The award winning singer/songwriter has been dominating the music charts since her debut in 2008. The London born musician has been a musical staple ever since, winning a whopping 86 awards, and outselling her Billboard Top 100 competition combined, several times over.
Here are some facts you may not know about the musical titan!
Adele Facts
1. Feeling Blue
Adele's full name is Adele Laurie Blue Adkins.
2. Bad Dad
Adele's dad walked out on her and her mom when Adele was just 2 years old.
3. Early Bird Gets The Grammy
Adele started singing when she was just 4 years old. 10,000 hours and many, many more dollars have followed as a result.
4. Don't Read Into It
Adele has said she stopped reading books when she was 6 to focus on singing, just 2 years after she started singing. The last book she remembers reading was Roald Dahl's Matilda, a novel about a 4 year old girl who comes from a broken home but has a special gift. Sounds familiar…
5. Girl Power
Adele has said among her favourite artists growing up were the Spice Girls and Ella Fitzgerald. The Spice Girls hailed from Adele's hometown of London. Ella was referred to as the First Lady of Song. Way to pick good role models, Adele.
6. Aged To Perfection
All of Adele's albums are named after the age she was when she wrote them. 19, 21, and 25 are her three studio albums. Something tells us 30 is going to be an amazing album with a lot of self-reflection, look for it in 2018.
7. Twenty-Six Countries
That's the number of countries where 21 (her second album) reached the number one spot. That's more countries than most people will ever visit in their lifetime. Many of those countries don't even speak English as their first language. Love, and more importantly the loss thereof, truly is a universal language.
8. Sweetest Devotion
Adele has stated that she used to drink 10 cups of tea a day with two sugars. She cut the tea out of her diet and credits her weight loss to the reduced sugar intake.
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9. Shoot For The Stars
Adele's first taste of success came from MySpace, but it was actually a friend of hers who uploaded her singing to the once popular social media platform. A MySpace success story is probably the only thing Adele and Dane Cook have in common.
10. Weeks on Top
Adele's second album 21 spent 23 weeks at the top of the UK Album Charts, back when there still was a UK. After 23 weeks, 21 made a graceful (Br)exit.
11. Live From New York (By Way Of London)
Adele has accredited her Saturday Night Live appearance in 2008 as a major factor in getting her career off the ground. The episode was watched by 17 million viewers, who had actually tuned in to watch then potential Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Sarah might have been able to see Russia from her house, but she couldn't see that Adele would be as big a star as she is now.
12. Not Live From New York (Or Any Other American City)
Adele cancelled her 2008 American tour to spend time with an ex-boyfriend, which she later said she regretted. Fans didn't seem to mind, as we're sure she was just doing research for her next album.
13. Musical Chairs
Adele went to high school at the prestigious BRIT School and was friends with another famous singer, Jessie J. The school has many famous alumni including Imogen Heap and Amy Winehouse, though they did not attend the same years that Adele did.
14. Fan Girl
Adele has received fan mail from many people, most notably former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who thanked her for keeping peoples' spirits high during the economic recession. We're not entirely sure he's heard her music before.
15. I Found A Boy
Actually, she made one, giving birth to her son in 2012. Hopefully he treats women better than the men in Adele's past.
16. Rumor Has It
Adele kept her son's name a secret for 94 days after his birth. His name was discovered when she was seen wearing a necklace with the name Angelo in public.
17. EnRiched Life
Adele was ranked as the sixth highest paid celebrity under 30 by Forbes in 2012, the same year her son was born.
18. Don't Take It All
Adele has been a long-time supporter of the Labor Party, but has said that she supports lower taxes for higher earners. She makes up for it by supporting charities with her time, not her money, and her time is extremely valuable these days.
19. Moving on Down
Adele used to live in a 10-bedroom mansion, but she decided to move to a smaller home because she was only using 1 of those bedrooms. The other 9 possibly housed her huge award stash.
20. Rolling In The Grammys
Adele has 11 Grammys to her name. While she's still a ways away from the all-time record of 31, she still has a very long career ahead of her. Maybe one day they'll change the name to Adeles.
21. Queen Adele
Adele is tied with Beyoncé for most categories won in one night at the Grammys. She took home a total of 6 Grammys in 2012, including Best Music Video for Rolling In The Deep. We're still waiting for Kanye West to interrupt someone's acceptance speech to remind us that Adele had one of the best music videos of all time. Of all time!
22. Not a Fan of the Razor
Adele a long period of not shaving her legs, she said she finally broke down because she thought people in the front row at her concerts might notice them when she runs up the stairs to the stage. When she was asked if her boyfriend minded, she said, “He has no choice. I’ll have no man telling me to shave my [redacted] legs. Shave yours.”
23. Broken Record
Along with all her other awards, Adele holds 3 Guinness World Records. She set those records back in 2012 when 21 was released. We get it, Adele. You're amazing.
24. Romantically Inked
Adele has five tattoos: Two on her left wrist, one on each hand, one behind her right ear, and one on her back. They all have a special meaning to her, though she hasn't publicly shared them.
25. For The Love of Your Child
Adele’s heavy-drinking inspired the creativity behind 21, but she says she’s put that behind her now that she has a son.
“Having a hangover with a child is torture. Just imagine an annoying three-year-old who knows something’s wrong; it’s hell…I can see from an outsider’s perspective that I will never write songs as good as the ones that are on 21, but I’m not as indulgent as I was then, and I don’t have time to fall apart like I did then. I was completely off my face writing that album, and a drunk tongue is an honest one. I would drink two bottles of wine, and I would chain-smoke…But since I’ve had my baby, I’m not as carefree as I used to be. I’m scared of a lot of things now because I don’t want to die; I want to be around for my kid.”
We respect your life decisions and believe you’ll still be writing awesome music!
26. That's It, I Quit
In 2011, Adele had to have throat surgery, which her doctors blamed on her smoking habit. In 2015, she finally kicked the habit. She admitted that she thought her smoking would eventually kill her. We think we speak for everyone, including your doctors, when we say we're glad she quit.
27. FemiNice!
Adele spoke about feminist in 2015, stating that she believes in equality for everyone regardless of race, sex, or gender.
28. Unconditional Love
Adele has a Dachshund named Louis Armstrong. That's one source of love that will never knowingly break her heart.
29. Self-Love
Adele has said her goal in life is to never be skinny. She believes music should be made for the ears, not the eyes. Yep, she can be more awesome.
30. Hometown Glory
Adele has said she doesn't like flying, and gets homesick often. The title of her debut track makes a lot more sense now.
31. Rockstar
Adele doesn't need peace and quiet to make music. In fact, she's at her most creative when she's had a few too many to drink. Don't we all do some of our best work when we've had some liquid courage?
32. Not Right As Rain
Despite being a global superstar, Adele still suffers from stage fright, often experiencing panic attacks and even vomiting before her shows.
33. Tweet mishaps
Adele’s management team decided to ban her from accessing her own Twitter account because she was sending out drunk tweets. “I mean I'm not a drinker any more, but when Twitter first came out I was, like, drunk tweeting, and nearly put my foot in it quite a few times.”
The new system meant that she could only publish a tweet after going “through, like, two people, and it has to be signed off by someone.”
She later admitted that she now has a secret Twitter account for drunk tweeting.
34. Skyfall
It's rumored that it took Adele only 10 minutes to record the vocals for the Skyfall song. Producer Paul Epworth has denied this, but we think he's just jealous.