Well! I think I speak for us all when I say: DING DONG. What a fucking dish! (I’d apologize for swearing but I think that’s how Adele herself would put it.) There is a second cover — for subscribers perhaps? — that is distractingly slightly blurry, and which wasn’t provided to us for use. But all I know is that I want an oral history of how Adele Gets Two Vogue Covers came about. Was this always the plan? Was it a PR fiasco that someone decided to turn into a press juggernaut? Who had to run interference between Anna and Edward? Is that person currently on a silent retreat in Tulum? How did they decide the very different vibes for the covers — did they each just go off into their separate corners? Surely not! I want to know it all!
British Vogue tells me that this is Adele’s first interview in five years — they are separate interviews, so I think the UK got that superlative, which is fair given that Adele is British — and it is a good one, by the extremely Britishly named Giles Hattersley. I literally laughed out loud at this bit:
But yes, she can, at last, confirm: Adele is back. The single is imminent, the album approaches. She is once again ready to play havoc with the emotional wellbeing of a billion music fans; to deliver the latest chapter in the sonic revelations of her heart. To be honest, it feels like she has turned up in the nick of time. In a world that can’t agree on much, perhaps we can once again agree on Adele.
Play havoc with me, madame! She talks about many things, from her divorce to her weight loss — she started working out to deal with her anxiety — in both of these pieces, and is (refreshingly) vaguely irritated about the entire hubbub surrounding the latter:
“But I needed to get addicted to something to get my mind right,” she continues. “It could have been knitting, but it wasn’t. People are shocked because I didn’t share my ‘journey’. They’re used to people documenting everything on Instagram, and most people in my position would get a big deal with a diet brand. I couldn’t give a flying f**k. I did it for myself and not anyone else. So why would I ever share it? I don’t find it fascinating. It’s my body.”
Across the pond, the American profile, by Abby Aguirre, is a very good read and I think a more comprehensive piece, although perhaps a less objectively funny one. The whole beginning of it takes place throughout a work-out, which is a very American Vogue way to go about it, and Adele continues to be, you know….mostly quite great, as you would expect and hope, but also surprisingly (to me) forthcoming. Before we get too deep into it, here’s the American cover:
I have to say that my first, kneejerk instinct was that the British cover was better, but the more I’ve sat with it, the more I am sort of impressed that American Vogue went with a cover that feels like such a subscriber cover. This is artistic — it feels like a painting — and unusual for Anna. It’s not as boom boom pow flashy and eye-catching as the British cover, but it’s truly grown on me and I actually think it might have been the ballsier choice. (And that Valentino Haute Couture dress is extremely stately.) I’m interested to hear which one you prefer. They’re basically the Two States of Adele: One is The Bombshell, one the Elder Stateswoman of Break-Up Songs.
She talks a lot about her anxiety in this profile, and whoo boy, this one hit me right in the gut:
As a Taurus, she likes to schedule things, so she found the unpredictability of her anxiety excruciating. “I remember sitting out there with two of my friends”—she points to a table farther out in the yard—“and I was like, When will I stop feeling like this? And they were like, In time. And I was like, Yeah, but how much time? And one of them cried and was just like, I don’t know. It’s gonna be a ride. And it was.”
The rest of it is similarly vulnerable and honest (and long!); it’s really worth your while. I have to say, I think BOTH Vogues kind of nailed this. Long live Adele!
