Adele

Adele (b. 1988) is one of the defining voices of the twenty-first century. Across the albums 19, 21, 25 and 30 she has turned heartbreak into modern standards — Someone Like You, Rolling in the Deep, Hello, When We Were Young — winning sixteen Grammy Awards and an Oscar along the way.

Built on piano, strings and that once-in-a-generation voice, her songs translate beautifully to acoustic and orchestral settings, where their soul-baring melodies shine brightest.

Photo: via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0