Image Source: Getty / Scott Legato [1]
Adele [2]'s highly anticipated album 30 [3] has been teased since early 2020 [4] and her fans (myself included) have been waiting for it. The album is an emotional look into the Grammy Award-winning artist's divorce from Simon Konecki in 2019 [5] when she was 30 years old. Given the timeline, Adele recently admitted that she was very close to not releasing the project [6] and moving forward with a different album to reflect her current state of mind at 33. "If it wasn't coming out now, I think I probably would never put it out," she told Rolling Stone. "I know I would've changed my mind and been like, 'It's moved on. Let's start the next album,'" Adele said in reference to her healing from divorce and her new relationship with Rich Paul [7]. "And I couldn't do that to this album. I feel like it deserves to come out." Yes, yes it does! It comes out 19 Nov., to be exact.
But Adele also told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 on 17 Nov. that she wanted the album to come out even earlier [8] — particularly in 2020. "I wanted it to come out last year, obviously," she said. "And, when I drunkedly [sic] announced it at my best friend's wedding on the stage. Expect my album in September, to a room full of people I don't f*cking know. But, I wouldn't know I'd be announcing it to everyone that already pretty much knew anyway. Who the f*ck did I think I was?" She added that 30 has been "such an integral piece to my life story over the last few years", so the album finally dropping will feel like "the final door closing on that chapter of my life".
Adele also opened up about her divorce, telling Rolling Stone that she was shattered by it, especially with all the publicity it received. "It made me really sad. Then having so many people that I don't know, know that I didn't make that work . . . it f*cking devastated me," she said. "I was embarrassed. No one made me feel embarrassed, but you feel like you didn't do a good job." She also admitted to being insecure about memes commenting on how her divorce would make for good music. "Their responsibility as a fan is to want a good record and to hope I deliver. So I took it with a pinch of salt, and it was fine," she said. Divorce or not, we're always standing by Adele and her new music.
