[rousing orchestral music] - [Narrator] There are very few people who become so famous they're just known by their first name.

- Adele!

[audience cheering] - There's a tincy wincy section that have the sort of success that she has.

She's a global icon.

- She's a very brightly coloured person, and I think that's why we're drawn to that.

- [Photographer] Adele!

- There isn't anybody like Adele.

Her voice is so natural, it's not forced.

- [Narrator] Her down-to-earth personality has captured the hearts of millions.

- I'm exhausted.

[laughs] I've got eczema from sterilising bottles so much.

- She's almost the heroine in a Dickensian story.

She's sort of one of the goodies.

- [Narrator] By the age of just 22, she'd released the best-selling album of the 21st century.

- How is it possible that an album kept getting bigger and bigger?

- [Narrator] She's become a cultural icon and challenged our perceptions of what a pop star should be.

- Gordon Brown said she was a light at the end of the tunnel.

- Adele showed such maturity at such a young age.

She's writing about the government, worlds colliding.

- Where does that purity of sound come from?

- [Narrator] In this programme we're looking at the sometimes surprising, often emotional, 30 greatest moments in Adele's life, as we discover where she came from, where she's got to, and how she got there.

- Sometimes to just step back and think, "Hold on.

"I taught this girl."

- "19," "21," "25," and "30," were worked with in these rooms.

- 'Cause I sing live.

I do.

[laughs] [thoughtful piano music] - [Narrator] In a time when even some of the biggest artists have struggled to get mainstream attention, Adele has somehow repeatedly managed to create music that resonates with a worldwide audience.

And it all started just 15 years ago.

[upbeat piano music] June 2007, Britain and the world were teetering on the edge of a recession, when 19-year-old Adele, unpolished, largely unknown, and yet to release an album, arrived at BBC Television Centre in London.

She'd been invited to appear on legendary music programme, "Later with Jools Holland."

- What a guy!

Jools Holland.

Jools Holland isn't just a man, he's an institution.

And it's created so many careers, that show.

- [Narrator] For any artist, this was a serious mark of musical clout.

This is the show that the entire record industry watches.

- Jools is great for kind of bringing in new, young, undiscovered talent.

He really wants to kind of showcase young people.

[tense music] - She will have known the significance of going on "Jools Holland" and standing there and announcing herself to the world.

- I had been trying to get her on the show before then, but it hadn't quite worked out, and some artists don't wanna get on the show too soon.

When you get new artists on our show, they're not people that are just, "Oh, we've spotted someone.

That was good."

There are people that have already got some traction, some momentum.

And she really had a lot of excitement around her.

Everyone you spoke to, every review you read said, "She's got an amazing voice "and is authentic and is telling these stories."

- [Narrator] It was clear from the way Adele later talked so openly about her first television performance, on "Later with Jools Holland," that it had genuinely been an overwhelming experience for her.

- It was really, really frightening.

I think someone pulled out.

And Bjork was on it and Paul McCartney was on it.

And it was my first time ever even really being in a TV studio, let alone actually being on TV.

- Not only was it her debut, but, also, you've got the other artists in the room.

You've got the world looking at you.

It's your first TV performance.

If you mess this up, it could be the end of everything.

All these anxieties are going on.

Or, instead, she's thinking, "I'm just gonna do my music.

"All right, do you like it or not?"

Making her TV debut, we welcome, from Brixton, Adele.

[audience cheering] - As this clip shows, Adele's performance that night is stripped back.

Just here and her guitar.

[gentle acoustic guitar music] And, as she starts to sing "Daydreamer," ♪ Daydreamer she stuns the audience with her powerful and confident voice.

♪ Soaking up the sun ♪ He is a real lover - In the first couple of moments, Adele does two things technically which I think really kind of distinguish who she is and what her sound is.

One is called a glottal stop.

And what glottal stop is, is when the vocal cords come together and you stop the air coming out.

And it sounds like this.

♪ Ah, ah And in those first opening lines, we really hear it where she says... ♪ He is a real You've got it three times there.

♪ Is a real And you have that kind of "ah" all the way through, which is so recognisable for Adele.

And the second is that she's singing in her own accent, her own London accent.

Which, again, we haven't really heard so much in kind of soft sensual ballads.

♪ And he could change the world ♪ ♪ With his hands behind his back, oh ♪ - Oh, I do remember thinking she was really something really special.

If you look at some artists, if they're songs are the sort of songs that have the ability to sort of cut through everything and go straight to your heart, which is what her music does, and you've got the determination of the artist, then that combination often means somebody's gonna be really great.

- [Narrator] Adele managed to overcome her nerves and fears and successfully passed one of the most difficult rights of passage in the music industry.

- [Jools] Adele!

[upbeat music] - [Narrator] Not long after, Adele had won her first Brit Award, and Jools bumped into her again.

- I remember seeing her when she first got quite successful, and I was in a restaurant in West London somewhere.

And she walked past and she saw me, banged on the window.

"Oh!"

[laughs] So I said, "Hello, hello."

She goes, "Jools, I wanted to see you.

I'm after a piano."

I said, "They have the piano auctions.

"London Piano Auctions.

They're quite cheap."

"Yeah, maybe I'll do that.

"If I find one, will you have a look at it?"

"Yeah.

Yeah."

Anyway, off she went.

A few months went by, but she didn't ring me.

And I thought, "Actually, now she doesn't need to go.

"She can just ring up, "tell somebody to get her a new whatever she wants.

"Don't worry about going down the auctions."

[laughs] - [Narrator] Adele's appearance on Jools Holland might have been her breakthrough moment, but nothing could have prepared her for what would happen next.

[majestic orchestral music] We're looking back at the top 30 events in Adele's life.

After coming to public attention on "Later with Jools Holland," Adele released her first album.

She was still a teenager.

- I'm doing really well in terms of getting bigged up by the industry.

But, of course, it's down to the public now.

And I'm looking forward to seeing if they've connected with it like everyone else seems to have.

So I hope they have.

I like singing anything from pop to R&B to folk to jazz to indie.

So the album's really eclectic and it's got all them different sides of me.

So, yeah.

But I'm a soul singer.

- [Narrator] Adele's first album was called "19," and soon hit the UK top 10.

- Her career trajectory, 2008, it was like someone had just put a rocket under it.

- Adele.

- Hello.

- [Narrator] Like all Adele's albums would go on to do, "19" focused on her emotional life.

- And all my songs are about heartbroken love 'cause I don't like writing songs when I'm happy.

I'd rather be out being happy.

So, yeah, when I'm at home feeling sorry for myself is when I write my songs.

So get ready to cry, if you wanna hear it.

[laughs] - [Narrator] Somehow with "19," Adele had found a way to connect directly to thousands of new listeners.

- Everything was just snowballing.

And yeah, I remember speaking to her about the record and just kind of how mad everything was.

She was just so honest, you know?

You'd just sit down and have a chat with her.

And everything, as she is still now, she's never changed, and she's always been her truest self.

- [Narrator] Adele recorded much of "19" here, at Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, London.

Lewis Slade is the studio's manager.

- Why don't we go in?

And we can take a look around.

- [Narrator] She was in good company, Queen, George Michael, the Rolling Stones, Joan Armatrading, Paul McCartney, and Prince have all recorded albums here.

- This is Studio A, which is our main studio.

And this is the control room where all the magic happens.

- [Narrator] Adele used different studios for different sounds, depending on the needs of each song.

- So this is Studio C in Metropolis Studios, and it's a really iconic studio.

They're all pretty iconic here, actually, 'cause so much amazing music has been recorded here.

Adele actually recorded some of all of her albums right in this studio.

- In here is where the engineer would sit down and then you've always got a line of sight to wherever she might have been recording.

But if we go through there, we can go to the live room.

- Let me show you the live room where she would've recorded her vocals.

It would've just been literally her here, with these panels either side, and the microphone and her headphones on, and away she goes.

- So this is the live room in Studio A.

The piano would be set up in the middle here.

So you can, obviously, see the engineer recording.

"19, "21," "25," and "30," various different parts of all of those albums were worked with in these rooms.

But, yeah, from whatever I've seen of her, as well, behind the scenes, even in the studio or up at the bar, she's very friendly and easy to talk to.

She's also worked with Tony Cousins, as well, who's almost like the godfather of mastering.

So having someone like that to polish off all the tracks that Adele's worked on, I think it's a match made in heaven.

- The first time I met Adele was on that occasion for her album.

Adele was slightly excited, naturally enough, and sort of perfectly normal.

You know, a bit ebullient.

She approached the whole thing in a sort of completely natural way.

That's what I really liked.

It was just that the naturalness of her voice and her ability to express herself, actually.

- I feel like, in Adele's recording, she keeps everything in.

So often, producers will cut out the breath marks or the little voice wobbles, and she kind of keeps everything in.

And I think, in her backing as well, the piano, everything sounds live and real and raw, the way the type of music she's making should reflect.

- First track on the album was Adele singing to an acoustic four-string bass.

And I thought, "Bloody hell."

To play it and sing it as a, well as effectively as she was doing it, I thought, A, that was courageous, but, also, I thought it was a very good idea.

One of the reasons that she's so successful is that, A, she's got a great voice and that thing of naturalness.

Because her voice is so natural, it's not forced.

She sings from her heart.

People pick up on that straight away.

- She's not just a good singer, she's a really great singer and a great songwriter.

And that's a giddy mix.

I mean, she's got lots of, I think, amazing small gifts and some enormous talents as well, but it's all the right ones.

And that's what makes her completeness.

- In popular music, generally, there isn't anybody like Adele, in terms of how she delivers a song.

- [Narrator] Adele's album, "19," went on to sell 6 1/2 million copies.

But when did the London teenager discover that she could really sing?

[upbeat orchestral music] Famously born in Tottenham, North London, Adele's musical journey began over a decade later, south of the river.

- [Station Announcer] Mind the gap, please.

- [Narrator] In the autumn of 1999, an 11-year-old Adele took the train from the small flat she shared with her mum, to her new secondary school in Balham.

- This is where Adele came to school, Chestnut Grove.

Adele would've attended maths on the top floor, and on the bottom floor, she would've attended RE, history, and modern languages.

- [Narrator] At school, she particularly enjoyed her science lessons, and she also spent her early teenage years developing her own sense of fashion.

- Her favourite sweatshirt, even though it wasn't school uniform, was this big, huge Slipknot hoodie.

Her hair would be all messy up on top.

I don't ever remember her wearing any makeup.

But then, suddenly, you've got this girl that sort of looked quite grungy.

[gentle thoughtful music] - [Narrator] As well as developing her own look, she was also interested in music and performing.

- Adele would've attended the Performing Arts Department, which would've been housed in the building that was on this site here.

And that's where Adele found her voice.

- I directed the choir that Adele was in.

I remember Adele as someone who was quiet but had innate sense of something special.

And she had a really, really good musical ear.

So she was an all-round musician.

So not only was she in the choir, she played the clarinet.

And so that ability to be able to hear different parts, different harmonies, being part of the choir, did contribute to her recognising her ability.

I'd like to think that I had some part in inspiring Adele.

- It's no surprise to me that Adele fell into music through a choir because it's so good for your ear.

It's so good for your tuning, your ability to blend.

It exposes you to a wider range of music.

And it's fun, as well.

It connects you with collective music-making.

It makes you enjoy music.

- One of the things that's so incredible about her voice is she has this lovely kind of contralto tone to it, but she has got such an incredible range, so she can sing really high notes, and that beautiful quality when she goes high.

And then she can go to the depths that really touches your soul.

[light upbeat music] - [Narrator] At school, Adele preferred the comfort of the choir, to singing on her own.

- She comes across as very loud and confident, and that's her appeal, very down-to-earth.

But I think that's actually quite a far cry from the girl who was 11, 12, who was finding herself.

- What I do remember, it was her taking part in the choir, enjoying singing with other people, but not having the confidence to sing on her own.

- Adele's on record as having stage fright.

And the wonderful thing about singing in a choir, when you're 11 or any age, is that you get confidence from the people around you and you don't feel like you're singing on your own.

But you're still performing.

You're still getting out there and getting the practise.

- To see her up on stage now is just like, is this the same young person that didn't want to face an audience on her own?

- I mean, it's absolutely incredible to think that in a small space like this, and not that long later, to go to Glastonbury or headline at the Grammys.

To think where she performs now, from the small beginnings here, is really inspiring.

- [Narrator] Outside of school, Adele spent lots of her time playing, writing, singing, and listening to music.

When she was a teenager, people bought records, they didn't stream them.

And Adele would spend hours pouring over new releases and old classics in record shops.

- It was a different era when you actually had to go into the bargain basement and pick out something and take a punt on it.

And I remember that thing, you'd have this CD that you'd bought from the bargain basement, just thinking, "Oh, I'll give it a go," and then you'd just play it.

- [Narrator] And one record, in particular, would transform Adele's life.

[bright R&B music] One of Adele's favourite stores was the now defunct HMV shop in Oxford Street, London.

One day, as Adele rummaged through the marked down CDs, she came across the 1950s soul singer, Etta James.

As you watch and listen to Etta James singing one of her most famous songs, "At Last," you can really see how Adele was influenced by her.

♪ At last Etta's soulful and honest delivery is something that Adele has always tried to emulate.

♪ My love has come along - I think the thing about Etta James as a singer is she always remained cool and fashionable and influential, and she sings with such raw pain in her voice.

- Etta James was one of the greatest rhythm and blues singers of the '50s, but also could sing anything.

And Adele's the same.

- I think it's quite unusual for a 15-year-old, though, to be listening to somebody like Etta James.

And it kind of showed where her head was at in a sense of how mature she was and the kind of music that she would want to go on and make and write about.

- [Narrator] In Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" video, it's clear to see the influence of Etta James's 1950s style, as well as her earthy and heartbreaking approach to both the songwriting and the performance.

♪ We could have had it all ♪ Rolling in deep - Well, music embraces a lot of music of the past, but she revoices it and reinvents it to connect with a contemporary global audience.

The poetry of the blues is a very important thing.

It's not like other stuff, it's very direct.

And even if the person is getting the bad end of the deal in whatever the romantic situation is, they're not a victim.

And I think she keeps that attitude somehow.

Which is the great thing about her, that's her great power.

- Most pop stars now, I think, are influenced by hip hop and rap, even if they're not making it.

And you see it in the hand gestures and the way they move.

Adele, she's really coming from old-fashioned show business glamour.

She took the old-fashioned show business glamour world and she threw it into the everyday.

- [Narrator] The soulful influence of Etta James was about to inspire a 16-year-old Adele to write a song that would go on to be her first major hit single.

[sparse piano music] Adele songs and lyrics are deeply autobiographical, and "Hometown Glory" is no exception.

It was based on a key moment that occurred during Adele's earlier teenage years.

- "Hometown Glory" is a really interesting song to make as your debut single, because it's very much a kind of coming of age song.

I mean, you couldn't have planned it, but it's almost perfect.

The first song is an announcement of a girl becoming an adult and feeling not quite ready for it.

- [Narrator] In this video, Adele's stripped-back and soulful performance of "Hometown Glory," sweeps us up with her passionate homage to London.

♪ I've been walking in the same way as I did ♪ - "Hometown Glory" really captures the energy and essence of London.

All the gritty bits, all the complicated bits.

- [Narrator] Adele was just 16 and still living at home with her mum in South London when she wrote it.

- Adele talks very fondly about her mum being this lovely hippy mum.

And it was just her and her mum against the world.

- Penny Adkins, Adele's mother, was, although clearly wasn't wealthy, didn't have much money and was doing various jobs and was a single mother, was a very artistic person.

So I think she had that encouragement from her mother.

- [Narrator] "Hometown Glory" was Adele's response to her mum's suggestion that she should go to university in Liverpool.

- I had a meeting with my school about going university.

And my mum thought I should go to Liverpool, and I didn't wanna, I wanted to stay in London.

So I ran upstairs and wrote it and then come back downstairs.

I was gonna go to Liverpool though.

I got in, but I got a record deal.

[laughs] So I've gotta stay.

- You performed to your mum?

- Oh, yeah, I would perform to my mum.

Yeah, she's my best critic.

- That must have been, I guess you could say, perhaps the most important performance that you've done so far then?

- Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I guess so.

I wrote "Hometown Glory," and somehow, without even realising, my own voice just kind of popped up.

I think that was when I started writing my own tunes that happened.

- [Narrator] Once Adele had started writing songs and finding her voice in her flat in West Norwood, she began writing and singing where she found inspiration.

This included the local park.

- And this here is Brockwell Park.

And Brockwell Park is beautiful, as you can see.

- [Narrator] Cat Sandion went to school with Adele, and both girls regularly used to hang out here.

- A lot of us used to come down here, especially in the summer, or a beautiful day like this, and people would write songs, you'd make up dance routines.

And Adele used to come up here with her year group.

- [Narrator] As well as capturing London's bittersweet urban beauty, in "Hometown Glory" Adele also talks about her love for the energy of the city.

♪ I like it in the city when two worlds collide ♪ ♪ You get the people and the government ♪ ♪ Everybody taking different sides ♪ - Adele showed such maturity at such a young age.

She's writing about the government, worlds colliding.

- I think she's a bit like she has the charm of almost the heroin in a London, a Dickensian London story.

She's sort of one of the goodies.

But it's tough, just got out the workhouse or something.

- To write one song like "Hometown Glory," in a lifetime would be amazing, but to have done that at 16 is really impressive.

And that marks you out as something really special.

- [Narrator] But it wasn't just "Hometown Glory" that marked Adele out as really special.

She was about to find out what the record industry really thought of her.

[majestic orchestral music] In a life filled with great moments, one of the most significant was when Adele won her first major award.

[dramatic piano music] In February 2008, Britain was having a difficult time, and Adele's debut album, "19," with its emotional songs and longing for home, seemed to resonate with the nation.

- There was the crash of 2008, just when she was breaking through.

And you had this person who, suddenly we're being stripped away from all the wealth and glamour that came before.

It was markedly different from the superstars of the era.

People like Madonna and Prince, Michael Jackson.

And suddenly, you had this person who seemed normal, singing about difficult things.

- [Narrator] She was a breath of fresh air.

And at the Brit Awards that year, she won a Critics' Choice Award, presented to her by Will Young.

- It was amazing, anyway, 'cause I'm the biggest Will Young fan.

And then we kind of got on really well, and then he gave me my Brit Award.

- But nothing can really prepare you for that overnight success.

To win an award like a Brit, and a critic award as well, that gives you so much hope and so much excitement about the future.

It must have been a dizzying time for her.

I've got a Classic Brit for "Wherever You Are," which was the single I did with the Military Wives.

So I know what it's like to go on stage and get an award, and it is absolutely amazing and quite life-changing.

But she's been identified as a future star, and she's got to deliver that.

- And the thing about Adele, she seemed to not recognise what a star she really was.

She just seemed to be this humble, ordinary girl who had a voice and she was winning awards.

- It's really weird getting an award so early on though.

I wasn't really aware of being the one to watch.

I got told stuff.

But I never really felt anything, never really noticed the buzz.

But obviously, getting a Brit Award's quite a big deal, obviously.

- It warms the cockles of my heart to see that.

Whether she was prepared for the success or not, I don't know.

It's a tough world there and people have come out really bad.

You're lucky to come out this world alive if you get involved in music, you know.

- It's a sort of mixed blessing.

Of course, you feel fantastic that you've won an award, but I bet Adele woke up the next morning and thought, "Right, now the hard work begins."

- [Narrator] Adele may have won her first Brit Award, but it was another win six years earlier that had really put her on the path to stardom.

[majestic orchestral music] In 2002, Adele won a coveted place at The BRIT School, a showbiz hothouse for only the most talented of students.

- What a life-changing moment.

I mean, you imagine when that letter or that phone call comes through to say you've got into The BRIT School at age 13, I mean, you must feel that your life is about to change.

That's a huge thing.

You could go skiing without skis and still make it down the mountain, but it's gonna be a lot easier if you've got the equipment.

- And I can just imagine that Adele would've been, in her words, probably chuffed, pleased as punch that she'd actually done this.

And it would've been her own resilience and hard work that got her there.

- The important thing to remember about The BRIT School is that it's a comprehensive.

It's a comprehensive in South London, but it gets a lot of funding from the British music industry.

But it's not a fame academy.

You're not there just to become famous, and of course, most of them don't.

But there are people like Leona Lewis, Katie Melua, Amy Winehouse.

So a few of the kind of big stars of modern British life.

Jessie J went there.

- I remember me and Adele sitting together jamming at lunchtimes, and I don't think either of us then ever imagined to have albums that would go on to be sold around the world and be touring.

And we cross each other airports and different places in the country.

- [Narrator] One of Adele's fellow students at The BRIT School, was children's TV presenter, Cat Sandion.

- Thank you.

Cheers.

Thanks.

But this is The BRIT School, and this is where I went.

This is also where Adele went.

And yeah, this place is absolutely incredible.

To get a place here at The BRIT School is really, really tough.

And there are so many people trying to get a spot here.

And if you get a spot, you are very, very lucky because there aren't many places like this.

Adele was there singing, songwriting, just as well as I was there, dancing and doing what I was doing with my choreographing.

And everybody there is doing something they love.

- What The BRIT School clearly did for Adele was to give her the space and the time and the permission to go and write.

And I've got friends who were there at the same time, who remember her just writing and writing and writing.

Brilliant.

That's how you get on.

It doesn't arrive one day in a package, you know, mega-stardom, you've gotta work for it, and she clearly did.

- [Narrator] Even though Adele had won her coveted place at The BRIT School, she still seemed unsure of herself.

- So in the third year, I did a show called "Brit Idol," which was me and some other people all in our year putting on a show.

So it was like a competition, a singing competition.

Bit of a spinoff to "Pop Idol," but it was called "Brit Idol."

And we held auditions for some of the students to come and sing.

And Adele came in with a scarf, it was a winter night.

She came in, started singing, looking down, not really anything amazing until she opened her mouth, and we were like, "Whoa!"

Yeah, she was incredible.

- Adele has always been very supportive of The BRIT school.

She's always given it a lot of credit.

She's sort of their most famous student.

- [Narrator] In the hot summer of 2006, 18-year-old Adele left The BRIT school.

Now she needed to find a way to get noticed.

[thoughtful whimsical music] [dog barking] In an age of talent shows like "The X Factor," Adele's career began after she posted a few demos online.

- Adele uploaded her music to MySpace.

And of course, we didn't have the era that we have now of social media, it wasn't as easy to share music.

So this was the first sort of platform that we had to upload music.

- She put music on MySpace, which was really like the en vogue platform at the time.

The likes of Lily Allen were doing the same thing.

And she put up "Hometown Glory."

That was the first song she ever wrote from start to finish.

- [Narrator] Shortly after leaving The BRIT School, Richard Russell, the head of a small independent record label, was shown Adele's demos.

- Richard Russell is the head of XL Recordings.

XL Recordings was an independent label, and they were representing kind of big alternative acts.

So Radiohead and Jack White and M.I.A., artists like that.

- Richard Russell went to see her at Cherry Jam in West London, which was a really cool underground kind of open mic night.

- I think when you're a record label, obviously, you're looking for individuality, you're looking for something different, something that you haven't seen before.

So I think when they found Adele, at such a young age, with such a mature voice, no wonder they kind of just lept on her and signed her on the spot.

- She didn't conform to the stereotype of a pop star back then, which there was a lot of pressure on female pop stars to be super skinny and doing dance moves, which was actually, I think, incredibly refreshing.

If she'd signed, potentially, with a bigger major label, they might have tried to mould her into something or put more pressure on her to provide the hits, and XL really was the antithesis of that.

- If you're signed to a mainstream label, a stylist almost comes on board before anyone's written a song.

And you're pitched together with various professional songwriters, and everything is kind of put into place, and it either works or it doesn't.

And if it doesn't work, you're out.

Adele didn't go down that route.

She didn't fit the normal mould.

- They were able to probably guide her, but also let her keep control of the songwriting and who she wanted to work with and the look and feel of it and just keep that authenticity.

- [Narrator] Just after Richard Russell saw Adele in the Cherry Jam nightclub, DJ Georgie Rogers also saw her perform in a church-turned-club in the heart of London's Soho.

- So I'd heard of her because we had some mutual friends.

Not long after she signed to XL Recordings, I saw Adele perform before she was the pop superstar that she is today.

It was 2007.

This is The House of St Barnabas chapel in the heart of Soho.

As you can see, it's a tiny space.

A really small church gig that she'd done as kind of a showcase.

She'd signed with XL Recordings, but she hadn't put out the debut record.

And can't of been more than 200 people in here, maybe?

'Cause it was just her and one other musician who played piano on some tracks, guitar on other, and her voice and the songs in their rawest form.

I remember being quite blown away.

- [Narrator] Not long after Adele signed to XL, she met up with the second person who would enable her journey to stardom.

And it was all helped by a cup of tea.

[thoughtful upbeat music] After they'd signed her, XL Recordings introduced Adele to a manager called Jonathan Dickens.

- Jonathan Dickens is from an industry background, really.

His uncle is Rob Dickens.

He's one of the biggest record executives in Britain.

And his father, I think, had been an agent, booking agent, and so on.

So he'd kind of grown up through the industry, but he was starting off by himself.

He had an artist called Jamie T, and Adele was a fan.

- She was impressed by his roster.

At the time he was managing Tom Vek, Jamie T, and Jack Penate, who was moving in similar circles to Adele.

And so she wanted to work with him.

- [Narrator] Their first meeting was in the unlikeliest of places.

- They'd met on the Goldhawk Road, outside a petrol station, and then gone for a cup of tea.

And she said, what really sealed the deal was the fact that he made her a banging cup of tea and also, made her laugh.

- [Narrator] They immediately clicked, and soon after, he became her manager.

- It's like a marriage, really, the manager-artist relationship.

And so I think that foundation was set early on, a foundation of trust, which you need between an artist and a manager, especially if you are as young as she was.

- For a young singer to have a manager, somebody who is on their side, unequivocally, totally passionate about them and promoting them, but also has the experience to be able to say, "Don't do that, do this," absolutely vital.

If the product is right, if the person is right, and they believe and they're sincere in what they're doing, then the manager has something to go out to bat for and then the label has something to sell.

These roles are so crucial.

You have to have a good team.

What's clear to me is that Adele had the ability and had the talent aged, probably, 12, and she's been shaped by the decisions that she's made with other people.

- [Narrator] One of those early decisions was that Adele Adkins would simply be called Adele.

- It's quite a confident decision, isn't it?

Just to be Adele.

I'd like to be Gareth from now on.

- [Narrator] Jonathan Dickens very quickly turned Adele into a rising British star.

Her first album was a critical success.

Crucially though, he was convinced she could have an even bigger career, a global one.

But to do that, she would need to crack America, something that many British artists had tried and failed.

[upbeat R&B music] [siren wailing] - The big thing that British artists always have, they get huge here, they get huge in Europe, they just cannot break America.

It happened to Oasis.

It happens time and again Adele was the one to break the mould.

- [Narrator] In October 2008, Adele was asked to appear on the legendary TV show, "Saturday Night Live" in New York.

- And I never expected to do well in America, anyway, until my third or fourth record.

But I was doing a show in New York and then the producer from "Saturday Night Live" came down and really liked it and offered me the show.

- When the call comes in from "Saturday Night Live" to say, "Do you wanna come on the biggest comedy show "in America and sing?"

I mean, I presume that she doesn't hesitate.

- [Narrator] As Adele performs "Chasing Pavements," you can just see the nerves, but her emotional lyrics and raw vocals gripped America.

♪ I've made up my mind ♪ Don't need to think it over here ♪ ♪ If I'm wrong, I am right - It was raw and it was authentic.

And Adele looked like a 19-year-old from London, with her opaque tights and her black dresses, but then this voice was just this all-consuming, global pop star voice.

- That is a big fork in the road.

To accept that challenge and to deliver in the way that Adele did, takes incredible guts.

- [Narrator] Adele didn't realise that she was appearing on what would be the most watched "Saturday Night Live" show in 14 years.

- It was just meant to be like a normal show.

Just me and Josh Brolin, and I was the musical guest and he was hosting it.

And then we walked in on Saturday and Sarah Palin was there.

We were like, "Oh my God.

What?"

[laughs] - [Narrator] In 2008, Sarah Palin was the Republican vice presidential nominee, running alongside Arizona Senator John McCain.

- Sarah Palin was the new face of libertarianism.

The Alaskan governor who was pro-guns and basically a Trumpite before Trump.

And Tina Fey, who is one of the regulars on "Saturday Night Live," had always been doing this mimicry of her and imitations, suddenly they got the real Sarah Palin.

- [Narrator] In one of the most watched "Saturday Night Live" shows of the era, 10 million people tuned in to see Sarah Palin and Adele.

- It is pure luck.

There's nothing that could be timed or planned about that.

- That really was like a whole new size of audience.

She's now singing to the whole of America on its biggest prime-time show, and that really was a game-changer for Adele's career.

- It ended up being a huge show and literally overnight...

Whenever I've heard that saying, "overnight success," I was like, "Yeah, whatever.

"You've gotta proper, proper work for it."

And it was overnight, literally overnight.

So, yeah, I was chuffed with that.

- I think she's really, really broken America.

They love her as much as we do.

- She's just sort of [slaps hands] tied up America with the bow in no time at all.

- [Narrator] Somehow Adele had achieved in one performance, what many musicians have failed to do in their entire lives, but there was more to come on her American adventure.

[majestic orchestral music] By 2009, Adele was a rising star in both the UK and the US, but there was one moment that would seal her status as an iconic global superstar.

[bright upbeat music] - America dominates music right around the globe.

So the Grammys are the ultimate accolade for any musician.

- It's really the biggest award ceremony on the planet, but in America, it's their version of the Brits.

- [Narrator] Adele attended the Grammy Awards in 2009, and they were an opportunity to shift the public's perception of her.

- That was when her fashion really started to change, 'cause Anna Wintour styled her for the Grammy Awards.

- I thought Anna Wintour was Meryl Streep.

I thought it was "Devil Wears Prada."

So I had no idea who I was meeting, so I wasn't that scared at first.

And then I met her and I was like, "Oh, right.

"Yeah, I get it.

Okay."

- Anna Wintour being the British-born editor of American Vogue.

Very, very powerful figure in fashion.

And I think America demanded a little bit of that, the idea that you are really making an effort.

It's a balance which Adele has essentially been sort of teetering on ever since, which is remaining that person who everyone feels that they could go and have a pint with and at the same time, being a glamorous figure who feels like a lot of hard work has got into the creation of this.

- I'm kind of actually getting into fashion now.

And before, I was always quite stubborn and like, "I don't wanna wear a dress," you know?

There's a designer called Barbara Tfank who made my dress for the Grammys.

She's just really elegant and she's older.

And I trust her and believe her and respect what she says.

So I'm starting to take kind of pride in... Well, not even pride.

It's the fun of dressing up, d'you know what I mean?

I'm really starting to enjoy it.

So I think just have fun with it and feel comfortable, really.

- Starting to work with stylists and designers and actually people that could sort of work with her and her aesthetic and make her beautiful clothes was a point where she really kind of opens up.

- And you see pictures of her before and she looks young.

She's got the Marks & Spencer opaque tights on.

She's got the kind of like highbrow black dress.

And then she turns up to the Grammys, and it's a little peek of her stylistic journey.

She's got this off-the-shoulder dress, the classic hair swished to one side.

- Her style, I love her retro style.

And I do often try to channel it a bit.

I love the hairdos from the '50s and '60s.

But Adele, yeah, she is like a fashion icon to me, definitely.

- [Narrator] Anna Wintour had introduced Adele to designer dresses, but the singer retained her modest appearance.

- She wasn't Rihanna, in terms of super sexy, but she could be this very, very old-fashioned glamour figure, rather like Barbara Streisand.

So the hair gets big, the eyeliner gets bigger, and the dresses become floor-length.

Something which elevates her from the everyday, but the same time, putting on your best outfit.

- [Narrator] Adele's new image wasn't her only success at the 2009 Grammys.

- She won two Grammys, which, for any new artist, to get Grammys, your first Grammys is just such a huge moment.

- And for a vocalist to win two Grammys straight out of the gate, that's amazing.

- [Narrator] By now, Adele was appealing to a wide and varied audience, and she'd even managed to pick up a surprising fan.

- She received a letter from Gordon Brown, who was prime minister at the time, said that she was a light at the end of the tunnel because the country was experiencing the banking crisis.

And Adele [laughs] ended up cheering up the nation with her two Grammys win.

- For the prime minister to say that, that's quite remarkable.

- [Narrator] Adele was well on her way to becoming a national treasure, but it was a TV appearance that was about to catapult her to new heights.

[dramatic music] On the 15th of February, 2011, just a few months before Prince William was due to marry Catherine at Westminster Abbey, Adele was preparing to perform at the Brit Awards.

- So in 2011, this was such an iconic moment for Adele.

She performed right here for the Brit Awards in the O2 Arena.

It was absolute magic.

I was there backstage.

- Adele, you're performing tonight, tell us what people can expect.

Because I was speaking to James Corden and he said it was the most extraordinary performance he'd ever seen.

- Aw, did he?

Aw, that's quite nice.

Well, mine is very stripped back.

Everyone else is pretty epic.

- James Corden introduced her.

And he had this moment where he was saying about Adele's music is so powerful.

That it's incredible she can write these songs that resonate with so many of us.

- [Narrator] The organisers had asked Adele to perform one of her most emotional songs.

- And I'm just doing "Someone Like You," which is quite cool to do.

'Cause normally I've gotta try and channel myself to sing "Rolling in the Deep" and stuff.

Whereas this one, I'm just crying halfway through every time I sing it, doesn't matter what kind of mood I'm in.

♪ Never mind I'll find someone like you ♪ ♪ I wish nothing but best for you too ♪ - [Narrator] In her iconic rendition of "Someone Like You," Adele was accompanied only by a piano.

As she sang from the heart, the power and intensity of her emotional performance stunned the audience.

- "Someone Like You" is probably her masterpiece.

And I don't know if it's ever gonna be bettered.

It's the perfect heartbreak song because it captures so much.

And the reason why she became a phenomenon is because a tear ran down her cheek.

- She put so much emotion into the track and there was so much heart in it, almost that she choked a few times singing the song.

She was sort of just so full of emotion.

- She just has to stand and sing.

She doesn't need decoration.

It's just about her.

It's just about the way she reaches out to you.

- But I remember distinctly when Adele came on stage, everyone came out of their dressing rooms and just watched in silence on this tiny little monitor.

You could hear a pin drop.

- I remember thinking, "Wow, that is a woman "who is just giving "absolutely everything to this performance."

From a technical point of view, when you are pushing air past your vocal folds, really with such intensity and such emotion, such commitment as Adele does, there is a danger that they will rub together and you will create problems.

It's like a blister, almost, on your vocal folds.

It's a tough balance, I think, as an artist.

You want to be able to deliver this really gutsy performance, but you've also got to make something you can sing night after night after night.

- She sang this song which affected her so deeply, it was almost like it was the perfect show business moment which was utterly human.

And I think that was the moment which Adele became more than a pop star.

That's the moment when the nation really fell in love with her.

- [Narrator] Adele was now officially the doyenne of heartbreak songs, but in her personal life, it seemed her relationship troubles were over, when, at the age of 23, she fell in love.

[gentle ballad music] In 2011, Adele met British charity entrepreneur and old Etonian, Simon Konecki.

- He cares about me more than anything.

- I just think it's amazing that someone so young can find such a profound and deep love, but also I think have something so strong and secure that's a real anchor.

Her world is blowing up, she's arguably the biggest pop star on the planet, and she's got this calm anchor to keep her grounded.

- So is he in your songs?

- Yeah, he's in a couple of them.

I mean, not singing.

- No, no, no.

- [laughs] Imagine!

No, yeah, yeah.

Totally.

Like, totally.

- Adele, she got married to Simon Konecki, who's a charity CEO, and seemed to be happy for a while.

And this is the queen of heartbreak, so you wondered if that was gonna affect the music, but I'm not sure if it did actually.

- Being in such an amazing relationship with someone that's so there for me and so loyal, and is really part of my core now, that's what made me so all right about everything that I've ever done because I've got his love.

- [Narrator] Falling in love with Simon would lead to another one of Adele's greatest personal moments.

[gentle majestic music] In October 2012, Adele became a mum, at the age of 24, to son, Angelo.

- Having grown up, and with a relationship, a good relationship with her mother, I think that motherhood, to her, is very important.

I think it's a part of her life that she would happily take a backseat from her fame for her children.

- [Narrator] She wasn't afraid to share the stresses of motherhood.

After her son's birth, she was as down to earth as ever.

- I'm exhausted.

That's how it's changed me.

[laughs] I've got eczema from sterilising bottles so much in water.

- I think it says a lot about Adele as a character, about her values, but also what inspires her music.

It's all about heart.

- She said that's when she realised what life was all about and what her worth was.

And she went from being a mum first, and then she said then it was about her, and then her work came last.

- And I'm not revealing his name.

I'm not ready.

It's too personal and intimate.

I'm enjoying him on my own at the moment.

But thank you for asking.

- She's a very protective mum, you know, as I am.

You don't want your kids to be in the spotlight.

It's our choice to do what we do.

It's not necessarily their choice and I'm sure that that's how she feels too.

So she didn't want him photographed or in the spotlight because you do want to protect your children.

And this, I think, really shows you what a real down-to-earth, grounded person she is.

- When I move my kid, I don't want my kid photographed.

It's hard enough being a kid, in general, imagine growing up and your first kiss, your first cigarette, all that.

If that's how I found out about my child's life, I don't think I'd ever forgive myself.

- [Narrator] Adele has never wanted to share her son with the world.

To date, there are still no publicity photos of him.

- She's keeping him out of the public eye.

Because she's chosen to be famous, but he hasn't.

Adele came of age at the time when we were all getting used to social media and everything, and everyone can become their own famous person to an extent.

She doesn't share much at all.

She's not someone who's constantly posting pictures of herself on social media.

It's quite rare.

- [Narrator] Adele timed motherhood perfectly.

It was the ideal opportunity to take time away from the spotlight, having just released an album that would smash nearly every record that had ever been broken.

[emotive piano music] - One thing that Adele nailed was that difficult second album.

So it's always really, really hard to top an album, especially an album that did as well as "19" did.

So when she finally brought out "21," it actually went on to be the biggest selling album of this century, which it doesn't really get any better than that.

- "21" sold over 31 million records.

That record, I just think it really connected.

- In music, 90% of people don't make a success of it at all, really is the truth of it.

And then of that remaining 10%, 3/4 of them end up keep working if they're lucky.

And there's a tiny percentage that have a success.

And of those ones that have a success, there's a tincy wincy section that have the sort of success that she has, which is like a sort of a Beatles sort of success where you're a global icon.

- [Narrator] On "21," Adele evolved her style.

- Everything got bigger.

The production on the record got bigger.

She'd brought in two producers who I think were quite integral to that, Fraser T. Smith and Paul Epworth.

And Fraser T. Smith helped her on "Set Fire to the Rain" and just this kind of wall of sound production.

And same for Paul Epworth on "Rolling in the Deep" and "I'll Be Waiting."

And they just helped her really take those kind of classic sonic ideas, but also bring in a bit of a modern, fresh production twist.

And I think they helped her sort of raise the game on her power balladry.

- I spoke to one of her producers, a guy called Fraser T. Smith, and he said that his great frustration is always finding great session singers who can do everything perfectly on the note and then a fantastic pop star who can put all this passion into it but then misses the notes.

He said Adele is the only person he's ever worked with who can do both.

So that's very rare.

- There are, or were elements of what happened with "21," they really frightened me.

It got pretty out of control and it got so big, I was, but like...

It just grew limbs of its own and started doing marathon runs and stuff like that.

- [Narrator] "21" went straight to number one in the UK charts, and it's now in the top 10 list of best-selling albums of all time.

One track on the album, "Someone Like You," was the perfect example of how that impressive power balladry made "21" such a success.

The melancholy power ballad about a failed relationship mesmerised audiences.

♪ Never mind, I'll find someone like you ♪ ♪ I wish nothing but the best for you, too ♪ - A stylistic tool Adele uses a lot is called vocal fry, which we hear all the time and you may not even realise.

And it's that back of the throat, ah.

♪ I heard There's an example of it.

It's that, ah.

♪ I heard And it's a really great tool of to help you convey emotion.

- There's a quality there of danger and of excitement and of humanity and rawness in Adele's voice.

In those performances that we really remember, they're right on the edge of falling apart, of the emotion just bursting through and destroying the performance.

And that makes it thrilling to watch.

- The bank balance on XL Recordings had been three million and then within a year, off the back of the release of that record, it was 32 million.

It was such an exciting time, but it really did go stratospheric very, very quickly.

- How was it possible that an album kept getting bigger and bigger?

- [Narrator] In its first year alone, "21" sold over 20 million albums, the world's biggest selling album of the year.

Its success would change Adele's life beyond recognition.

Instant mega-stardom beckoned.

[majestic orchestral music] We're counting down some of the greatest events in Adele's life.

Her second album, "21," achieved staggering success.

And importantly for Adele, it meant she could buy her first house and start her property portfolio.

[groovy R&B music] [waves lapping] When Adele secured her first record deal, she swapped the small flat she shared with her mum in West Norwood for a flat in Notting Hill.

But it wasn't until 2012, the year her son was born, that she bought her first house, a two million pound property on the high-end beachfront in Brighton and Hove.

[birds cawing] - That's Adele's house right there.

She moved here in 2012.

I think she loved it.

- [Narrator] But, as properties go, she was in a different league to most 23-year-olds.

Harry Mishon is a local estate agent in Hove, West Sussex, where Adele chose to buy her house.

He has sold some of the properties neighbouring her first beachside home.

- So we are here at Western Esplanade, where Adele used to live.

Western Esplanade is known as millionaires row.

It's one of the best stretch of properties across the South Coast.

- I wish I could buy something like that in my early 20s.

- They typically are three stories with a high balcony, private seafront beach access, and typically fitted to an extremely high, modern, and contemporary standard.

- [Narrator] Adele sold her house here in 2016, but since then, she has gone on to amass an impressive selection of properties, estimated to be around 100 million pounds, including mansions in Beverly Hills.

- I can't begin to imagine how it must feel like going from living in a little flat above a Co-op in London to having this property portfolio around the world.

[gentle upbeat music] [camera shutters whirring] - [Narrator] Adele had stunning homes and a recently released hit album that had broken records and won awards across the globe.

But as a songwriter, there is one award coveted above all others.

On the 17th of May, 2012, the Ivor Novello Awards took place in Central London.

- When we heard she wasn't in our category we thought, "We've got a chance here."

[all laughing] - What makes her special, Adele?

- Adele?

Everything about her.

Her songs, her voice, her persona, her personality.

People love her.

- Beautiful.

- Yeah.

- [Narrator] Adele won Songwriter of the Year.

- So that is a mark of the industry respect.

Other songwriters will have nominated her and will have said that her songs are worthy of that kind of accolade.

- It's like your peers, really, sort of saying that you're great.

It's a sign of being well-loved and well-regarded within the industry.

And I think it's one of the greatest accolades, an Ivor Novello.

- The main thing was that my songs weren't as good as my voice, which I really appreciated and I took it on board.

And now I'm winning Songwriter of the Year for my second album.

So thank you very, very much for just analysing my songs like that and making me really aware of myself.

- Adele is a great writer, not just a voice, but somebody instinctively knows what her songs are going to say and what their effects will be on people.

- The other thing with Adele's songs is the best ones seem like they've always existed, but, at the same time, because they come from the heart, they're original.

- [Narrator] By the age of 24, Adele had won Brit Awards, Grammys, and an Ivor Novello songwriter award.

And she was about to join an even more exclusive circle.

[tense music] In 2012, Adele became one of the very small handful of artists invited to write a Bond theme.

[dramatic music] - I can only imagine what it means to get the call to write a Bond theme.

It's such a huge... You think of that list of people that have done it.

Bond songs are always quite dark, and she does that really well.

She expresses the darker side of humanity really well.

- It's such a big deal to do a Bond movie.

So it's such a big British cultural heritage.

It still connects to millions of people, it's still got global appeal, and it's still glamorous.

- [Narrator] Adele agree to the song for "Skyfall," with producer Paul Epworth, after reading the film's script.

- And the script was really exciting.

Normally I write about my misery, and this time, I wrote a song according to someone's script.

So that was very exciting and challenging, but very great.

- It was a bit of a reinvention for both James Bond and for Adele.

What she actually did with "Skyfall," is that she brought on that big almost operatic kind of pop opera approach that Shirley Bassey did so brilliantly.

So I think that "Skyfall" is a very British type of glamour.

- With a singer's sultry voice and big orchestral backing, opening with a minor chord progression, "Skyfall" instantly feels like a classic bond theme.

As can be seen in this performance of "Skyfall" at the Oscars in 2013.

♪ This is the end ♪ Hold your breath and count to 10 ♪ - She has this ability to just magnify a song, and illuminate it once she sort of gets it.

Which is what the great singers do.

- [Narrator] Having won most of the music industry's accolades, thanks to "Skyfall," Adele started winning the biggest awards from the film industry as well, including an Oscar and a Golden Globe.

- Very surreal and quite hilarious, 'cause it's not my field.

Grammys and stuff, although it's mind-boggling to win Grammys, whether it be one or however many, this I'm not meant to really, you know.

Amazing actors have these awards.

So, yeah, it's very weird, but incredible.

- [Narrator] Adele was now a Hollywood star, as well as darling of the music world.

In just seven short years, the 25-year-old had managed to transcend from pop star to cultural icon and she had a new fan, the Queen.

[majestic orchestral music] - You get this letter through the post that says, "Would you accept it if it was offered to you?

I said, "Yes."

And obviously, Adele did as well.

- [Narrator] In 2013, Adele was invited to Buckingham Palace to accept her MBE, which was awarded for services to music.

- Going to the palace and getting an honour is like nothing else.

And the pride is because you have been recognised.

- Adele was awarded an MBE, Member of the British Empire, which is for outstanding services to the community, the British community as a whole.

And it's the official stamp of approval from the establishment.

People felt that she was one of us.

- "Yeah, I'm gonna have "the best-selling album in 21st century.

"I'm going to win a Critics' Choice Brit Award.

"I'm gonna write a Bond song.

Now I'm gonna get an MBE."

That's how you top it.

That's how you top all of those things.

- Winning an award, like an MBE, you get that for really achieving something of note, of quality, and of worth.

And the fact that she's now gone around the whole world, I mean, she should be a dame really.

She needs an upgrade.

- [Narrator] Adele had joined the British cultural elite, but not long after, she mysteriously disappeared out of public sight.

The longer she was away, the more desperate her fans were for her return.

[gentle piano music] - The fact that people spend a year or two years, or even three years making a record, is nothing to do with the fact that they're in the studio every day for three years.

[laughing] It's because the politics of, "Oh, I think I can do it better.

"Oh, let's try this in another room.

"Oh, let's try this with different musicians.

"Oh, I don't like it."

- [Narrator] Adele finally reappeared, dramatically and out of the blue, on the evening of the 18th of October, 2015.

- In the middle of "X Factor," biggest show in the country, and just dropped the pebble in the pool.

- [Narrator] In an ad break during "The X Factor, without explanation, the words from Adele's new song appeared on the screen.

♪ Hello, it's me - And it just came up, a very short clip during the adverts.

And you knew it was her voice.

So distinguished.

So iconic.

♪ Hello - I mean, it's just, you're there.

You're in already, and she's got you, from one word.

- The song was the perfect song because theoretically, it was about connecting with an old lover, but really, it was about connecting with the audience.

It's a sign of Adele's fame that they didn't need to say anything.

- I'm "The X Factor" head vocal coach.

So, we were backstage, live Saturday night, and then, of course, that comes on.

We were just all looking at our phones, watching this, just like, "Wow!

This is..." You know, couldn't believe it was happening.

- "Hello" actually started when I was writing it with the lyric, "Hello, misery," so I'm sure you can imagine the mood that I was in [laughs] when I was writing that.

[beeps] miserable!

But it developed.

And Greg Kirsten, who I wrote it with, was like, "Hm, not sure about that line.

"I dunno about, 'Hello, misery,' that's a bit weird."

So we changed it to, "Hello, it's me."

- Just, like, so had goosebumps.

I have goosebumps just thinking about it.

Just such an iconic moment in her career.

- 'Cause I thought no one would know it was me.

But thank God they did.

- [Narrator] When the video for "Hello" was released, it was viewed over 27 million times in 24 hours.

- I've gotta be honest with you, this is an exclusive for you guys, it was so painful making that video when I'm standing on the pond.

♪ Hello from the other side - [Narrator] As can be seen in the video of "Hello," the singer was blasted by wind machines, which blew leaves into her eyes.

Despite the discomfort, she manages to carry on singing.

- [Adele] And all these leaves be coming, and I'd be like, "Stop!

Stop!"

- [Narrator] The video for "Hello" has now been viewed over three billion times.

- Even Oprah Winfrey mentioned the three billion views on it.

She was like, "Three billion?

That's insane!"

I mean, that is.

How do you even compute three billion views on just one video?

It's crazy.

- [Narrator] There was no doubt Adele was now an international singing star, but an appearance on a British TV show was about to turn her into a beloved national treasure too, with a very British sense of humour.

[gentle whimsical music] In 2015, Adele tribute act, Katie Markham was invited to perform, along with several other Adele tribute acts for a possible new BBC show hosted by Graham Norton.

- We were told that it was a pilot show, and it was just a celebration of the artist that we portray.

- [Narrator] But unbeknownst to the other lookalikes, Adele herself would also be performing, pretending that she too was a tribute act.

And to do this, she was completely transformed by a convincing disguise.

- Got a fake chin, a fake nose, and she's drawn my lips smaller.

- She called herself Jenny.

So she changed her accent.

She spoke a lot slower.

- Also, my day job is I'm a nanny.

So nannies talk very slow and very calm.

- Adele discovered her comedy bones on Graham Norton.

And then she suddenly comes out as a comedian.

She's suddenly there, false nose, crazy little thing.

- [Narrator] None of the other Adeles suspected a thing.

- So I went out, performed, and then sat down in the auditorium.

And one by one, all the other people came out.

And then the next minute, as they introduced Jenny onto the stage, all the cameras were in front of me.

So I was like, "Oh, my God.

Something's going on here."

- It is only when she steps to the mic herself, you know that that voice will only come from her, and nobody else can really impersonate that.

She can't be impersonated.

♪ When the rain is blowing in your face ♪ - Did "Make You Feel My Love."

Bob Dylan song.

Great choice of song.

But when she does it, it doesn't sound anything like Bob.

And she just effortlessly sang this.

♪ And the whole world is on your case ♪ - You are joking.

- That is her.

- It's not.

- It is.

- And it's the look on their faces when they start to realise that's Adele, that's actually Adele.

And they're kind of looking at each other and they're like, "That's Adele up there singing."

- There's expletives.

And they're all just, the moment of realisation and they realise actually that it's her.

♪ I could make you happy, make your dreams come true ♪ - Aw.

I'm getting all emotional.

- And then everyone's, obviously, in tears and screaming, and they can't believe it.

It was very much an acknowledgment of how famous she was, but at the same time, playing the game of just being normal.

- The fact that she put herself in there and just joined in with us all and just had such a good laugh, it's amazing.

And Adele was exactly how I thought she would be.

She was really humble.

She was really down to earth.

A little bit of a chatterbox, like the rest of us.

And she really, really, really made an effort with us.

- [Narrator] This clip of Adele on the show with Graham Norton has now had over 100 million views.

Adele is now a national treasure, as famous for her sense of mischief and humour as for her voice.

And she would need all her skills to pull off her next great moment.

[majestic orchestral music] [majestic orchestral music] Adele's life has been a series of extraordinary moments, but one of the greatest of all was an event that is the pinnacle of most artists' careers.

Adele had largely managed to remain absent from the festival circuit, as she was simply too frightened to perform in front of such huge crowds.

- Adele had never done festivals before.

She gets stage fright.

Festivals are massive, and also, at a festival, there's very little control.

- I get really nervous.

Doesn't feel that comfortable being on a stage, with a massive spotlight, with people wanting to be entertained.

I never think I'm gonna live up to it.

- Quite a lot of stars have stage fright.

And I think one of the biggest fears of hers was Glastonbury.

I mean, that is, obviously, so huge.

- [Narrator] But in 2016, after watching Kanye West perform the year before, she finally accepted a request to appear on Glastonbury's legendary Pyramid Stage, a decision that Adele has claimed became the best moment of her life.

- I remember it was a really muddy year, so it was kind of one of those years where you're just on a fast track to trench foot.

And it was that point in the weekend, the Saturday night, the mud had just congealed, and so every step was just so tiring.

- [Narrator] Headlining the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury is an honour bestowed on only the most successful of stars.

- To headline the Pyramid, there's always a balance.

You're either a Paul McCartney, a Neil Young, a legend of that ilk.

Generally, American artists just think of it as another festival and they're doing it for the exposure.

They don't realise how central this is to British people's hearts.

Adele totally realised that because she'd been to Glastonbury herself many times.

She knows what a big deal it is.

- [Narrator] In this hilarious clip, Adele talks candidly about the brutal, but surprisingly effective way, seasoned Glastonbury headliner Coldplay's Chris Martin, helped her prepare.

- I spoke to Chris yesterday, actually, and I cried a lot.

I was like, "Ah!

I'm really emotional about it."

Well, he said, "This is the worst things that could happen.

"Your sound will probably cut out for you, "but don't worry about that 'cause it happens to everyone.

"If it rains, you will fall over "in front of potentially 100,000 people.

"Someone will try and throw something at you, "but it won't be spiteful, they'll just be off their face."

That's what he said.

So, wahey, goals!

Hype!

[laughs] - Thanks, Chris.

- [Narrator] Before the set started, the singer's closed eyes lit up the screen behind the stage.

In a dramatic and much anticipated moment, her eyes opened as she took her entrance to the words of "Hello."

♪ Hello, it's me - To stand on that stage in front, of what, 140,000 people?

140,000 people.

Imagine how nervous she was.

- I've done that main stage at Glastonbury, and it's terrifying really.

But she fronts it out and she doesn't look nervous on stage, but you know that it must be.

It can go two ways, and you've gotta get it going the right way.

You gotta go get it going your way, but she manages to do that.

And I think she manages to do that consistently.

- [Narrator] It wasn't long before Adele settled into her set, and, as this clip shows, it appeared that her nerves had fallen away, as she confidently addressed the crowd.

- This is the best [beeps] moment of my whole life!

- [Narrator] As Adele sang a note-perfect rendition of "Hello," she even changed one of the lyrics to say, "I've been Glastonbury dreaming," ♪ I'm in Glastonbury dreaming about who I used to be ♪ prompting a huge roar of appreciation.

- I remember thinking, "Wow, she's done that so perfectly.

"I mean, it's absolutely got all the emotion across, "but the hitting the right notes at the same time.

- [Narrator] It looked like Adele had overcome her fear of festivals and her profile continued to grow.

She was named one of the most influential people in the world, by none other than Time magazine.

[rousing music] [camera shutter whirring] - Time magazine, you generally associate with, you know, it would be someone like Obama, or people who've profoundly changed the discourse of American life.

So when Adele goes on the cover of Time magazine, that suggests that she's something more than a pop star.

- Where do you go from that?

Outta space?

That is such life-changing, global success.

There's a very small pool of people that know what it's like to be on the cover of Time.

We're talking like Adele and Obama.

[laughs] That's a really amazing thing to happen.

- I think she just looks so chic.

So grown up, so classy, and fashionista with her red jacket and the red lip.

She's come into to her own.

- America's are famously insular in terms of their own culture.

To have someone outside of that is almost like Time magazine is trying to say what really matters.

- [Narrator] Adele had moved from being a down-to-earth personality and award-winning singer-songwriter, to a cultural doyenne.

She was now so much more than a performer.

And she was about to capture the public's hearts once again, when, one rainy London day, she hitched a ride with James Gordon.

[gentle whimsical music] - There's 250 million hits and counting, that people have seen that little video of her and James Corden in the car.

- [Narrator] In 2016, Adele agreed to join James Corden for a "Carpool Karaoke" drive around London, as part of his CBS "Late Late Show."

- [Adele] Hello.

- Oh, thanks for this.

[audience cheering] I appreciate it.

It's gonna be fun.

- It's gonna be fun.

- Now, it was the perfect balance, really, because James Corden has sold himself on being the ordinary bloke.

He was at the height of his fame, she was at the height of her fame, but still, both seemed quite normal.

And they're British.

And also, the other thing that Adele could do, is that she could laugh at herself.

- Oh.

- Oh, no.

- Oh, I've got a new coat out of the budget today- - We've got- - And now it's ruined.

- A tea situation.

- [laughs] You're driving.

What are you doing?

- And there's one point where they go over a bump and she spills the tea on a coat, and she makes a joke about how she bought herself a brand new coat with the budget.

And she's like, "Oh, God.

I've dropped my tea on my coat."

So then she's like, "Hold on a minute."

And she just necks all the tea.

- I'll down it.

- It's all right, no one's gonna see it.

[audience laughing] [James laughing] [audience cheering] - Whoa, whoa, whoa!

- She spilled tea on herself.

What's more British than tea, you know?

But it showed to the Americans, 'cause Americans love relatability, at the same time as all that professionalism and everything.

And they're not just seeing the glamorous singer, they're also seeing the barmaid within.

- She doesn't hold that.

She's not afraid.

She'll do anything for a laugh.

And she's really talented.

She can do all the different accents and voices and rap.

And you know, little hidden gems in there.

- [Narrator] Her word-perfect rendition of Kanye West's 2010 track "Monster" featuring Nicki Minaj, really caught people's attention.

♪ First thing first, I eat your brains ♪ ♪ Then I'ma start rockin' gold teeth and fangs ♪ ♪ 'Cause that's what a [beeps] monster do ♪ ♪ Hairdresser from Milan, that's the monster 'do ♪ - It's really hard to rap, you know?

She kind of takes on this Nicki Minaj rap and just comes out with it.

And we are used to her singing something completely different.

And it's like, "Oh, okay.

Cool.

"What can't you do?"

- I think that really changed how people saw and felt about her.

That she was funny, that she was relatable.

She wasn't just this singer on a pedestal.

- [Narrator] Although Adele was now seen as so much more than just a singer, singing was still what she did best.

And there was no stopping the endless award ceremonies, where she tended to win everything.

[dramatic music] At the 59th Grammy Awards in 2017, Adele won all five of her nominations.

Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album for "25," Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance for "Hello."

- When she got all of those Grammys that year, I was so proud 'cause it was like you feel as though it's one of us.

But seeing her loaded with Grammys, "I thought this is great."

There was nobody I would rather see with an armful of Grammys than her.

- [Narrator] But although she'd won nearly every award going, in typical down-to-earth Adele fashion, she thought Beyonce deserved the Album of the Year award more than she did.

- For me, my album of the year was "Lemonade."

So a piece of me did die inside as a Beyonce fan, I'm not gonna lie.

'Cause I was completely rooting for her.

I voted for her.

She is my icon of my whole life.

And I am, of course, very, very grateful having won it.

But I felt the need because I love her because I felt like she was more than worthy.

- She's just like giving it all back to Beyonce.

And, "I love you and you're monumental."

And she just loves her so much.

And Beyonce is like, "No, it's your moment."

But, yeah, that's Adele.

- [Narrator] As well as being a huge fan of Beyonce, Adele had some other female idols a bit closer to home who she'd adored since childhood, the Spice Girls.

[gentle whimsical music] - When I was about 10, I used to do Spice Girl concerts in my living room for dinner parties, whatever, you know.

When they'd all had a few glasses of wine, I'd bribe them into coming into my room for a fiver.

- I think people think that Adele was always like a bluesy singer, soulful singer, but actually, she liked Spice Girls and 5ive, and all of the teenyboppy things in the '90s, just like the best of us.

- The thing about Spice Girls is that they were completely manufactured, but they were really fun, very British.

They did that song "Mama," it's basically about how much they loved their mums.

- [Narrator] So when Adele finally had the opportunity to meet her icons in 2019, it was a dream come true.

- So Adele says one of the most exciting moments of her career and life, was meeting the Spice Girls at their reunion concert at Wembley Arena.

- [Narrator] Adele shared some hilarious footage online of her effortlessly belting out the Spice Girls' hit "Stop" on the way to the concert.

From Adele's word-perfect rendition in the back of the car, it's clear she's still a huge fan of the girls.

♪ Racing so hard you know it won't last ♪ - I was at that concert, and I can confirm it was also one of the best moments of my life.

And if you are a girl growing up in the '90s, you couldn't not love the Spice Girls.

Girl power.

- Doesn't matter how big she's got, she's still gonna look up to the Spice Girls.

They were a massive influence for her.

And that's what we do, for people that we've loved from a young age, we sort of never get over that.

So it's a real amazing moment for her to finally meet them.

- [Narrator] Record-breaking albums, Grammys, MBEs, Adele seemed to have the lot, so where on earth would she go next?

For a while, she disappeared again.

And then, after several years away from the spotlight, Adele made a dramatic comeback.

[gentle piano music] On the 14th of November, 2021, Adele performed at the legendary Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, in front of a star-studded audience.

- She's back on television.

I think it's very, very important for Adele to reconnect with her fans.

It's going back to singing in front of an audience, of people who want to feel that connection, that's really, really at the heart of what Adele does.

- [Narrator] For Adele, the most important part of her performance at the Griffith Observatory was being able to sing to her nine-year-old son, Angelo, for the first time in public.

- For the first time, Angelo saw her perform.

I think that must be a very special moment because your child is growing up and they're going to start to recognise your mum isn't just your mum, his mum belongs to everyone.

♪ There's a fire starting in my heart ♪ ♪ Reaching a fever pitch and bringing me out the dark ♪ - [Narrator] Adele sang her heart out to him, as she powerfully performed her hit song, "Rolling in the Deep."

The emotionally charged lyrics and heartfelt performance left her audience stunned and delighted.

She then went on to directly address her son, Angelo, in a touching and very personal speech.

- This is the first time that my son has ever seen me perform.

But it's the absolute honour of my life, baby, to have you here tonight.

And you look so beautiful and so handsome and smart.

[audience cheering] [audience applauding] - [Narrator] Adele may have appeared back on American screens, but in the UK, there was no sign of her.

And some were wondering if she'd ever return.

[majestic orchestral music] After a few years away from the spotlight, Adele had made a glamorous return to stardom in the US, and now she was back in the UK.

[dramatic music] - The first big thing she did in the UK was the "Audience With" for ITV.

She'd wanted to do that for years and years and years.

- [Narrator] Adele appeared in the now legendary "An Audience With," at the London Palladium.

- It was the sort of hottest gig in town, and everyone was there.

Everyone who was anyone was flying in to see this gig.

And I think it would've been a lot of pressure for her.

And also, it's in her hometown, London.

The Palladium, what an amazing, amazing venue to play.

The Palladium never kind of gets old.

I don't think you ever get over playing at the Palladium.

- [Narrator] The 90-minute television show was filled with moments that were heartfelt, entertaining, and of course, hilarious, including the part where she introduced herself to Idris Elba.

- Idris?

- Hey!

- Oi!

Oi!

[audience cheering] Hello!

My name's Adele.

- Hello, darling.

- Adele, Adele.

- How are you?

- I'm good.

How are you?

- Oh, my God.

- The key to understanding Adele is that she's very, very special, but very normal at the same time.

- [Narrator] The event was packed with celebrity guests, from Emma Thompson and Alan Carr to Idris Elba and Stormzy.

- All of her celebrity friends and loads of famous faces were there, so watching the show was like a who's who.

Like, "Oh, there's Emma Thompson.

"Oh, there's Alan Carr.

"Oh, there's blah, blah."

She just looked like she had so much fun with it.

And to have so many icons in the audience was just an incredible moment for her.

- [Narrator] And then there was the now infamous moment when Adele was reunited with her year eight English teacher, Ms. McDonald.

- She remembered all about her, and you could see that connection.

And you just realised what a profound impact teachers have.

- [Ms. McDonald] Hello, my darling.

Hello.

- Hello.

- [Ms. McDonald] Oh, my God.

I'm so proud of you.

- I didn't know that you were coming.

- [Ms. McDonald] That's okay.

It's supposed to be a surprise.

- Simone was not somebody that you forgot.

She was that teacher that, although she taught English, she realised that young people needed more than just academic subjects.

We can all relate to having that one teacher that made a big difference in our life.

And actually, Simone McDonald was that person that had helped and influenced Adele.

- [Narrator] At the end of 2021, when it seemed she couldn't get any bigger, Adele released her record-breaking single, "Easy on Me."

[upbeat piano music] - She was just back with that huge anthemic track, "Easy on Me."

It went to number one all over the world.

Such a powerhouse, incredible moment.

- [Narrator] "Easy on Me" became the most streamed single of all time.

It was listened to nearly 24 million times on its first day alone.

In this heartwarming song, Adele is addressing her nine-year-old son, Angelo, explaining her divorce from his father, and asking him to go easy on her.

Her video uses black and white to express melancholy and sadness, and then merges to colour, to represent new life and new hope.

♪ Go easy on me, baby - And he said that she wrote it because she wants her son, Angelo, to be able to listen to it and to be able to understand why her and his dad, Simon, split up and how she's feeling.

- She'd had a really, really hard time.

The divorce with Simon Konecki, then adjusting to being a single mum, and co-parenting.

- You have to kind of go to that moment where you were when you wrote the song.

So it's obviously really emotional, can be very heartbreaking.

So often, the voice does the little wobble where it kind of cracks, and actually, those moments can be the most amazing, beautiful, effective, emotive moments in the performance.

- "Easy on Me" was really saying, "I'm still going through everything "that everyone else goes through.

The key is to kind of, if she speaks honestly, then "Easy on Me" is relatable to other people.

- [Narrator] When Adele released the accompanying album, "30," it went on to become the best-selling album of the year.

- I think she's more accomplished.

I think she's got better at knowing how to translate this into this.

I think there's more to her voice now than ever before.

And if you did an analysis of note by note where Adele is singing within her own range, I think that she's moved it down, slightly, played it slightly safer.

It's a slightly more mature approach in "Easy on Me" than she was taking in her earlier albums, and I think that's really sensible 'cause I want to have a long career.

- [Narrator] But at the start of 2022, that long career hit a major bump in the road.

[thoughtful music] Adele was due to begin a Las Vegas residency at the Coliseum at Caesar's Palace.

But the day before it was due to start, she announced it was postponed.

- Adele has postponed her 24-show residency at the Caesar's Palace Hotel in Las Vegas a day before it was due to begin.

In a tearful message posted on social media, the singer blamed delivery delays and said half of her crew have COVID.

She said she felt embarrassed, and promised to reschedule the concerts.

- [Narrator] But true to form, Adele rose from the ashes of her cancelled concerts.

She was back, and she was winning awards.

[emotive piano music] - It was sort of Adele night at the Brits.

And winning the big prize, the Album of the Year, which is the big one.

- [Narrator] Adele won three Brit Awards.

Song of the Year for "Easy On Me," Artist of the Year, and Album of the Year.

She dedicated the awards to her son, Angelo, and ex-husband, Simon, in an emotional and unguarded speech, which touched the audience.

- I'd like to dedicate this award to my son, [audience cheering] and to Simon, to his dad, this album was all of our journey, not just mine.

And I'm very proud of myself for sticking to my guns and putting out an album that was about something so personal to me.

- I felt like, with the 2022 Brits, it was just a foregone conclusion that, of course, she was gonna win, it was quite clear.

And her performance was so assured.

She got up there like the international artist that she is.

There's just such a kind of swagger to her singing now.

It's amazing to see.

- I was there at the Brits and I was in the audience watching it, and her performance was easily the performance of the night.

It's just her in a wonderful gold sequin dress, sitting on top of a grand piano.

Everything was sparkling and twinkling kind of gold.

- [Narrator] Adele sang her moving, yet catchy new power ballad, "I Drink Wine," which asks big questions about life.

She sings about the struggles in a relationship and the efforts that go into making it work.

♪ Whoa ♪ I hope I learn to get over myself ♪ - I definitely feel like her technique has got so much better as she's gone along.

You can see it she's a lot more in control of her voice.

She knows her voice a lot better.

You know, she's using stylistic tools like twang to kinda get the grit and the point of the song across.

She's moving her dictions better, her breathing's better, and she just seems a lot more in control of her voice.

♪ But the higher we climb ♪ Feels like we're both none the wiser ♪ - It was an astounding performance.

It was Adele at her best.

It was Adele that people just dropped to their knees and fall for.

She just took that programme to another level.

- [Narrator] So what's next musically for the woman with one of the most famous voices on the planet?

- I can't see her sort of crashing and burning anytime soon.

I think she'll just go on, I hope, to make record after record, after record.

- Adele has had this ability all through her life and all through her career to connect with her own story and time and emotion and get that over to an audience.

And it doesn't matter what stage of life she's at, I think she is always gonna have that wonderful ability.

And I'm really interested to see where she goes with that.

- The reason people like Adele is because she does seem like us, but blessed with this incredible voice and this ability to sound like she's had her heart broken 10 times over.

An ability to express all these emotions that everyone feels