Jessica Carradine
When I think about this year’s Grammy’s, the first person who comes to mind is
Adele. She was definitely the star of the show this year taking home a total of
6 Grammy awards. She won Record of the Year (“Rolling in the Deep”), Album of
the Year (“21”), Song of the Year (“Rolling in the Deep”), Best Pop Solo
Performance (“Someone Like You”), Best Pop Vocal Album (“21”), and Best Short
Form Music Video (“Rolling in the Deep”).
However, her triumph did not come without troubles. Last January, during her promotional tour for her album 21, she began to have voice problems.
“I have never had any problems with my voice, ever. I’ve had a sore throat here
and there, had a cold and sung through it, but that day it just went while I
was onstage in Paris during a radio show. It was literally like someone had pulled a curtain over it,” Adele told Vogue magazine.
Soon after this happened, she went to see her doctor who diagnosed her with acute
laryngitis. She rested for a while, and then continued her tour. She went to
America, and while she was there in May, she had her first haemorrhage; a burst
blood vessel on her vocal cord. Once it had healed, Adele continued her tour, until it happened again at her friend’s wedding on October 1st. She
took the advice of her own and other artists’ managers, and went to see a
doctor named Steven Zeitels, who is one of the best throat surgeons in the
world. He discovered that she had a polyp on one of her vocal cords that
required surgery. As a singer, having any minor thing happen to your voice can
be very stressful, but this was not minor, it was serious. And it was making
Adele extremely nervous. However, it turns out that many other singers, such as
Julie Andrews and John Mayer, have gone through the same procedure. Adele did
the surgery, and performed for the first time since her recovery on the night
of the Grammy’s. Her performance of “Rolling in the Deep” was nearly flawless,
and it was obvious that her breathtaking, powerful voice had been restored.
Besides her amazing voice, Adele’s personality brings her a lot of attention. She is
quirky, funny, and self-confident. “People think that I’m miserable. They are
really surprised when they meet me that I’m chatty and bubbly and quite
carefree, really. I’m the total opposite of my records,” Adele said in an
interview.
When she speaks, she is loud and honest, her heavy British accent making everything
she says sound hilarious. Adele is not trying to be anything that she’s not.
She doesn’t dance on stage or wear crazy outfits; she simply stands up and
sings. On 60 Minutes, Adele told Anderson Cooper, “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’. Never. I don’t want to be some skinny-mini with my tits out. I really don’t want to do it.“ And she doesn’t need to either.
Adele cares a lot about remaining down to earth, keeping in touch with new music and
not getting caught up in all her fame. This is why, after the Grammy’s, she got
herself a part time job sorting and labelling CDs in the back of a record store
called Rough Trade. Adele did this for herself, no matter what anyone thought.
In her future, Adele plans on taking a four or five year break to get a hold of
her life. She wants to write albums about happier topics. She has a new
boyfriend, Simon Konecki, who is 10 years older than Adele, but hopefully their
relationship will work out. “If I am constantly working, my relationships fail.
So at least now I can have enough time to write a happy record. And be in love
and be happy. And then I don’t know what I’ll do. Get married. Have some kids.
Plant a nice vegetable patch,” Adele told Vogue
magazine. It is hard to always be moving around, and never to have anytime
for yourself; Adele just wants privacy and not to be treated any differently.
After all that she’s been through, from heartbreak to haemorrhages, Adele definitely
deserves those 6 Grammy awards that she won. Hopefully, Adele’s iconic music
will continue to be as popular and original as it has always been.