ADÉLA releases her highly anticipated debut album PRIMA via Capitol Records. Co-executive produced by Blake Slatkin and Dylan Brady, PRIMA is the sound of a young woman stepping into her power, moving full speed ahead towards her lifelong dream of pop stardom, and documenting every step along the way through song.
PRIMA arrives alongside a new music video for album track, “Nicole Kidman.” Directed by Hannah Lux Davis, the music video is filled with references to some of the Oscar-winning actress’s most iconic roles in films such as Eyes Wide Shut, Moulin Rouge, Birth, and Babygirl, as well as her AMC Theatres commercial. Speaking on the song’s inspiration to W Magazine, she recalls, “Somehow, I got invited to a Golden Globes event. I’ve never been in a movie, but I got all glammed up, put into a dress, had my hair done, and I looked really good. My hair was super bouncy, and my corset was so tight that I thought, ‘I eel like Nicole Kidman right now’. I actually watched ‘Eyes Wide Shut,’ and became obsessed with her. To me, she is the movie star.”
While her debut EP saw ADÉLA kicking down the industry gates with wall-shaking, industrial pop hits, PRIMA presents a three-dimensional picture of ADÉLA’s artistry. “I want this album to sound exactly like a 22-year-old girl,” she states. “A lot of shit’s happening in my life—which is the nature of being a young woman. At my age, you either hear, ‘She’s really deep,’ or, ‘She’s funny and doesn’t take anything seriously.’ I tried to express both sides. I mixed the hard with the soft, the vulnerable with the swag of it all, and the muscular beats with the feminine energy. I did exactly what I wanted to.”
On PRIMA, the pop princess flexes her ability to differentiate herself while also paying homage to the artists that first introduced her to the world of pop on her debut album. On the Cashmere Cat-produced “I’m The Man,” she uses an intro reminiscent of an early Ariana Grande production, but lets her lyricism do the real work as she takes traditional gender constructs and turns them inside out, reframing relationships through her lyricism and a lens like no other. “The more successful I get, the harder it becomes to find a man comfortable with my success.” She elaborates, “It takes a well-adjusted and confident guy to let the girl be the boss.” She later invokes the confident whisper that marked Britney Spears’ discography to break the fourth wall on the sex-positive affirmation “Fantasize,” as she maps the course towards sexual satisfaction.
Although she never shies away from moments to take control, ADÉLA still leaves space for tender moments on her debut album, like on her previously released single “Red Bottoms” and album track “Hitachi.” She digs even deeper on “Therapy,” a track that resembles an exposed nerve. Written and recorded while extremely sick, balancing a grueling schedule of touring, recording sessions, and numerous other commitments, ADÉLA uses a heavily autotuned version of her voice set against sparse keys for diaristic musings, aiming her pen at industry executives and, in another breath, perfectly reflecting the irreplicable bond between an older and younger sister while 6,000 miles stand between them.
Earlier last month, the pop princess scored her first entry into the Billboard Hot 100 with “Ain’t In LA,” an empowering Bangerz-era-inspired track that shows solidarity with the hundreds of millions of people who feel their dreams are out of reach because of where they come from. The single has continued to climb the charts from its initial entry at #85 to #61 in a matter of days. Inspiration struck after a visit back home to Bratislava, where she came across photos of her mother at 18, posing in front of a wall plastered with pop culture imagery. “My grandfather smuggled the posters in from Germany,” she shares. “It made me think, ‘There are so many beautiful girls with dreams who will never get their flowers like my mom’. I wrote this for her and the billion other bitches who are probably cooler than me.”
