‘There’s no one like’ Adele
What makes pop star’s sound so special? Experts weigh in
Adele kept quiet about her hotly anticipated new album until giving fans a 30-second teaser during a commercial break on British reality competition The X Factor. The ad featured no faces, names or dates — just the first bars of her single “Hello.”
That, alone, was enough to tip off her fans and fuel speculation on social media that the inimitable singer was back.
So what makes her voice so recognizable and special? The Star put the question to experts. She’s authentic In the age of auto-tune, Adele’s natural voice is refreshing, says Jake Gold, a one-time Canadian Idol judge and manager best known for steering the career of the Tragically Hip, among others.
“That’s the thing about her, she’s really authentic. That’s what separates her from all the overproduced pop out there,” he says.
“Even if she doesn’t write all her songs, she’s heavily involved on the lyrics side and gets behind what she’s saying.”
Adele recently told the New York Times she knows when she’s written a good song when it makes her cry. “In order for me to feel confident with one of my songs it has to really move me,” she said. She croons like no one else Adele says one of her biggest influences is Etta James, whose music she discovered in the bargain bin of a record store.
Although her voice may not be unique, it stands out these days because she sings in a style that has mostly gone out of fashion among female pop stars, according to Daveed Goldman, co-founder of the drop-in singalong group, Choir! Choir! Choir!
“There’s a Katy Perry-type singer, a lot of people have done that. And there’s the Beyoncé-type singer, a lot of people try to emulate that. She’s taking it back a little bit,” Goldman said. The choir itself tackled Adele’s “Hello” earlier this month at Clinton’s Tavern. She shows emotion No matter how much she practises, Nair Cardozo, an Adele impersonator with In Entertainment, recognizes that she’ll never sing exactly like the British superstar.
“She puts so much emotion into it, it’s hard to match that,” Cardozo says. “Her voice is very distinguishable, very Adele, and there’s no one like her.”
Cardozo, a pharmacist’s assistant by day, saw a vocal coach to learn to emote like Adele and is trying to apply those lessons to cover “Hello.”
In 2011, when 21 topped the charts, Adele’s bassist told Rolling Stone all of her tear-jerkers are based on real events.
“It’s not a pose or a stance,” added Rick Rubin, the producer of four tracks on 21. “When you hear someone bare their soul, it resonates.” She has a primal tone “Scientifically, it’s in the vibration,” explains Elaine Overholt, a Torontobased vocal coach who’s worked with Ray Charles and Tina Turner as well as on the movies Chicago and Hairspray.
“Because she’s an open person, everything in her voice is open. . . . That’s something that is hard to define, but I’ve seen it over and over in my studio.”
Adele doesn’t have a very wide range but she has a powerful voice and “primal tone,” Overholt said.
But she worries that Adele might be pushing her voice too far, since she had to undergo surgery to repair a vocal cord hemorrhage in 2011.