The big dream started out on the South Korean competition series Dream Academy and its Netflix counterpart Pop Star Academy. The latter is where the successful girl group KATSEYE was born. Your next favorite popstar might’ve not made the ultimate cut to join the group, but for all the right reasons. Both the judges of the series and fans of the show pointed out that she is simply too big of a personality and star to be in a group format. The outcome? The world is one damn good popstar richer and ADÉLA gets to have the spotlight all to herself.
The Slovakian-trained ballerina turned popstar is destined for success. Everyone who watched the show saw her solo breakthrough coming from a mile away. Amongst her fans she counts stars such as JADE and Demi Lovato. With the latter, she went on tour to open for her, which increased her reach to a whole new set of fans. And both ADÉLA and JADE have mentioned their interest in working together. This is a collaboration bound to happen. But before we start dreaming about the future, let’s start things off right and dive into her debut album PRIMA.
Bringing out your debut album is a huge deal. It comes as no surprise that it’s titled after the best ballerina of the bunch, referencing where it all started for the singer. She makes one thing clear: with this body of work, she is aspiring to become one of the best popstars as well. To do so, she has been studying pop music ever since she first fell in love with music. On a recent episode of ‘Playlist Of My Life’ with Teen Vogue, she created the ultimate pop music playlist. It’s in appearances like these that we gain full trust in her music. With excellent taste like this, citing ‘Feedback’ by Janet Jackson and ‘Adore You’ by Miley Cyrus as inspiration, you simply can’t go wrong.
We clearly get to hear one of her main influences on ‘Boys’. Not only does it share a song title with the one and only living legend Britney Spears, it also sounds reminiscent of her hit ‘Me Against The Music’. It’s a high-energy pop track that explores the female experience of both wanted and unwanted attention while clubbing. ADÉLA acknowledges that this behavior is undoubtedly common in men, so she plays around with it, subtly poking fun at how easily she has these boys in the palm of her hand. As if the track itself isn’t big enough as is, she asked KATSEYE member and former reality TV show colleague Lara Raj to appear in the small skits to simulate “girl talk” in the ladies’ restroom.
The track ADÉLA herself was most excited for her fans to hear is ‘Nicole Kidman’. Here she plays around with hip-hop sounds. Throughout the trap-pop song, she experiments with a vintage-sounding hip-hop production while she sings lyrics admiring Nicole Kidman. She is a massive fan of the actress. “To me, she is the embodiment of beauty, glamour and everything that’s good.” On the song, she gets the most fun, flirty and sexy we have heard her so far. This song is a masterpiece.
Another highlight on the album goes to ‘Fantasize’. ADÉLA explores the theme of an unfulfilling relationship where she finds herself fantasizing about others. Over a fun, upbeat, almost funky production, she opens up about almost reaching that point of turning fantasy into reality. Leaving no traces of almost cheating. The song is once again proving she is a master in studying pop music before executing it herself to perfection with the help of smash hit writer Julia Michaels.
On PRIMA, the ‘KGB’ hitmaker proves what everyone already knew. A talent like this should not be sharing the spotlight with five other girls. With all the ongoing drama around KATSEYE, no shade, ADÉLA is really having the last laugh for not making it into the band. A debut body of work like this makes one thing crystal clear: she is not going anywhere anytime soon.