Adele Reigns As Billboard Artist Of Year For Second Year, Also Tops iTunes

Adele has triumphed again as Billboard’s 2012 “Artist of the Year.”

Billboardannounced on Friday that Adele is 2012’s biggest artist and that her diamond 21 album is the year’s top album.

It’s the second year in a row that the British singer has achieved this milestone. In 2011, Adele also became Billboard’s top artist with 21 crowned as the best selling album.

Adele is also Billboard’s top female artist.

After releasing 21 — her second album — in February 2011, the album went on to deliver six Grammy Awards in 2012 including “Album of the Year.”

Those multiple Grammy’s propelled Adele into a joint record she holds with Beyonce for most Grammy trophies won in a single night by a female artist.

Certified 16 times platinum in the UK and occupying the top spot on the UK and US charts longer than any album since 1985, 21 is an undisputed success story.

After first and second singles — “Rolling in the Deep” and “Someone Like You” — were released in 2011, Adele’s third release “Set Fire to the Rain” became her third number one single in the US,which made Billboard history in January this year.

In addition, Adele is the first female in Billboard’s history to have two albums in the top five of the Billboard 200 album chart while also having two singles in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously.

Last month, Adele’s label XLreported that 21 delivered profits of $67 million in 2011.

Rolling Stone magazine reports that 21 has topped iTunes’ annual list of the best-selling albums for the second year in a row. Results were determined based on sales between January 1 and December 3 of this year.

Following successful surgery in November 2011 for a vocal-cord hemorrhage and the birth of her son this October, being named Billboard’s 2012 artist of the year is surely the icing on the cake for this talented 24-year-old.