ADÈLA Made Pop Music Fun Again. Apparently, That's a Problem Now.

In my eyes, ADÈLA has made a great debut pop album, so why is everyone so torn up about it?

Icon Academy has done irreparable damage. First, they created KATSEYE. Second, they absolutely shattered the hopes and dreams of dozens of girls. One of those girls was ADÈLA. Thanks to whatever is left of the good in the world and a little word we call “karma”, ADÈLA has now made an excellent comeback in the form of her debut album, PRIMA. On this record, the Slovakian-born singer shows us she is a pop girl through and through.

Her hit song Ain’t in LA, as well as her sleeper hit Nicole Kidman, have already made waves, hitting the top 20 on Billboard and accumulating more than 200 million streams between them. However, many people (more specifically, music critics) have expressed a lot of criticism. I can’t stop thinking about the fact that maybe pop as we knew it 10 years ago is dead. How is it that Katy Perry can still ride high on the drawn-out, albeit great, album that is Teenage Dream, but ADÈLA can’t do the same?

Does everything really require meaning now? When did music stop being fun and start being something we have to carefully dissect? When did pop songs with great rhythms, fun melodies and amazing vocals stop being “good”? All these questions arise again and again in the world of music. Yet songs like The Life of a Showgirl (Taylor Swift), Petal (Ariana Grande) or even WILD (KATSEYE) are still going strong on streaming platforms and the Billboard charts, and those are blander than anything on ADÈLA’s album.

Is PRIMA really much worse than any other pop-centred album or song on the scene right now? This is more bearable to listen to than quite a few recent pop albums. Maybe we’ve been overfed, we are all oversaturated, after all, and we can’t tell what’s good or bad anymore.

I bring to the table Olivia Rodrigo’s latest album, which has been one of the greatest pop releases in many, many years. And it will continue to be so for many more years to come. It is a complete work full of meaning, excellent musicality, sonic textures, a vocal showcase, etc. But this isn’t what we should be accustomed to. Rodrigo has transcended pop and entered the realm of a fully fledged musician who has more than just songs in mind.

This isn’t what ADÈLA wanted to do, and it also isn’t something we should expect from her (yet). What she has done, however, is take the formula that was given to KATSEYE and apply it to herself in a better, more unique and, frankly, much more interesting way.

And if we’re being fair, there are some meanings to her songs. Ain’t in LA talks about how you don’t necessarily have to be in or from the United States to succeed. An idea that has been proven right by the likes of Bad Bunny, Shakira and Rosalía, and one that she had to come to terms with after Icon Academy. Is the meaning transparent? Sure, yes. Is it bad? No, not at all.

Besides, who doesn’t love a great comeback? Even if it isn’t great (I can’t outright say it’s bad, considering her competition, KATSEYE, a band that showed me how bad music can actually get), neither the production, which I’m not saying is ADÈLA’s merit, nor the musical vision, if you will, is bad at all. If anything, it’s really quite good for a run-of-the-mill debut pop album. Dare I say, it shows promise.

Moreover, the simple fact that she kept pushing so hard after missing out on what was the biggest opportunity of her entire life (or so we all thought) shows more promise than anything else.

Add to that the fact that her songs are genuinely fun, catchy and, though a bit meaningless, definitely more meaningful than those of her previously mentioned “competition”, or a lot of other “musicians” out there who are getting more flowers than they ever deserved.

I don’t mean to compare girls with one another. KATSEYE members will probably have excellent solo careers… if they ever manage to escape the group and record label, that is (we all know how these girl/boy bands work by now, I hope).

But to keep to the topic, let me jump on the bandwagon and say: ADÈLA can definitely carve out her spot as the next big pop girlie if she starts to find her own sound, which there is no need to rush, because she’s clearly doing well. The question is: Does she want to last in music history?

As much as I love squeezing my boobs to the Nicole Kidman lyric, I’ll probably be tired of doing so next week. That’s all a viral song is: something the singer has to take advantage of right now.

She already has it all: the looks (sorry, image), the dance moves, the voice, the passion, the style, the cool backstory and a successful debut album.

Pop lives! And we can thank people like ADÈLA for it. I’m excited to see what she does next. I’m hoping for another Christina Aguilera–Eminem rivalry. I feel like she can get us there.

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Photo © ADÈLA Photographed by Lea Winkler (@leabwinkler) for Exit Magazine