Adele is the global phenomenon who had basically conquered the music industry by the time she was 23 years old. She’s smashed hundreds of records with her albums and music videos, and with sales of over 100 million records, Adele is far and away one of the world’s best-selling musical artists of all time.

Not bad for a young girl from Tottenham who started singing at the age of 4!

She continued to hone her vocal talents from an early age and graduated from the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in May 2006, where she was a classmate of fellow singers Leona Lewis and Jessie J.

Since releasing her first album, 19, Adele has experienced massive global success and is now one of the most famous musical artists of her generation.

She even won an Oscar for Best Original Song with ‘Skyfall’, the soundtrack to the 2012 Bond film of the same name.

But in spite of all her achievements, there’s still a lot that people don’t know about the singer. She’s a private person and doesn’t like to reveal too much about herself.

That’s why we’ve put together a list of the top 21 things you didn’t know about Adele…

21. She’s worn the same perfume since she was 15 years old

Adele is a global superstar with millions of pounds in her bank account and a nice stack of Grammy Awards (plus an Oscar) taking up space in her mansion.

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As a result, she’s had a very good taste of the high life, but if you think that experience has changed her then you’d be dead wrong.

In fact, Adele is very faithful to her cosmetic brands and has been wearing the ‘Hypnotic Poison’ scent by Christian Dior since she was 15 years old!

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That’s right – she’s a simple girl at heart.

Clearly this is one way that she stays grounded and doesn’t get too distracted by the trappings of fame. In an interview, she once stated that the only thing she does like to splurge on is handbags.

“I do have a bit of a fetish for handbags but that can be anything from a Primark handbag to a Chanel handbag, I just love handbags.

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From Primark £2, to £2,000 for a Chanel, it varies. I don’t really accept much in the way of freebies. I accept small things like products or whatever, but not big things.”

20. The song ‘Rumour Has It’ was written in under 45 minutes

‘Rumour Has It’ featured on Adele’s second studio album 21 and was one of the most successful tracks on the record.

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The hugely popular song went double Platinum after selling 2 million units in the USA alone.

The single established Adele as a hitmaker and brought her worldwide attention (plus a string of music awards).

Adele has stated publicly that the song isn’t about the press, as many people first thought.

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Instead it deals with rumours about her personal life that her friends were reading about and starting to believe.

Most artists who manage to put together a Double Platinum-selling single spend hours writing and perfecting the recording. However, Adele and her co-writer Ryan Tedder wrote ‘Rumour Has It’ in just under 45 minutes and recorded it in one take.

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Rumour has it (sorry) that Adele wrote ‘Someone Like You’ after she had finished both this track and ‘Rolling In The Deep’ because she was fed up of ‘sounding like a bitch’ in her songs.

19. The first ever gig she went to see was The Beautiful South

Nearly everyone has an embarrassing answer to the question ‘What was your first gig?’

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It’s nearly always something of-the-time that was fairly cheap to go and see, so Adele fans might be interested to know that their favourite singer is no different!

In fact, the very first gig she remembers attending was The Beautiful South at Brixton Academy.

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Adele was only 3 years old at the time and far too young to be admitted into a music venue – so instead her mother Penny smuggled her daughter in under her coat!

Her mum must definitely be some kind of Beautiful South super-fan…

Shortly after that the singer revealed she (legally) went to go and see The Cure in Finsbury Park.

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Adele’s mum definitely passed on some of her music taste to her famous daughter – Adele also remembers being tucked in to bed at night then hearing Penny listening to Jeff Buckley albums whilst her daughter was going to sleep.

18. Her song ‘Rolling In The Deep’ was inspired by…A Perfect Storm?!

‘Rolling In The Deep’ was one of the biggest songs of the decade.

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It was the lead single from 21 and helped shoot Adele to international stardom, with the track becoming her first of many number 1 hit singles in the US.

However, despite the deep and meaningful lyrics, Adele has previously revealed that the track has a very unusual source of inspiration.

Apparently the 2000 film The Perfect Storm was a major influence on ‘Rolling In The Deep’!

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Adele credits the scene where a lovesick Mark Wahlberg is floating helplessly in the water as a major inspiration for the lyrics to her hit single.

Yep that’s right – A Perfect Storm was one of the sources for Adele’s biggest hit.

We’re sure Mark will be out there somewhere taking credit for that particular musical success!

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Inspiration really does come in the most unlikely of places sometimes…

17. Her father left the family home when Adele was only 3 years old

Adele has had a fractured relationship with her father, Mark Evans, over the years.

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And some people might not be aware of the fact that he actually left the family home when his daughter was only 3 years of age.

Evans was struggling with alcoholism after the death of his father and was no longer fit to be a dad.

Adele continued to see him for most weekends until 1999, when she didn’t see her dad again until four years later.

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Sadly the pair became estranged again in 2011 when Evans decided to sell a story about his daughter to the press. She made her feelings known at the 2017 Grammy Awards when she publicly blasted her father and said that she ‘didn’t love him’.

Instead she went on to thank her long-time manager Jonathan Dickins and claimed he was the father she’d never had.

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“Thank you to my manager because the comeback, as it were, was completely masterminded by him. And you executed it incredibly, and I owe you everything.

We’ve been together for 10 years, and I love you like you’re my dad. I love you so, so much. I don’t love my dad, that’s the thing. That doesn’t mean a lot. I love you like I would love my dad.”

16. She used to live above the Notting Hill bookstore

Everyone who’s ever seen Notting Hill (1999) will remember that Hugh Grant (who plays Will Thacker) works in a quaint little independent bookshop in the neighbourhood called The Travel Book Co.

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The film singlehandedly managed to popularise the idea of the cute bookshop guy thanks to Hugh’s stand-out performance.

And funnily enough, Adele once lived right above the bookstore where the film was set!

We wonder if she was a fan of the film or not?

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Before she was a superstar hitting the big time, Adele lived in a tiny flat (1BR) in Notting Hill, directly above the bookshop.

That’s a pretty cool bit of film trivia! Adele must have enjoyed her time in Notting Hill because she remained there for a few years.

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As we’ll see below, Adele has learned a few things about the property market since earning millions of pounds in her music career. She doesn’t live in a tiny apartment anymore…

15. She’s had the Beckhams round for tea before

Adele has a strong group of childhood friends but is also well-known for mingling with some of her fellow celebrities.

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In fact, she currently lives next door to the Beckhams and has even had dinner with them before. We’d love to have been a fly on the conversation in that room!

We wonder what Adele cooked for them…

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Furthermore, we have a sneaking suspicion that Adele was probably a massive Spice Girls fan (weren’t we all?), so she was probably more starstruck than the Beckhams!

As well as David and Victoria, Adele refers to her group of celeb friends as her ‘squad’ and counts a host of superstars amongst her circle of mates.

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Some of the most famous faces include the likes of Ed Sheeran, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessie Ware, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Emma Stone and even Lady Gaga.

With all of these celebs desperate to hang out with the music legend, Adele must be a pretty cool person to be around!

14. Her album 21 once outsold Beyoncé’s entire discography

Adele’s second album, 21, broke all kinds of records.

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Back in 2011 it felt as though the singing sensation was all anyone could ever talk about.

She instantly became a crossover hit and people of all ages bonded over her soulful music.

Adele was the first ever performer to unseat Eminem as the best-selling artist of the 21st century, and both she and the rapper are the only two artists of this century to release two Diamond certified albums.

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That’s yet another impressive accolade for Adele to add to her CV, and one which we have to say is fully deserved.

However, there’s another fascinating stat associated with 21 – apparently at one point, before Beyoncé had released the likes of Beyoncé and Lemonade, Adele’s second studio album sold more copies than the American singer’s entire back catalogue combined.

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However, we’re pretty sure that Beyoncé isn’t bothered by this – she’s reportedly a massive fan of the singer and once told Adele that her voice made her think about God.

13. She was the first ever female artist to have three songs in the Billboard Top 10

It’s common knowledge that Adele has smashed some impressive musical records in her time.

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So fans of the singer probably won’t be that surprised to learn that she was actually the first ever female artist to have a total of three songs in the Billboard Top 10 at the same time.

The tracks in question were as follows: “Set Fire to the Rain” (#2), “Rolling in the Deep” (#5), “Someone Like You” (#7) – all taken from the hugely successful 21.

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Is it any wonder that she won a serious amount of Grammys that year?!

Adele found fame very early on in her career and of course she’s changed a lot since ’21’ was first released.

But she’ll always remember the album as the one that launched her international music career.

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It looks as though she’s enjoying winning all those Grammys anyway! Here she is accidentally breaking one in half:

12. The music video for ‘Hello’ became the fastest Youtube video to reach 1 billion views

And finally, it’s amazing to think but back in 2015, Adele’s single Hello became the most-viewed video on Vevo in 24 hours.

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The video earned a whopping 27.7 million views in one day!

It was also the fastest video on Youtube to reach 1 billion views, moving past the target in a mere 87 days.

That’s a hugely impressive stat considering that she was only 27 years old at the time!

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And that’s not the only amazing statistic we managed to unearth about the iconic video. It’s still been getting plenty of hits ever since the single was first released….

But how many?

The video currently has 2,381,441,654 views and counting!

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People clearly still can’t get enough of her amazing vocal talent.

11. She kept her son’s name secret for a really long time

Celebrities act in very different ways when it comes to the privacy of their children.

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Some fame-hungry people sell photos of their babies to magazines basically as soon as they’re born, whilst others try and shield the kids from the cameras for as long as possible.

Adele is definitely in the second group of people, and she must have broken some kind of celebrity record in the process.

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The A-list singer managed to keep her son Angelo’s name a secret from the press for over 94 days.

Eventually the singer released the name herself by wearing a necklace with the name ‘Angelo’ printed on it.

From the look of these photographs, little Angelo has definitely inherited his mother’s hair colour!

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We wonder if he enjoys singing too?

10. She had to get rid of her first mansion

Once Adele’s music career really lifted off, one of the first things she bought was a mansion with a whopping ten bedrooms.

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After all, who wouldn’t want to splash the cash after making a record-breaking album?!

However, after admitting that she’d probably only use 9 out of the 10 rooms, the singer decided to sell up and buy a property on the Brighton sea front for £2.5 million in 2012.

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We can’t really blame her – some of her neighbours at the time included Paul McCartney, David Walliams and Fatboy Slim.

Apparently the singer recently decided to up sticks again and has now sold her British beachside property in favour of a home in the exclusive Beverly Hills area of LA.

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We’re getting jealous of all these houses now! Here’s the Brighton apartment in all of its glory:

9. She has five tattoos

Some people might not be aware of the fact that Adele actually possesses a number of different tattoos.

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All of her inkings are subtly dotted around her body.

She has 8 of them in total, including three on her wrists, one on each hand, one on her upper back, one behind her right ear and even a tattoo on her finger.

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As you can see in the photo above, the tattoo behind her ear reads ‘A’ for Adele (and Angelo!).

She has ‘Angelo’ on her right hand and ‘Paradise’ on her left hand, as well as a bird on her upper back.

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The singer explained that her son Angelo is ‘her paradise’, hence the tattoo on her left hand: “He’s the love of my life and the light of my life, but he’s no one else’s apart from me and his dad.” Awww!

8. She once received fan mail from Gordon Brown!

Adele has so many fans because her music resonates across different generations and social classes.

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But what you might not know is that one of her biggest fans is ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown!

He was so impressed with her music that he even wrote a letter to her during the last recession and thanked Adele for keeping up the spirits of the nation during the UK’s economic woes.

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Speaking about the letter in an interview, Adele said: “It was really nice. It went, ‘With the troubles that the country’s in financially, you’re a light at the end of the tunnel.’

It was amazing. I’m fighting the credit crunch on my own!”

OK we’re not sure we’d go quite that far! But Adele’s music definitely helped a lot of people in all of the doom and gloom.

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We can just imagine Gordon sitting down at the end of a long day with his iPod, listening to a bit of Adele in Downing Street.

7. She named her dog after one of her childhood influences

Adele has often been very open about her musical influences.

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The singer has previously named Ella Fitzgerald, Dusty Springfield and Etta James as some of her all-time heroes.

She’s also a massive fan of Louis Armstrong, and when she bought a dachshund in 2009 she decided to name it ‘Louie’ in honour of her idol.

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Rumour has it that the little doggy was howling along to one of Armstrong’s records when she decided to give him the name.

Apparently Louie was nearly named ‘Britney’ (despite being a boy!) after Adele attended a Britney Spears concert in London.

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However, the singer soon dismissed the idea when her hangover went away!

6. One of her main goals in life is ‘never to be skinny’

Adele has frequently spoken about her body image in the press, and she once revealed that her main goal in life is ‘never to be skinny’.

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That’s not a dream you hear about every day, especially in the entertainment industry! So what brought Adele to that conclusion?

This is because she feels that music is for the ears and not the eyes – true performers don’t need to be really skinny if they don’t want to be.

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Fair enough, we wonder what her doctor thinks about that advice though.

Her attitude is definitely a refreshing change within the music industry, which often focuses on appearance rather than vocal talent.

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Most people would agree that Adele’s body confidence can only be a positive example for her many female fans.

5. She still suffers from crippling stage fright

Despite the fact that she’s performed in front of countless arenas and on some of the most-watched programmes in the US and UK, Adele still suffers from crippling stage fright.

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Stage fright is a fairly common affliction that can affect new performers as well as experienced musical artists such as Adele. She has discussed her fear in interviews before and has often talked about how she panics onstage right up until the point when she is required to sing.

Apparently the singer has never managed to get it under control and frequently throws up backstage, has panic attacks and feels scared right up until the moment she is introduced.

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In fact, the singer has recently suggested that her stage fright might affect her ability to go on tour in the future:

“Touring isn’t something I’m good at – applause makes me feel a bit vulnerable. I don’t know if I will ever tour again,’ she told fans on Sunday night.”

‘I get so nervous with live performances that I’m too frightened to try anything new,’ she explained. ‘It’s actually getting worse. Or it’s just not getting better, so I feel like it’s getting worse, because it should’ve gotten better by now.’

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‘With my stage fright, I just don’t want to let people down. I get so nervous on stage that I don’t have the guts to improvise or anything like that.’

That’s got to be tough for a singer who just wants to perform for her fans! Poor Adele.

4. She once admitted that smoking would have killed her if she hadn’t quit

Adele famously smoked heavily throughout the early part of her career, and after throat surgery in 2011 she was warned by a doctor that she would have to give up.

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The singer finally managed to kick the habit in 2015, and admitted afterwards that she only managed to do so because she was scared of dying.

However, Adele still needed a hypnotherapist to help her quit and has since complained that smoking has left her with ‘weaker’ vocal abilities.

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The people with the best voices, they always smoke. I’ve given up smoking and I’m convinced that’s made my voice weaker.” Hmmm…

We’re not sure what the doctors would have to say about that, but whatever you say Adele!

It might be true. Or it might not.

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But we’re glad that Adele has kicked the habit for good.

3. She likes to have a drink whilst she’s writing songs!

Apparently when Adele was first writing songs she used to love having a drink beforehand to get herself into more of a creative mood.

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Sadly though, since her vocal surgery in 2011, she’s had to be really careful about how much alcohol she consumes.

She recently revealed: “I am not allowed to drink as it dehydrates my vocal chords.”

Judging from the photograph above, we’re bet Adele was gutted about that particular side effect of the surgery.

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The singer explained what the problem was in more detail: “Alcohol blocks your ears when you get drunk and you get lairy, which makes you talk louder.”

I might raise my voice and my voice might go again.”

Yikes – it doesn’t seem as though drinking is worth the risk anymore.

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That must be a tough one to forego, especially since Adele once joked that she used to drink “from Monday morning to Sunday night”.

2. She stopped reading books at the age of 6

Apparently Adele decided to stop reading books at the age of six years old in order to fully focus on her music career.

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She once said that the last book she remembers reading was Matilda by Roald Dahl.

That’s a childhood classic at least!

This just seems like a bit of a shame because it is possible to be a singer and still enjoy reading books.

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We’re surprised that Matilda didn’t make her want to read even more books to be honest.

Hopefully Adele’s younger fans will be aware of that and try not to follow their idol’s example in this respect!

We’ve managed to unearth a few photographs of her pretending to read, but maybe now that’s established her musical career Adele might have more time for reading.

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We’re sure she loves reading a good book to her son Angelo anyway.

1. Her favourite video game is Ray Man

Adele once proved that she was a true child of the 90s when she was asked what her favourite video game was.

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Her response will no doubt have 90s kids nodding in agreement.

The singer responded that she really enjoyed the 90s classic Ray Man, which followed the adventures of Ray Man as he jumped from platform to platform.

The franchise was first released in 1995 and since then its spawned over 44 different games!

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Do you remember Ray Man? Check out the classic screenshot below and it might bring back a few memories:

Somehow we can’t really imagine Adele sitting down to play on her Playstation.

Are you a fan of Adele? Let us know in the comments section below!

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