Adele

Adkins was the daughter of a young single mother and was raised in various working-class London neighbourhoods. As a young girl, she enjoyed singing contemporary pop songs and also learning to play guitar and the clarinet. She came across Etta, a mid-century rhythm-and blues vocalist, in her teens and began to consider a career as musician. While she honed her talents at a government-funded secondary school for the performing arts, a friend started posting songs Adkins wrote and recorded onto the social networking site Myspace. Her work was quickly discovered by record labels and was signed to a deal with XL Recordings in 2006.