Adele

Adkins was raised by a single young mother in various working-class communities of London. As a young girl she was fond of singing contemporary pop songs and also learning to play guitar and the clarinet. It wasn't until her teens that she was introduced to Etta James, a blues and rhythm performer, as well as other artists in the late 20th century which was when she began thinking about a future career in music. As she learned in a secondary school for performing arts that was funded by the government when a friend began uploading songs Adkins had written onto Myspace. The site was soon contacted by record companies and signed an agreement with XL Recordings in 2006.