Adele recently sat down with 60 Minutes Australia for an interview, and as part of the show, she also sang “When We Were Young,” the album track that she co-wrote with young singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr., live in a studio.
WHEN Liz Hayes sat down with Adele, one of the most successful singers of our time, she wasn’t expecting such an emotional and candid interview.
The British singer-songwriter, who soared to fame after the release of her debut album 19 in 2008, has since landed an astonishing 10 Grammys, four Brit awards, an Oscar and a Golden Globe. She’s already on track to become a billionaire by the age of 30, but admits there’s never been a time that she hasn’t felt nervous or unsure of herself.
“There was quite a long period where I didn’t believe in myself,” the 27-year-old star told Hayes in the exclusive 60 Minutes interview. “I’m waiting for someone to send me back to Tottenham or something.”
Despite already having two hugely successful albums under her belt, and with her long-awaited third album, 25, released last week, the Rolling In The Deep singer said it’s only now that she feels like she’s taking control of her life. “For the first time in my entire life I feel like I’m dealing with myself,” she told Hayes, adding that she was an “emotional wreck” and was paranoid about disappointing her fans with her latest album.
Hayes, who spent several days with Adele in London while she was recording 25, says the young woman she got to know is incredibly hard on herself and felt immense pressure to succeed after taking several years off.
Adele’s years away from the spotlight coincided with an operation to remove a benign polyp on her vocal cords in 2011. The next year she made a spectacular comeback, winning an Oscar for her Bond theme song, Skyfall.
Hayes added: “Adele has struck success from the get-go and even she finds it hard to believe. She feels the pressure because she was so successful so early, she felt pressure to maintain great work and so that’s why she felt so very nervous about releasing this album, she was just so worried that it wasn’t going to be up to everybody’s expectations.”
The TV presenter said her time with Adele left her with no doubt that the singer is uncomfortable with the notion of being a ‘celebrity’.
