AbouT Adele

Out Celebrates the Red Hot and Blue Summer of Adele

The 23-year-old singer’s new album, 21, has become shorthand for heartbreak. As she prepares for her summer tour, the Grammy winner shows she’s much more than a pretty face with a killer set of pipes.

OUT_Adele_June-July_2011Musical phenomenon Adele graces the cover of Out's Pride issue, and she tells the magazine why she's uncomfortable being treated like an idol. "I would hate it if my fans were, like, 'I wish I was you,' because I'm as insecure about myself as the next person... [just feeling] that I'm not good enough in my music, in my relationships, and that I'm never going to be brave enough to tell anyone how I feel." The singer, whose best-selling album, 21, was inspired by a break-up, also revealed that she had been prepared to give up singing if it would have saved her relationship. "I would still be singing in the shower, of course, but, yeah--my career, my friendships, my hobbies... I would have given up trying to be the best."

“Of the songs that immortalize the summer of 2011, I’ll wager that Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’ is chief among them,” notes Out Editor in Chief Aaron Hicklin. He continues, “A song is just a story, but we project so many expectations on the storyteller that it’s easy for them to get lost under the weight of their own legend. So far, at least, Adele has avoided that fate by letting her personality do all the heavy lifting. Off stage she is just the same – gratifyingly human, wonderfully grounded.”

Adele admits she evolved between her first album, 19, and her second, 21. It’s her soulful tortured style – amidst all the glitz and flash of today’s pop – the make her acoustic sets all the more striking. “It would be fucking awful if my third album was about being happily settled down, and maybe on my way to being a mom, and all the critics were, like, ‘Yeah, it’s fucking shit. Can you be miserable, please?’”

She’s not quite there yet, and until she gets to that happily-ever-after point, Adele says, “I think that’s rare when you find the full circle in one person, and I think that’s what I’ll always be looking for in other men.” Until then, she’ll follow the advice from an assistant. “You will hurt until you stop hurting,” she laughs. “I’m trying to make that my new motto – it will hurt until it stops hurting.” It just hasn’t stopped yet.