Adele From ’19’ to ’25’ – Through The Years In Pictures

The girl from Tottenham has broken records all over again with her mammoth hit single ‘Hello’ and her upcoming definitely-gonna-be-massive album ’25’ looks set to be massive too. But how did Adele become the superstar she is today? From ’19’ to ’25’, here’s her stellar career in photos.

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Adele was 15 when she had her musical epiphany, having discovered jazz records by Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald in a London record shop. She told The Telegraph in 2008: “when I listened to the Ettas and the Ellas – it sounds so cheesy – but it was like an awakening.”

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’19’ was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2008, but was pipped to the post by Elbow’s ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’. The follow-up, ’21’, was also nominated but lost to PJ Harvey’s ‘Let England Shake’ in 2011. Adele’s pretty much keeping the whole music industry afloat, and what thanks does she get?

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Adele wrote most of the acoustic guitar-based ’19’ at her mum’s house in Tottenham. The album went on to sell an estimated seven million copies – no wonder she’s smiling.

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This is the face of a woman who was named The Sound Of 2008 by the BBC and knows she’s on the cusp of mega-fame.

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The girl from Tottenham was crowned won Best New Artist at the Grammys in 2009. She took it in her stride.

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February 2011: Adele has two singles (‘Someone Like You’ and ‘Rolling In The Deep’) and two albums in the Top Five. Only other two artists have achieved this – The Beatles and, improbably, 50 Cent. So she’s keeping pretty stellar company.

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Adele’s just realised how much tax she paid in 2011.

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Adele scooped up SIX Grammys in 2012, making a killer speech in which she exclaimed: “I just want to say, mum, your girl did good!”

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Frank Ocean won the won Best Urban Contemporary Album at the Grammys in 2013. He received a standing ovation from everyone but Chris Brown, who earned the stink-eye from Adele for remaining seated. Later on, she appeared to give Brown a piece of her mind.

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Having had her acceptance speech interrupted the previous year, Adele poked fun at the Brits in 2013 as she thanked them for crowning ‘Skyfall’ as ‘Best Single’. “Sorry I can’t be with you tonight,” she said, “but I’m in LA rehearsing for the Oscars. I don’t want to keep you too much because I don’t want to interrupt the Best Album speech at the end of the night.”

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And this is that moment from the 2012 Brits, when Adele flipped the bird – as they say in America – at the producers who cut her off mid-speech. Ouch!

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Someone like you: this is Adele’s waxwork doppelgänger, installed at Madame Tussauds in July 2013.

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Adele returned earlier this year by announcing upcoming album ’25’ via Instagram, saying: My last record was a break-up record, and if I had to label this one, I would call it a make-up record. Making up for lost time. Making up for everything I ever did and never did.”

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‘Hello’ became the biggest-selling UK single in three years, having also broken a one-week streaming record, with 7.32 million listens racked up in its first seven days. Adele has said of ’25’: “[It’s] about getting to know who I’ve become without realising. And I’m sorry it took so long but, you know, life happened.”

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