Singer-songwriter Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born in 1988 in Great Britain. Her musical journey began in 2006, when a friend shared her music on MySpace, quickly launching her into the spotlight. Within a year, Adele was already captivating audiences worldwide.

Fueled by a tour with Jack Penate, where she opened for him, Adele's songs like "Hometown Glory" and "Daydreamer" began to gain significant airplay in the UK. Following the tour, she shared stages with Bjork and Paul McCartney. By 2008, Adele was recognized as one of BBC's rising musical talents. Her debut album, 19, earned her two Grammy Awards in 2009: Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best New Artist. Her next album, 21, followed, featuring hit singles such as "Rolling in the Deep," "Someone Like You," and "Set Fire to the Rain." 21 became one of the most successful albums ever released, spending eighteen weeks at the top of the charts and achieving platinum status sixteen times in the UK. Adele made history with "Set Fire to the Rain," becoming the first artist to simultaneously hold three Billboard number one positions.

Following the immense success of 21, Adele released the album 25 in 2015. She also recorded the theme song for the 2012 James Bond film, Skyfall, earning her a Grammy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award for Best Original Song. 25 debuted at number one internationally, shattering records and selling nearly 3.5 million copies in its first week in the United States alone. It produced hit singles including "Hello," "When We Were Young," "Send My Love," and "Water Under the Bridge." The album went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time, and earned Adele five more Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance (three of which were for her hit single "Hello"). In 2021, she released 30, her fourth album. In 2023, she won a Grammy for Best Pop Solo Performance for the song "Easy on Me", the lead single from 30.

As of 2024, all of her studio albums, except 19, have topped the yearly best-selling albums chart worldwide in the 21st century.

Adele is one of the world's best-selling music artists, with sales of over 120 million records worldwide. The best-selling female artist of the 21st century in the UK,[9] she was named the best-selling artist of the 2010s in the US.[10]

Today, Adele continues to perform and record, and, given her youth and years in the entertainment industry, her career is still developing. In addition to her numerous achievements, Adele has been recognized by Time magazine as one of the world’s most influential people, and she was also ranked at number five on VH1's Greatest Women in Music. In July 2024, Adele revealed in an interview that she would be taking an indefinite break from music following the end of her Las Vegas residency, with no plans for a new album at that time. Adele's latest tour wrapped up internationally in 2017.