“I love that she is who she is, I love that she’s a singer. She’s not about the flash or the glitz and glamour. I love that she just gets up there in front of a microphone and sings. It’s just phenomenal,” said dance teacher Leah Smith.
The 23-year-old singer who Smith describes, Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, originally from London, became famous through MySpace. A friend of hers set up a page in 2004 and a record label found her in 2006. She wasn’t well known in England until 2008 and became popular in the United States two years later.
“[Adele] was told ‘No,’ she kept at it, she spoke her truth, sang her truth, wrote her truth and it worked out. It’s a good lesson about hard work,” Smith said.
Ironically, coming from a non-musical family, Adele went to BRIT School of Performing Arts, the same school that singer Amy Winehouse attended.
“Her voice to me sounds a lot like Amy Winehouse; I think a lot of people have forgotten about Amy Winehouse, but [Adele] has brought that sound back,” said junior Kendall Atwater.
Other students said that Adele is different from other celebrities based on her style and music.
“[Adele] is her own person; she is something new that we’ve never had before,” said senior Tationa Dorsett.
Because of Adele’s decisions in life and in her music, a lot of girls at Northwood believe she is a good role model. Adele has been judged by her weight since the beginning of her career by the public and media. Her fans believe that she is strong, showing that she is not going to change herself just to fit in. Adele also gives her fans advice about relationships with her song lyrics.
“She’s really outspoken. I’ve never seen anybody who’s had such confidence in what she does, and it doesn’t matter what she looks like,” Dorsett said.
Atwater agrees.
“I think she’s a good role model; she’s not like a lot of other celebrities making bad decisions. She really cares about her music and her fans,” Atwater said.
Adele, currently with XL Recordings, writes her own music. Adele’s album 21 topped the charts in 18 countries and sold over four million albums in London, making it the eighth best selling album of all time.
With a high demand for Adele in the United States, having over 22 million fans and sold out shows, she went on tour last year to promote her album.
Adele started touring in October, and while she was singing at a live radio recording in Paris, she noticed that her voice sounded wrong. Adele found out that she was suffering from a vocal chord hemorrhage, and had to have surgery. Unable to sing, she had to cancel her performances for the rest of the year, a total of 10 cities along the East coast and Texas. She had laser microsurgery to prevent damaging her voice last November.
“It was literally like someone switched a click off in my throat; my voice went so much deeper,” Adele explained in a recent interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes. “I felt like something popped in my throat.”
At the Grammy Awards Feb. 12, Adele proved that she was back, singing with no trouble. Nominated for six Grammys, Adele took home all six gold gramophones.
“[Adele] relies on her voice to get her message across and not so much the flash that you see in many artists today,” music teacher Marilyn Shugart said.
–By Taylor Maloch