Adele carries heavy baggage on the emotional journey of 19

By Selena Fragassi
Published: June 11th, 2008 | 9:50am

Recent pictures of Amy Winehouse and Welsh newcomer Duffy illustrate a growing trend in the female-dominated neo-soul scene coming out of the United Kingdom: The women on the rise of this expanding musical lineup are vastly shrinking in waist size. But that doesn't bother the latest rookie, 20-year-old Adele. Happily embracing her curves and focused on making her talent stand out above it all, she's fit to break the mold and get back to the roots of this rich musical history populated by such heavyweights as Aretha Franklin and Etta James.

"I'm not really fussed about image," Adele says in her thick Londoner accent. It’s the night before she embarks on her U.S. tour to promote the critically acclaimed debut, 19, and the topic of body image ignites a passion behind her big, blue, doe eyes. "I didn't make music because I wanted to be on the front cover of Playboy or FHM. I made music because I want to be a singer, and I don't think image should have anything to do with that. It should be about talent."

With a #1 debut on the British charts and as the first-ever recipient of the Brit Awards newly inaugurated Critics' Choice prize, Adele believes her thriving success serves as proof that size doesn’t matter—even if the rest of the world isn’t ready to agree. Besides, there's only one other person whose opinion really counts.

"My boyfriend loves my body, so who cares?" she laughs.

Self-admittedly, Adele is a hopeless romantic who feels incomplete without a relationship – and her music suffers without it, too. "I've never written a song when [I've been] single," she says. Case in point, most of the emotional tracks featured on 19 evolved after she shed the burdensome weight of a broken relationship during her last teenage year. "I had only three songs when I signed in October of 2006. And then, I really struggled to get over the fact that someone had given me a record deal. I didn't write a song for seven months. But when I met [the man] who is now my ex-boyfriend I wrote nine songs in three weeks."

One listen to the fevered passion behind “Melt My Heart to Stone” and the Motown-inspired single “Chasing Pavements” and the heartbreak becomes sharp enough to cut into the voice masking a soul that is on the brink of a breakdown.

As one travels further through 19’s emotional ride, each stop on the way feels as personal and secretive as reading a page out of Adele's diary, due in part to her honest approach to songwriting.

"I had to admit things to myself that I really didn't want to hear," she says of exposing her heavy thoughts to every blank page. "That's the charming thing about writing songs - you can glamorize all the shitty stuff, but there were so many times I was shocked by how pathetic I felt about being walked all over."

By the end of the album, Adele finds love again as she is steered home on the rolling piano waves and crashing vocal tides of “Hometown Glory,” written as a love letter to London—a town to which she says she owes so much.

“[London] is where all my memories are. It's where I was born. It's where I fell in love and where I've fallen out of love. All my friends are there. And that's kind of what “Hometown Glory" is about. It could be about anywhere—it could be about San Diego, or L.A or Montreal. It's about where you cherish.”

It was here, in London’s predominately black, working-class neighborhoods, that she first satisfied her musical cravings with the savory taste of soul and R&B music. Adele instantly connected with the sounds she heard on the streets and consistently found herself looking for more – “I don't think anyone cannot like R&B and soul music,” she says. “I think it's kind of irresistible really."

Soon her musical repertoire included Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Jill Scott, Tammi Terrell, and her favorite, Etta James. "I adore her quite in an obsessive way really," she says of James. "It's because I believe her. I believe every single word she sings. Even when she gasps for breath, I hold my breath with her."

Without this formative influence, Adele knows her own music would just be skin and bones. "The artists I love are like a body part on me, because I love them so much,” she says.