Adele Laurie Blue Adkins ( ə-DEL; born 5 May 1988) is an English singer and songwriter. Regarded as a British cultural icon, she is known for her mezzo-soprano vocals and sentimental songwriting. Her accolades include 16 Grammy Awards, 12 Brit Awards (including three for British Album of the Year), an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award. After graduating from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a record deal with XL Recordings. Her debut album, 19 (2008), included the UK top-five singles "Chasing Pavements" and "Make You Feel My Love", becoming one of best-selling debut albums ever in the UK. She received the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Her second studio album, 21 (2011), became the best-selling album of the 21st century. 21 holds the record for the top-performing album in US chart history, topping the Billboard 200 for 24 weeks, with the singles "Rolling in the Deep", "Someone like You", and "Set Fire to the Rain" heading charts worldwide and becoming her signature songs. The album received a record-tying six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. In 2012, Adele released "Skyfall", a soundtrack single for the James Bond film Skyfall, which won her the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Her third studio album, 25 (2015), broke first-week sales records in both the UK and US. In the US, it became the first album to sell over three million copies in a week. 25 earned her five Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year. The lead single, "Hello", achieved huge success worldwide. Her fourth studio album, 30 (2021), contains "Easy on Me", which won her a Grammy Award in 2023. 25 and 30 became the best-selling albums worldwide, including the US and the UK, in 2015 and 2021, respectively. Adele is one of the world's best-selling music artists, with sales of over 120 million records worldwide. The best-selling female artist of the 21st century in the UK, she was named the best-selling artist of the 2010s in the US. Her studio albums 21 and 25 were the top two best-selling albums of the 2010s in the UK and both are listed among the best-selling albums in UK chart history, while in the US both are certified Diamond, the most of any artist who debuted in the 21st century. As of 2024, all of her studio albums, except 19, have topped the yearly best-selling albums chart worldwide in the 21st century.