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Quick Facts
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Singer Adele is a Grammy Award-winning artist whose throwback, soulful sound has made her an international success.
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Play NowAdele. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 02:18, May 23, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/adele-20694679.
Adele. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/adele-20694679 [Accessed 23 May 2013].
"Adele." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 23 2013, 02:18 http://www.biography.com/people/adele-20694679.
"Adele," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/adele-20694679 [accessed May 23, 2013].
"Adele," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/adele-20694679 (accessed May 23, 2013).
Adele [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 23] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/adele-20694679.
Adele, http://www.biography.com/people/adele-20694679 (last visited May 23, 2013).
Adele. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/adele-20694679. Accessed May 23, 2013.
Synopsis
Adele was born in north London, England, on May 5, 1988. A huge fan of Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald as a child, Adele was a music fiend beginning at the age of 3. She attended the BRIT School, a free school for the performing arts. Her first two albums, 19 and 21,
Quotes
"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."
earned her critical success and a level of commercial viability on par with the Beatles and Bob Marley.
Early Years
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born on May 5, 1988 in North London, England. She was the only child of Penny Adkins, an "arty mom" who was just 18 at the time of her birth, and a Welsh father, Mark, who left the family when Adele was only 4 years old.
Mark, who never married Penny, remained in contact with his daughter up until her teen years, when his problems with alcohol, and increasing estrangement from his daughter, caused their relationship to deteriorate. By contrast, Adele grew close to her mom, who encouraged her young daughter "to explore, and not to stick with one thing."
Early on, Adele developed a passion for music. She gravitated toward the songs of Lauryn Hill, Destiny's Child and Mary J. Blige. But her true, eye-opening moment came when she was 15, and she happened upon a collection of Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald records at a local junk shop. "There was no musical heritage in our family," Adele told The Telegraph in a 2008 interview. "Chart music was all I ever knew. So when I listened to the Ettas and the Ellas, it sounds so cheesy, but it was like an awakening. I was like, oh, right, some people have proper longevity and are legends. I was so inspired that as a 15-year-old I was listening to music that had been made in the 40s."
While clearly bright, Adele wasn't a match for regular classroom work. Instead, her mother enrolled her in the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology, which counts Amy Winehouse as an alum.
While at school, Adele cut a three-track demo for a class project, which was eventually posted on her MySpace page. When executives at XL Recordings heard the tracks, they contacted the singer and, in November 2006, just four months after Adele had graduated school, signed her to a record deal.
Commercial Success
Adele's debut album, 19, which is named for the singer's age when she began recording it, hit record stores in early 2008. Led by two popular lead singles, "Hometown Glory" and "Chasing Pavements," the record rocketed Adele to fame.
Released in the United States through Columbia Records, 19 resonated with American audiences, much like it had with British music listeners. Adele cemented her commercial success with an appearance in October 2008 on Saturday Night Live. At the taping of the show, the album was ranked No. 40 on iTunes. Less than 24 hours later, it was No. 1.
At the 2009 Grammy awards, Adele took home Best New Artist. In addition, the album earned the singer the distinction of being named the "Sound of 2008" by the BBC. That same year, she earned the Critics' Choice prize at the BRIT Awards.
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Post-Britpop London - Cultural Icons: 2000s
View groupAfter the Britpop music scene of the early 90's, a new genre of celebrities stepped into the London spotlight from athletic superstars such as David Beckham to pop culture phenomenons like Simon Cowell and Susan Boyle. Alternative rock acts like Elastica and Oasis were replaced with soulful songstresses like Amy Whinehouse and Adele, and actors like Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley and Robert Pattinson became international superstars. The Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton also became a royal, social and fashion icon, as well as a defining figure of the decade. Biography celebrates these cultural icons of the new post-Britpop era.
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View groupBond—James Bond—was introduced to movie fans with the release of the first 007 film, Dr. No, in 1962. The past five decades of James Bond films have included a gamut of soundtrack artists, including Paul McCartney & Wings, who performed the song "Live and Let Die" for the Bond film of the same name; Shirley Bassey, who sang tracks for the films Diamonds Are Forever and Goldfinger; Jack White and Alicia Keys, who performed "Another Way to Die" for Quantum of Solace; Gladys Knight, who sang the title track for License to Kill; Louis Armstrong, who performed "We Have All the Time in the World" (secondary theme) for On Her Majesty's Secret Service; and Adele, who sang the title track for the newest film of the Bond franchise, Skyfall.
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View groupBecause they're in the public eye, celebrities are subject to being the butt of many jokes, and on the Internet, it seems the best way to knock 'em dead is to ... well, claim that they're dead. Among the most famous celebrity death hoaxes, favorites include Bill Cosby, Margaret Thatcher, Barack Obama, Britney Spears, Sean Connery, Eddie Murphy and Morgan Freeman, among many others.
Celebrity Death Hoaxes 51 people in this group
