Adele is back after her four-year hiatus. The British singer has been breaking records ever since her new video for “Hello” was released on Friday, Oct. 23. Adele managed to become the new Queen of Pop in less than 24 hours, much less than Taylor Swift managed to do in about a year.
Taylor Swift has been breaking records with the sales of her 1989 album and with her singles, “Shake It Off,” “Bad Blood,” and “Wildest Dreams.” She also held the record for having the most views in a 24 hour span for her “Bad Blood,” which she heavily promoted during the month of May, leading up to its premiere at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards.
Adele hardly promoted her “Hello” video and it’s already shattering records. After coming out of hiding to create an Instagram account and to announce her comeback, Adele and her new video has already gotten over 25 million views on YouTube. The sepia-toned video shows beautiful shots of Adele singing in a forest and looking at her flip-phone, wondering why her love interest (played by Tristan Wilds) hasn’t returned her calls. There are also shots of the 90210 alum and The Wire star smiling and laughing during his good times with Adele.
Just hours after the video was released on Friday, it received over 23 million views in under 24 hours, and has already surpassed Swift’s record of 20.1 million views in 24 hours for “Bad Blood.” It goes to show that Adele didn’t need heavy promotion or a star-studded video to captivate her audience.
If it feels like female pop singers have been competing with each other for the sake of YouTube/VEVO records, it’s because they have. According to Much Music, Taylor’s “Bad Blood” video stole the crown from Nick Minaj’s “Anaconda” video, which had 19.6 million views in a 24-hour span. Prior to Minaj’s controversial video, Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” video held the record with 19.3 million.
Although Adele currently holds the 24 hour VEVO record for now, there are fans who are wondering if she’ll steal another of Swift’s record. Four days ago, “Blank Space” became the most-watched VEVO video of all time, according to Billboard. It’ll be interesting to see if “Hello” will quickly catch up. Not only was Swift the reigning Queen of Pop, but she also became the Queen of the Internet thanks to her social media posts. While Swift attracts her fans with her Instagram photos and Tumblr posts, Adele attracts people with her emotional ballads and enchanting lyrics.
The blue-eyed soulful singer could also snatch Taylor Swift’s current record by as selling as many albums as Britney Spears’ Oops! I Did It Again. Taylor nearly missed Britney’s record by selling 1.287 million units in its first week. Britney still retains her Billboard record for selling 1.319 million records in its first week, which is also the all-time high for a female artist during the Nielsen SoundScan era. Taylor’s 1989 remains as the best-selling album of 2014, and quite possibly the year 2015, if Adele doesn’t get in her way.
In a world where now streaming music on Apple Music and Spotify now counts as part of album sales, Adele can save the music industry out of its sales slump, according to a report via Fortune.
“In the world of Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music, artists who can actually convince the public to pay money for music—either in physical media like CDs or vinyl records, or digitally through iTunes or another music store—are few and far between. There are only five artists who can pull off such a feat consistently: Adele, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Katy Perry, and Rihanna.”
It’s likely 25 won’t sell as well as 21 since consumers are streaming music these days. But, just from the interest shown, it’s clear Adele’s next album is expected to sell well, which is hard to do in the year 2015.
What are your thoughts on Adele’s “Hello” video? Do you think she’ll break all of Taylor Swift’s records? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.
[Photos by Jason Merritt/Getty Images and Christopher Polk/Getty Images]