Adele is an English soul and jazz singer. She is the first recipient of the Brit Awards Critics’ Choice, which was given to artists who at the time had yet to release an album. Adele has also been hailed by the British press as “the new Amy Winehouse”.
She graduated from The BRIT School for performing arts & technology in Croydon in May 2006, which was the same performing arts school attended by Amy Winehouse, Katie Melua, Leona Lewis and Kate Nash. Since then Adele has played in small UK gigs, and has toured with best friend Jack Peñate, as well as Jamie T, Raul Midon, Amos Lee and Devendra Banhart. Adele went on her first UK headlining tour in October 2007.
Adele’s first record, “Hometown Glory”, in which she sings the praises of Tottenham, was released on 22 October 2007 as a limited edition 7″ vinyl on Jamie T’s label Pacemaker Recordings, with B side “Best For Last”. “Hometown Glory” was featured as the single of the week on iTunes. Since launching her MySpace page on Christmas Eve 2004, Adele became popular on the site which she used as a media focus and test point for songs. She then signed to independent music label XL Recordings, which in January 2008 released her second single “Chasing Pavements”, hitting #2 for 4 weeks in the UK Chart and still in the Top 40 14 weeks after release. Adele then released her debut album 19, which went straight to #1 in the UK charts and was certified platinum within a month of its release.
In March 2008 Adele signed to Columbia Records in America, and embarked on her first live shows in North America and Canada, playing two sold out shows at Joe’s Pub in New York, a sold out show at LA’s Hotel Cafe, as well as two sold out shows at Cabaret in Montreal and Rivoli in Toronto.
