I have loved Adele ever since she was a “You Oughtta Know” Artist on VH1 when her single “Chasing Pavements” debuted. Her increasingly impressive vocal range and somber tone haunted me to the point of shivers, even at my young age. In fact, I couldn’t get enough of her voice, and I waited patiently for the next single. And the next. And the next.
And, claim all you want that Beyoncé’s the Queen, but I will forever go down with my ship that Adele is better.
So. Much. Better.
Personally, Beyoncé’s voice has no depth. Adele’s does. Her consistent vibrato and interchanging glissandos and portamentos provide her with that consistent range I spoke about a few sentences ago (I was an all-star musician in high school, so sue me for knowing my musical lingo).
But, let’s not focus on how Adele consistently uses a better variation of instrumentation than Beyoncé – or anyone today, for that matter – to showcase her superiority. Instead, let us use Adele’s humor and an “I’m fine with my life” attitude to prove this.
Take, for example, Adele rapping Nicki Minaj’s “Monster” in “Carpool Karaoke” with James Cordon:
Or her willingness to play along with Ellen DeGeneres by pranking Jamba Juice employees:
And that one time she impersonated an impersonator at a BBC audition:
What could it be that makes her so great? As a Plus-Sized woman, I find myself striving to be like her. To have her “humbility” and dedication. To have her wit and determination.
I mean, even when the woman was diagnosed with throat cancer, she came back like a bomb-ass bitch.
And I mean that in the most endearing way possible, because the woman is frikkin’ amazing. And, sure, she *USED TO* smoke and cusses like the sailor on the real Titanic probably did when he realized that he’d been screwing around too much to notice the huge-ass iceberg in the dead center of the cruise ship’s path, but I personally take that as part of her charm.
So I’ve come to this conclusion: Adele’s awesome because she’s British.
Yes, that’s right. She’s great because she’s from somewhere else.
But, I can tell you, as someone who has met and knows a few British people, I’ve learned that their humor is not just dry, but is actually pretty funny. And they’re a lot more accepting of things in culture than we as Americans are.
And let’s not forget their love of tea.
But I’m serious when I say this. For years, the entertainment world has been partially dominated by people either hailing from Britain or from a territory they had. Names like Emma Watson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Ellie Goulding and more are all becoming more and more well-known.
Adele was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone a while back (okay, so it wasn’t too far back, but still), and her true personality shone through the whole thing. The woman, who has no problem saying exactly what she feels when she feels it, still has a subtle quality of caring hidden under the tough facade.
I don’t know, maybe I like her so much because she reminds me of myself. Except for the whole great voice part. Now, you hand me a sheet of flute music and tell me to play it I could probably get it right within a few hours, and the flute IS technically considered the closest musical instrument to the human voice, so maybe if I stretch the logic enough…
No, I’m kidding.
I’ll never be anywhere as great of a person as Adele. But I can still appreciate her awesome-ness from afar, and hope that one day I can say that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her – or at least seeing her in concert.