Adele has had huge international success and the singer has held a great prominence in the United Kingdom, including the creation of a song for a James Bond film. Does that mean that the Skyfall singer is British?
Yes, Adele is British. She was born in the north London district called Tottenham. Her mother is British, but her father is actually Welsh. Throughout her childhood, she was moved to a few different areas including the city of Brighton. However, she spent most of her formative years in the London area.
You can read more about Adele’s time growing up in England below.
Adele’s Early Childhood in Tottenham
On May 5,1988, Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born to Penny Adkins and Marc Evans in Tottenham. When she was only two years old, Evans left her and her mother to move back to Wales. This caused Adele to have a strained relationship with her father, which eventually led to them having no relationship. In 2012, after her father sold his story of alcoholism to the tabloids, Adele said that “If I ever see him I will spit in his face.”
Adele and her mother lived in Tottenham until she was nine years old. When she was four years old, Adele started singing after discovering the icon Ella Fitzgerald. Adele’s young mother was always supportive of her singing dreams. In a 2008 interview with The Guardian, Adele even recalls that her mother allowed her at “age five, when she should’ve been in bed, to stand on the table at dinner parties and belt out ‘Dreams’ by Gabrielle.”
In 1997, at age nine, Adele and her mother moved to Brighton, England for two years. They moved back to London when her mother remarried.
Living in West Norwood
In 1999, when Adele was eleven years old, the family moved to West Norwood, a residential area of the south London borough named Lambeth. It was in this area that Adele was first introduced to R&B. She fell in love with artists like Destiny’s Child and P. Diddy. Adele’s 2007 debut song Hometown Glory was about growing up in London and the West Norwood area.
In 2002, Adele applied to the public high school for the arts known as the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology. This school has gained some very notable alumni since opening in 1991, names include Amy Winehouse, Imogen Heap, and Leona Lewis. Adele was accepted to the school and this was where she prepared for a career in the music business.
While growing up, Adele has recalled that she spent a lot of time at the famous Brockwell Park with her friends. That is what her song Million Years Ago is a reflection on. She recalled in her special Adele at the BBC, “I never, ever realized when I had my guitar in the park, singing to my friends … we never in a million years thought this would ever happen.”
You can watch Adele perform her song Million Years Ago live on the Today Show by following the below YouTube link.
Launching Her Music Career in London
Adele didn’t want to be in the limelight originally. Her plan after graduating from school was to go into the Artists and Repertoire division of a label to help other people sell their records. She never imagined that her music career would take off in the way that it did.
Adele was signed to the British indie record label, XL Recordings, in September 2006 and only four months after graduating. This all came to be because one of Adele’s friends posted her three song demo to MySpace. There it was discovered by Richard Russell, the co-owner of XL, who set up a meeting with Adele and she was signed.
Adele has had an abnormal music career and it all started with her British roots. From singing at dinner parties to attending the famous BRIT School her English heritage and childhood London stand strong in her mind.
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