Adele

Adele (born 1988 in London) is one of the greatest voices of contemporary pop-soul, with colossal sales. Montreux welcomed her in 2008, a very young newcomer, before the whole world knew her name.

Adele, a newcomer in Montreux

12 July 2008: at the Miles Davis Hall

On 12 July 2008, during the 42nd edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival, Adele performed at the Miles Davis Hall. She was twenty. Her first album, “19”, had come out in January, carried by “Chasing Pavements”; the soul voice, deep and already overwhelming, filled the room.

Nothing that night yet marked her out as a global phenomenon. Montreux booked her at the very start, at the instant a career tips over.

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From “19” to stardom

A few months after Montreux, “19” won her two Grammy Awards in 2009, including Best New Artist. Then came “21” (2011) and “Someone Like You”: the album would become one of the best-selling of the 21st century, and Adele one of the rare artists to move every generation.

Having become immense, she would be rare on festival stages. Her Montreux appearance thus belongs to that handful of evenings when audiences could hear her, almost by surprise, in the earliest hours of her career.