Adele, singer and songwriter

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2022

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

Adele is a singer and songwriter who has achieved record-breaking sales and global recognition for her four albums which document her life from the age of 19 onwards. Her cache of awards includes 15 Grammys and nine BRITs. She also won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for the James Bond theme Skyfall which she co-wrote. She was born Adele Laurie Blue Adkins in London in 1988. In 2002 she won a place at the BRIT School for Performing Arts where she studied music and developed her performing and song writing skills. In her final year a friend posted her three-song demo online which attracted the attention of several record companies. In 2006 Adele signed to XL Recordings and the following year she released her first single, Hometown Glory. In 2008 she released her debut album, 19, and the following year she won Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Her next two albums 21 and 25 consolidated her superstar status. In 2013 she was appointed an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to music. Adele’s fourth album, 30, was released in 2021. The songs addressed how she was adjusting to life post-divorce and her feelings about her new role as a co-parent. Adele lives in Los Angeles with her son. DISC ONE: Roam by The B-52's DISC TWO: Dreams by Gabrielle DISC THREE: Need Somebody by Shola Ama DISC FOUR: He Needs Me by Nina Simone DISC FIVE: Bills Bills Bills by Destiny’s Child DISC SIX: I’d Rather Go Blind by Etta James DISC SEVEN: Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs DISC EIGHT: For All We Know by Donny Hathaway BOOK CHOICE: The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur LUXURY ITEM: A self-inflating mattress CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Dreams by Gabrielle Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.9	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Deser Island Disks Podcast.
0:08.6	Every week I ask my guests to choose the 8 tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them
0:13.9	if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.4	And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:21.2	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:44.5	My cast away this week is the singer and songwriter Adele.
0:48.1	She was born Adele Adkins and is quite simply the UK's best-selling female
0:53.3	album artist of the 21st century. Her treasure trove of awards includes 15 Grammys,
0:59.2	multiple Brits, a Golden Globe and an Oscar. When she releases an album, it's a global event.
1:05.2	Her fourth, 30, followed its predecessors in documenting her life at different ages
1:10.8	and charted every lurch of her heart from her childhood in Tottenham to Beverly Hills,
1:15.3	where she now lives. On stage, she combines charisma with an unpretentious,
1:20.3	chatty intimacy and power with raw vulnerability, qualities which have enabled her to pull off
1:25.8	that rare feat of being the superstar next door. She says, I'm confident, I'm loud.
1:32.4	To be in any art, you have to crave love, you want approval.
1:35.5	I hate people who play on being shy and reserved. Adele, welcome to Deser Island Disks.
1:41.0	What an introduction. Wow. I mean, you're all true.
1:44.4	So tell us, get straight into it. I mean, when your last album, 30, your latest was released.
1:51.6	You've been out of the spotlight for about six years and I think you said to friends
1:55.6	that you were having to kind of gear yourself up to be famous again. What does that
2:00.1	gearing up process involve? Getting ready to step out into not really having very much control
	...

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