Adele Releases ‘Hello,’ Gives Advice To 20-Somethings, And Talks Life Changes That Come With Adulthood

Adele recently announced her return to music with her first album in nearly five years. Today, the British singer-songwriter revealed the music video for “Hello,” which will be the first single from her album 25.

According to many fans, including Kate Hudson and Katy Perry, Adele’s new song “Hello” was well worth the wait.

We agree — Adele’s new song is fantastic. But how exactly has the now 27-year-old songstress been doing since she released her last album, 21, in 2011? Of course, we know she released the theme song for Skyfall in 2012.

Where her personal life is concerned, we know she’s had a baby with partner and fiancé Simon Konecki in October of 2012, and we know that the family moved into a countryside mansion in West Sussex.

It would seem that Adele has achieved some of the traditional milestones reached by women everywhere — a steady relationship, motherhood, career success — but according to a recent interview given by Adele, the highlights don’t even begin to scratch the surface of some of the feelings and emotions she’s dealt with since her 2011 album release.

And believe it or not, it seems as if some of the struggles faced by the superstar musician really aren’t all that different from the average 20-something who is learning and adjusting to adulthood. In fact, in an interview on Siriux XM, Adele’s experience sounds totally relatable. Recently, Adele said, she came to a crossroads and had to make big decisions about where her life was going to go next. In that process, she had to leave some things and some people behind.

“I’m at a turning point in my life when I’m really moving on, and I want to take some of my past with me. And I can’t, in some cases, because everyone’s got lives, and everyone moved on. Me and all of my friends, …[we’re] at the end of the crossroads. You need to decide which road you want to go down — and although we get to take each other down the road, we don’t get to take [everybody], because we’ve got our own lives going on.”

Adele went on to add, “And I feel incredibly nostalgic, since I’ve turned 25. I’ve become even more emotional — though I’ve always been emotional, I’m an emotional wreck, clearly.’ ”

https://instagram.com/p/9JG27VgfMm/?taken-by=adele

Admittedly, Adele has a penchant for the dramatic, and as such presents her newest work with a bit of melodrama. In making the announcement for her newest album, the Grammy-award winning singer wrote a note to fans, which she posted on Facebook. In that note, Adele wrote,

“My last record was a break-up record and if I had to label this one I would call it a make-up record. I’m making up with myself. Making up for lost time. Making up for everything I ever did and never did. But I haven’t got time to hold on to the crumbs of my past like I used to. What’s done is done. Turning 25 was a turning point for me, slap bang in the middle of my twenties. Teetering on the edge of being an old adolescent and a fully-fledged adult, I made the decision to go into becoming who I’m going to be forever without a removal van full of my old junk. I miss everything about my past, the good and the bad, but only because it won’t come back.”

In her Sirius XM interview, Adele addressed the feeling of waiting to grow up, saying:

“I realized when I was 25, that ‘Okay, I’m pretty much legal to do anything now, I can do whatever I want, so what is there to look forward to?’ I thought of it in a very adolescent way — that never being able to do anything was quite exciting.”

In an article written for USA Today, Maeve McDermott praises Adele’s ability to clearly and concisely describe the situation and emotions faced by those in their early 20s who are awkwardly transitioning to adulthood. McDermott wrote,

“In a pair of new interviews Friday morning, Adele revealed more about the period of her life that inspired her new collection of songs, and man, she gets it, articulating feelings that nearly every 20-something has felt at one time or another.”

Hasn’t that always been the way of Adele, though? It’s more than just the songstress’ soulful voice that tugs at the emotions of her fans — her ability to package and evoke emotion is beyond compare.

Fans have high hopes for Adele’s upcoming album, 25, and if her interviews are any indication, her most recent work could just live up to the hype.

And if her newest work is any indication, we could just answer the question of what Adele’s been doing by saying she’s been perfecting her work.

Check out the video for Adele’s newest song, “Hello,” here:

What do you think of Adele’s new single, “Hello?” Do you love it? Hate it? Why?

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images Entertainment]