British songstress Adele was born on May 5 1988 in North London. Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was raised single-handedly by her mother after her father left when she was two. She began singing at the age of four and grew up listening to the Spice Girls and Etta James. Adele graduated from The BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in 2006.
Adele created a demo, which was posted to MySpace and attracted the attention of XL Recordings. She signed to the label in 2006 and released ‘Hometown Glory’ in 2007. The track won her the 'Critics' Choice' Brit award.
Debut album ‘19’ followed in January 2008 and was nominated for a Mercury Prize. Second single, ‘Chasing Pavements,’ stayed at number two in the UK chart for a month.
Two years later second album, ‘21’ hit the charts, hitting number one in more than 26 countries. Lead single from the record ‘Someone Like You’ shot to number one in the UK following Adele’s performance at the 2011 Brit Awards. The third track, ‘Set Fire to the Rain’ was released in July 2011 and made Adele the first British artist to have three consecutive number ones.
In October 2012 Adele released the theme song to the 23rd James Bond film, ‘Skyfall’. Adele has said that recording ‘Skyfall’ at Abbey Road Studios was one of the proudest moments of her life. The single hit number two in the UK and peaked at number eight in the US. Adele was awarded an Oscar with ‘Skyfall’ named ‘Best Original Song’.
Adele’s heartfelt songs and soulful voice have won her international acclaim, she has won four Grammy awards, a Golden Globe and was named ‘Songwriter of the Year’ at the 2012 Ivor Novello awards.
The songwriter lives in West Sussex with her partner Simon Konecki and son Angelo.
