Adele "19"

19 is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter Adele, released on 28 January 2008 by XL Recordings. Following Adele's graduation from the BRIT School in April 2006, she began publishing songs and recorded a three-song demo for a class project and gave it to a friend, who posted the demo on Myspace, where it became very successful and led to interest from the record label. This led to Adele signing a recording contract at age 17 with the label and providing vocals for Jack Peñate. During this session for Peñate's song she met producer Jim Abbiss, who would go on to produce the majority of her debut album.

Four singles were released from the album, with "Chasing Pavements" and "Make You Feel My Love" reaching the top ten on the UK Singles Chart, while the former became Adele's first entry on the Billboard Hot 100. The album also contains her first song, "Hometown Glory", written when she was 16, which is based on her home suburb of West Norwood in London.

Named after the age of the singer during its release and production, 19 is a blue-eyed soul album with folk rock, indie pop, and jazz influences and lyrics describing heartbreak, nostalgia and relationships. 19 received positive reviews from music critics, who praised Adele's vocal prowess and songwriting talent at such a young age and noted her as having the "potential to become among the most respected and inspiring international artists of her generation." 19 was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize. At the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, Adele won Best New Artist alongside Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Chasing Pavements".

19 became a global success, reaching number one in the United Kingdom, while also reaching the top 10 in fifteen other countries, including the United States. The album has sold over 8.5 million copies worldwide and has also sold over 2.5 million copies in the UK to become one of the best-selling albums of 21st century and was named in top 20 best-selling debut albums of all time in the UK. In support of 19, Adele embarked on concert tour An Evening with Adele across North America and United Kingdom which received critical acclaim.

Adele graduated from the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon in April 2006, where she was a classmate of Leona Lewis and Jessie J. Adele credits the school with nurturing her talent even though, at the time, she was more interested in going into A&R and hoped to launch other people's careers. Four months after graduation, she published two songs on the fourth issue of the online arts publication PlatformsMagazine.com. She had recorded a three-song demo for a class project and given it to a friend. The friend posted the demo on Myspace, where it became very successful and led to a phone call from Richard Russell, boss of the music label XL Recordings. She doubted if the offer was real because the only record company she knew was Virgin Records, and she took a friend with her to the meeting.

Nick Huggett, at XL, recommended Adele to manager Jonathan Dickins at September Management, and in June 2006, Dickins became her official representative. September was managing Jamie T at the time and this proved a major draw for Adele, a big fan of the British singer-songwriter. Huggett then signed Adele to XL in September 2006. Adele provided vocals for Jack Peñate's song, "My Yvonne", for his debut album Matinée, and it was during this session she first met producer Jim Abbiss, who would go on to produce both the majority of her debut album, 19, and tracks on 21. Adele recorded a cover of Bob Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love" on the recommendation of her manager Jonathan Dickins, who loved the song.

The first single released from 19 was "Chasing Pavements", which Adele wrote in collaboration with Eg White. "Chasing Pavements" was inspired by an incident Adele had with a former boyfriend of six months. After learning he had cheated on her, she went to the bar he was at and punched him in the face. After being thrown out, Adele walked down the street alone and thought to herself, "What is it you're chasing? You're chasing an empty pavement." She sang and recorded it on her mobile phone and arranged the chords when she got home. Adele and White co-wrote two other songs for the album: "Melt My Heart to Stone" and "Tired". She also collaborated with Sacha Skarbek on the single "Cold Shoulder". However, most of the songs were written solely by Adele, including "Best for Last", "Crazy for You", "First Love", and "My Same", as well as her debut single, "Hometown Glory". That song was written by Adele in 10 minutes after her mother tried to persuade her to leave her home town of West Norwood in London for university.

In July 2008, Adele informed noted UK soul writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning Blues & Soul that the reason for naming her debut album '19' was to reflect her age while she was writing it: "I just kinda remember becoming a bit of a woman during that time. And I think that is definitely documented in the songs." The Taiwanese edition was released on 5 March. As well as the standard track list, the album features three bonus tracks: "That's It I Quit I'm Movin' On" ("Chasing Pavements" B-side), "Now and Then" ("Cold Shoulder" B-side) and "Painting Pictures" ("Make You Feel My Love" B-side). The Indonesian special edition was released on 3 March. As well as the standard track list, the album features a bonus video for "Chasing Pavements".

By 2008, Adele had become the headliner and performed an acoustic set, in which she was supported by Damien Rice. She embarked on a short North American tour in the same month, and 19 was released in the US in June. Billboard magazine stated of it: "Adele truly has potential to become among the most respected and inspiring international artists of her generation." The An Evening with Adele world tour began in May 2008 and ended in June 2009.

She later cancelled the 2008 US tour dates to be with a former boyfriend. She said in Nylon magazine in June 2009, "I'm like, 'I can't believe I did that.' It seems so ungrateful.... I was drinking far too much and that was kind of the basis of my relationship with this boy. I couldn't bear to be without him, so I was like, 'Well, OK, I'll just cancel my stuff then.'" By the middle of October 2008, Adele's attempt to break in America appeared to have failed. But then she was booked as the musical guest on the 18 October 2008 episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live. The episode, which included an expected appearance by then US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, earned the program its best ratings in 14 years with 17 million viewers. Adele performed "Chasing Pavements" and "Cold Shoulder", and the following day, 19 topped the iTunes charts and ranked at number five at Amazon.com while "Chasing Pavements" rose into the top 25. The album reached number 11 on the Billboard 200 as a result, a jump of 35 places over the previous week.

Track listing

19 – Standard edition

1. "Daydreamer" Adele Adkins 3:41
2. "Best for Last" Adkins 4:19
3. "Chasing Pavements" Adkins/Eg White   3:31
4. "Cold Shoulder" Adkins/Sacha Skarbek  3:12
5. "Crazy for You" Adkins 3:28
6. "Melt My Heart to Stone" Adkins/White   3:24
7. "First Love" Adkins 3:10
8. "Right as Rain" Adkins/Leon Michels/Jeff Silverman/Nick Movshon/Clay Holley  3:17
9. "Make You Feel My Love" Bob Dylan 3:32
10. "My Same" Adkins 3:16
11. "Tired" AdkinsWhite   4:19
12. "Hometown Glory" Adkins 4:31

Total length: 43:40