Adele

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 5 May 1988), better known mononymously as Adele, is an English singer-songwriter. Adele was offered a recording contract from XL Recordings after a friend posted her demos on Myspace in 2006. The next year she received the Brit Awards "Critics' Choice" and won the BBC Sound of 2008. Her debut album, 19 was released in 2008 to much commercial and critical success in the UK. 19 was certified four times platinum in the UK. Her career in the US was boosted by a Saturday Night Live appearance in late 2008. Adele released her second album, 21 in 2011. The album was well received critically and surpassed the success of her debut commercially. 21 has been certified 14 times platinum in the UK; in the US the album held the top position longer than any other album since 1998.. Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born in Tottenham, London, England, to a single teenage mother on 5 May 1988. She began singing at age four and asserts that she became obsessed with voices. Adele has cited the Spice Girls as a major influence in regard to her love and passion for music, stating that "they made me what I am today." Adele would also impersonate the Spice Girls at dinner parties as a young girl. To make her look like singer Gabrielle, her mother made an eye patch with sequins, which Adele said was embarrassing. At the age of 9, Adele and her mother, a furniture-maker and adult learning activities organiser, relocated to Brighton. At the age of 11, Adele and her mother moved to Brixton, and then to neighbouring district West Norwood, in South London. West Norwood is the subject for Adele's first record, "Hometown Glory", written when she was 16. After moving to South London, she became interested in R&B artists such as Aaliyah, Destiny's Child and Mary J. Blige.. Adele says that one of the most defining moments in her life was when she watched Pink perform at Brixton Academy. "It was the Missundaztood record, so I was about 13 or 14. I had never heard, being in the room, someone sing like that live […] I remember sort of feeling like I was in a wind tunnel, her voice just hitting me. It was incredible." 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. In school, she was more interested in going into A&R and hoped to launch other people's careers....
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