ADELE
Adele (born Adele Laurie Blue Adkins; 5 May 1988) is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating from the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in 2006, Adele was given a recording contract by XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on Myspace the same year. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 to commercial and critical success. At the 51st Grammy Awards in 2009, Adele received the awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Her second studio album, 21 was critically well received and surpassed the success of her debut, earning the singer numerous awards in 2012, among them a record-tying six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year; two Brit Awards, including British Album of the Year; and three American Music Awards. The album has been certified 16 times platinum in the UK, and is overall the fourth best-selling album in the nation. In the US, it held the top position longer than any album since 1985, and is certified diamond. In 2011, 2012 and 2016, Billboard named Adele Artist of the Year. With sales of more than 100 million records, Adele is one of the best-selling music artists. (More from Wikipedia)
British soul singer Adele is one of the modern fans of Wanda Jackson and “Funnel of Love” in particular; from Wikipedia: “According to Jackson, Adele mentioned to her that if she had not heard ‘Funnel of Love’, then her 2010 single ‘Rolling in the Deep’ may have never existed. In 2010, Adele explained how Jackson’s music affected her: ‘I got addicted to this Wanda Jackson hits album,’ says the singer. ‘She’s so cheeky and so raunchy. She’s kind of like the female Elvis: really sexual, not afraid to embarrass herself.’ Adele’s interest in her music led to a stint as Jackson serving as her opening act in Britain between 2011 and 2012.”
(July 2015)
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And for those of you who think that the album is dead, Adele’s hit album 21 from 2011 holds the 11th spot on the list of the biggest selling albums of all time and gives some hope that this basic musical format might yet survive. Interestingly, 21 was the largest selling album in both 2011 and 2012, and her third album, 25 was the biggest seller in 2015. For that matter, Adele’s debut album 19 (2008) went seven times Platinum.
(December 2016)
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One of the hallmarks of the bandmembers in early punk rock bands is picking new names for themselves. Not everyone did that, and most musicians perform under their own names. For the record, as best I can tell, Frank Zappa, Fats Domino, Major Lance, Kris Kristofferson, and Stonewall Jackson are using their real names (with Fats being a nickname, though Major and Stonewall are not). Grace Slick is her married name; she was born Grace Wing. Most though not all of the one-name performers are also using one of their real names, with slight spelling changes and anglicizing here and there: Madonna, Prince, Jewel, Cher, Björk, Enya, Beck, Donovan, Morrissey, Liberace, Sade, Seal, Shakira, Rihanna, Adele, Dido, Melanie, Beyoncé, etc.
(March 2017)
