Adele Adkins

Her second album, 21, arrived in 2011 and became the world's best-selling album of the 21st century, with sales exceeding 31 million. It spent 24 weeks atop the Billboard 200, setting a record for the top-performing album in US chart history. Singles like "Rolling in the Deep," "Someone like You," and "Set Fire to the Rain" became signature hits, and the album earned a record-tying six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. In 2012, she released "Skyfall" for the James Bond film, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Adele's third album, 25, came out in 2015, breaking first-week sales records in both the UK and the US. It remains the only album to sell over three million copies in a single week in America, and it brought her five more Grammys, including Album of the Year. The lead single, "Hello," was a worldwide smash. Her fourth album, 30, released in 2021, featured the chart-topping single "Easy on Me." As of 2023, all of her studio albums except 19 have topped the yearly best-selling albums chart worldwide in the 21st century. With over 120 million records sold, she is among the world's best-selling music artists. She is also the best-selling female artist of the 21st century in the UK, and in the US, both 21 and 25 are certified Diamond, the most for any artist who debuted in this century.