Adele: How Raw Heartbreak Conquered the Auto-Tune Era

At 14, Adele Laurie Blue Adkins bought Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald CDs simply because the covers looked cool, then listened for an hour a night to get to know her own voice. This deep dive explores how a girl raised in Tottenham by a single mother, who suffered stage fright, homesickness and a fear of flying, became a phenomenon who sold over 120 million records and revived physical album sales in the streaming era.We follow her from the BRIT School and a debut, 19, that struggled in America, through the pivotal 2008 SNL performance opposite Sarah Palin, to the country-influenced juggernaut 21 and beyond. We break down her vocal cord surgery, her Sasha Carter alter ego, her Glastonbury panic attack, and her refusal to sanitize her struggles or chase constant relevance.How a tense chest mix technique led to a vocal cord hemorrhage and surgeryWhy she canceled a US tour and later called it her early life crisisThe SNL night that sent 19 to the top of the iTunes charts overnightStopping the 2017 Grammys tribute to George Michael to restart the songAnnouncing an indefinite break to simply live a little bit