Adele

Adkins was born to a single mother of just a few years who was raised in various working class London areas. Adkins enjoyed listening to current pop music while she was young and was learning to play the clarinet as well as the guitar. She discovered Etta an early-mid-century rhythm-and- blues vocalist, in her teens and began to consider a career as a musician. She was studying at a secondary school for the visual and performing arts, which was funded by the federal government. A friend uploaded songs Adkins composed on Myspace. Her music eventually attracted the attention of record companies and, in 2006, several months after graduating, she signed a contract with XL Recordings.