This month Adele releases her sixth studio album – a follow-up to 2017’s 25, one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. Although it’s the third largest-selling album of 2018, giving Adele five consecutive UK No 1 albums (when considering under 10 years of sales).
With a single-term set of numbers, Adele will take her place alongside Michael Jackson (7 x No 1s), the Beatles (6 x No 1s) and the Rolling Stones (3 x No 1s). Not bad company, especially if you factor in Adele’s album sales of 10m to date. According to a Billboard analysis, she’s the only artist to have a number one hit in the United States for seven consecutive years. Billboard describes her as “notoriously private and prolific”, which, coming from a publicity-shy singer, would be somewhat debatable. Adele rose to fame in the industry as one of the world’s most acclaimed singers, if not the world’s best. She also happened to be a single mother who took a break to have a child. Here, we reflect on the reasons why her career has grown to such heights so quickly, and also our hopes for 2019.