WOWza). In an interview with Mtv earlier this year, she confessed that she would give up her whole music career and her friendships to get back with him. (U_U) (WTF)

Some of my personal favorites include 'Turning Tables', of which apparently she would cry a lot during her studio sessions & everytime she would have a different complaint about her then boyfriend. These events were then channelled and translated into a song title 'Turning Tables', which Fraser.T.Smith, her proDucer gave to her before assisting her with writing the song.
'Set Fire To The Rain' (my favorite song), is a power ballad that has the most powerful vocals on the album (which never expected from Adele). I personally rate this song as 'overproduced' for an Adele song (because we all know Adele sounds best when its just her voice & the piano), she pulls it off very well with all that over-the-top sound engineering.
This song describes the contradictory elements of a relationship and the inability to let go displayed in the lyrics "You & me together nothing gets better, but there's a side to you that I never knew".
"She slips through the hurt in this song and slips through the anger to give you a damn real & forward show of emotion. Seeing the live or stripped-down version would make one bawl like a child. You'll pump your fist and pound your chest, that is a guarantee", said Nick Freed.
The climac of the song TAKES MY LIFE towards the end when she cries her lungs out "Let It Burn" which represents the point where she finally decides to 'Let Go' of the relationship.(˘̩̩̩^˘̩̩̩)

She initially wanted to title the album 'Rolling In The Deep' and eventually decided against the title because it was too confusing. She then decided on the title '21' which was her age then and symbolises maturity & artistic evolution from '19' album.

The album spent THIRTEEN(13) weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, snatching the wigs of big music icons like Lady Gaga & Beyonce whilst scalping hip hop heavyweights like Lil Wayne, Jay-Z & Kanye West. 21 still sits comfortable atop most album charts, & after almost a year, still selling more that 100 000 copies a week in the US, making it the best-selling album in 2011 and the longest-running album in the 20th century.