Last week, Adéla released her debut album, “PRIMA.” This release follows one central message: Stars can come from anything and anywhere. In this album, she speaks heavily on what her childhood looked like growing up in Bratislava, Slovakia, and immigrating to the United States at 18 years old.
Artists like Adéla are essential to creating a more tolerant world, especially in one that is becoming more western-centered every day. She is teaching younger generations around the world that you don’t have to leave any part of yourself behind in order to succeed.
Adéla first gained popularity after her participation in Hybe X Geffen’s “Dream Academy,” when 20 young women competed to debut in the international girl group KATSEYE. She was eliminated halfway through due to a lack of fan votes and judges’ concerns that she wouldn’t work well in a group setting. Just over a year after KATSEYE debuted, she released her first EP, “The Provocateur.”
Adéla used “The Provocateur" to speak on the struggles she faced in and out of “Dream Academy,” especially the backlash from the greater public when the show came out. In this EP, she broke the fourth wall, and took things the public knew about her and reclaimed them. She took her opportunity to address the hate and make her case as to why she should be a star.
The first two songs on the EP, “Superscar” and “SexOnTheBeat” quickly became popular for her drastically unexpected style and her music videos that showed a side of Adéla that the public didn’t expect. On “Dream Academy,” she was a mentor figure to many of the girls and often had a soft edge. However, in these songs, the music uses hyperpop aspects and the videos incorporate harsh, sharp dance moves, completely opposing the Adéla the world came to know in the documentary. These changes pulled the audience in, almost immediately growing her fanbase.
In April, Adéla went on tour with Demi Lovato, where she began teasing a debut album and released the first single, “KGB,” which became the opening track of her album, “PRIMA.” The song outlines what it was like to grow up wanting more in a place where that felt unachievable. She explains how even when she was young she worked to learn English and moved to the U.S. alone.
In this song, she explains she knew she needed to learn English and move to the U.S. to achieve the level of stardom she wanted, but that didn’t mean she had to abandon her culture and background.
Less than a week after debuting “KGB,” she debuted “Ain’t in LA,” in which she wages war against the Los Angeles-centric ideals the rest of the world seems to hold. In this song, Adéla sends a loud and clear message: You don’t have to give up parts of yourself and where you come from to succeed in Hollywood.
There is a natural progression from Adéla’s first EP to her debut album. “The Provocateur" felt like an explanation for the reputation she already created for herself and an argument for why the public should allow her into the limelight, whereas in “PRIMA,” she demands it.
In “PRIMA,” it is clear how deep of an understanding and respect Adéla has for the cultures that lie within the genres she uses. She often incorporates hip-hop and classical ballet in her dancing and contrasts hard percussion with light soprano vocals in her music. Even on stage she wears pointe shoes and tutus alongside crop tops and bedazzled snapback caps.
Adéla is doing something not many other artists can — adapting our genres. While it seems every other artist is working hard on making a copy of a copy of our classics, Adéla is making something we haven’t seen before. Her use of traditionally western genres brings a new perspective and diversity to the modern music scene.
Adéla is the perfect example of someone we should be giving a platform. She accepts and embraces her culture while pushing for others to do the same.
Alaina Sayre is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Alaina about their column? Email them at as015023@ohio.edu.
