Adele released her second studio album, 21, in early 2011. The album was well received critically and surpassed the success of her debut, earning the singer numerous awards in 2012, including 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 the fourth best-selling album in the UK of all time. In the US it has held the top position longer than any album since 1985, and is certified Diamond. The album has sold 31 million copies worldwide.
The success of 21 earned Adele numerous mentions in the Guinness Book of World Records. She is the first woman in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to have three simultaneous top 10 singles as a lead artist, and the first female artist to simultaneously have two albums in the top five of the Billboard 200 and two singles in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100. 21 is the longest-running number one album by a female solo artist in the history of the UK and US Album Charts. In 2012, she released "Skyfall", which she wrote and recorded for the James Bond film of the same name. The song won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. After taking a three-year break, Adele released her third studio album, 25, in 2015. It became the year's best-selling album and broke first week sales records in the UK and US. The lead single, "Hello", became the first song in the US to sell over one million digital copies within a week of its release.
In 2011 and 2012, Billboard named Adele Artist of the Year. In 2012, she was listed at number five on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Music. Time magazine named her one of the most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2016. With sales of more than 100 million records, Adele is one of the best-selling recording artists in the world.
On 27 November, 25 debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and became the fastest selling album in UK chart history with over 800,000 copies sold in its first week. The album debuted at number one in the US where it sold a record-breaking 3.38 million copies in its first week, the largest single sales week for an album since Nielsen began monitoring sales in 1991. 25 also broke first week sales records in Canada and New Zealand.25 became the best-selling album of 2015 in a number of countries, including Australia, the UK and the US, where it spent seven consecutive weeks at number one in each country, before being displaced by the late David Bowie's final album, Blackstar. It was the year's best-selling album worldwide with 17.4 million copies sold in 2015 alone, and has since sold 19 million copies globally. Adele's seven weeks at the top of the UK Albums Chart took her total to 31 weeks at number one in the UK with her three albums, surpassing Madonna's previous record of most weeks at number one for a female act ever in the UK.
Adele singing at the Genting Arena, Birmingham, England in March 2016
In November 2015, Adele's 2016 tour was announced, her first tour since 2011. Beginning in Europe, Adele Live 2016 includes four dates at the Manchester Arena in March, eight dates at the O2 Arena, London in March and April, with further dates in Ireland, Spain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands among others. Her North American Tour which begin in July. While on stage at London's O2 Arena on 17 March, Adele announced that she would be headlining on the Pyramid Stage at the 2016 Glastonbury Festival, which was later confirmed by the festival's organizers.
At the 2016 Brit Awards in London on 24 February, Adele received the awards for British Female Solo Artist, British Album of the Year for 25, British Single of the Year for "Hello", and British Global Success. She closed the ceremony by performing "When We Were Young", the second single from 25.
It was reported in January 2012 that Adele had been dating charity entrepreneur and Old Etonian Simon Konecki since the summer of 2011, when she met him. In June 2012, Adele announced that she and Konecki were expecting a baby. Their son Angelo was born on 19 October 2012.On the topic of becoming a parent, Adele has since observed that she "felt like she was truly living. I had a purpose, where before I didn't". Adele and Konecki brought a privacy case against a UK-based photo agency that published paparazzi images of their son taken during family outings in 2013. Lawyers working on their behalf accepted damages from the company in July 2014.
Adele was criticized by celebrities such as Karl Lagerfeld and Joan Rivers for her weight, but has gained the support of many others, by stating that she is happy with her weight and would only change if it affected her health or sex life. In a 2009 interview, Adele stated: "I like looking nice, but I always put comfort over fashion. I don’t find thin girls attractive; be happy and healthy. I’ve never had a problem with the way I look. I’d rather have lunch with my friends than go to a gym."
Born in Tottenham, north London, and raised in West Norwood, south London, Adele has a working class London accent, that Rolling Stone magazine says has only leavened slightly over the years. Politically she is a supporter of the Labour Party, stating in 2011 that she was a "Labour girl through and through." In May 2011, she advocated a lower tax rate for high-income earners; a view counter to that of the Labour Party. In 2015, Adele stated "I'm a feminist, I believe that everyone should be treated the same, including race and sexuality".
She is regarded as an icon for the LGBT community. On 12 June 2016 an emotional Adele dedicated her show in Antwerp, Belgium to the victims of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida earlier that day, adding "The LGBTQ community, they're like my soul mates since I was really young, so I'm very moved by it."
On the week ending 3 March 2012, Adele became the first solo female artist to have three singles in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time, and the first female artist to have two albums in the top 5 of the Billboard 200 and two singles in the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously. Adele topped the 2012 Sunday Times Rich List of musicians in the UK under 30 and made the Top 10 of Billboard magazine's "Top 40 Money Makers". Billboard also announced the same day that Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" is the biggest crossover hit of the past 25 years, topping pop, adult pop and adult contemporary charts and that Adele is one of four female artists to have an album chart at number one for more than 13 weeks (the other three artists being Judy Garland, Carole King, and Whitney Houston). On 6 March, 21 reached 30 non-consecutive weeks at number one on the Australian ARIA Chart, making it the longest-running number one album in Australia in the 21st century, and the second longest-running number one ever.
At the 2012 Ivor Novello Awards in May, Adele was named Songwriter of the Year, and "Rolling in the Deep" won the award for Most Performed Work of 2011. At the 2012 BMI Awards held in London in October, Adele won Song of the Year (for "Rolling in the Deep") in recognition of the song being the most played on US television and radio in 2011.
In 2013, Adele won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the James Bond theme "Skyfall". This is the first James Bond song to win and only the fifth to be nominated (after "For Your Eyes Only" (1981), "Nobody Does It Better" (1977) (from The Spy Who Loved Me), "Live and Let Die" (1973), and "The Look of Love" (1967) (from the original Casino Royale)). "Skyfall" won the Brit Award for Best British Single at the 2013 Brit Awards.
In June 2013, Adele was appointed a MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for services to music, and she received the award from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace on 19 December 2013.In February 2013, she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4. In April 2016, Adele appeared for the second time on the Time 100 list of most influential people.
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