In a world where publishing a book of pictures of yourself that you took yourself is considered high art and having a narcissistic personality disorder is a basic requirement in the entertainment industry, Adele is something different.
The woman who outsold Taylor Swift’s yearly sales in a week said, before her new album’s release, “I feel like I might be a year too late.”
She was laughably mistaken — she’s already got the top-selling album of 2015. No doubt she’s a great singer, but why is she doing so damn well — and why is her publicity tour getting so much more attention than anyone else’s?
It could be because hers is not false modesty, which is why it’s so appealing. The biggest-selling artist of our time is just, you know, a really cool, genuine woman.
Adele has only ever used her music and her personality to get to where she is. On stage, it’s her and a microphone. She doesn’t need back-up dancers, or star-spangled costumes with the legs cut out, or a pair of assless chaps. It’s just not her style.
“I’ve never seen magazine covers and seen music videos and been like, ‘I need to look like that if I want to be a success,'” she said in a 60 Minutes interview back in February 2012.
“Never — I don’t want to be some skinny mini with my tits out. I really don’t want to do it. And I don’t want people confusing what it is that I’m about.”
Not that she’d ever denigrate anyone who is a “skinny mini with her tits out”. She recently said that if she were to assemble a Taylor Swift-style “squad”, she’d want Rihanna on it. “She’s just life itself, isn’t she?” she told Rolling Stone.