Adele named most powerful in British music

Adele has been named the most powerful person in the British music industry.

The Music Power 100 poll by the Guardian newspaper saw the singer - who has topped the UK album charts for 16 weeks running this year with '21', but had a relatively short career, releasing her debut album in 2008 - and her team beat more established industry figures including Simon Cowell, Jay-Z and Damon Albarn.

The list was decided by a music industry panel and focussed mainly on industry figures and the teams behind the success of artists. Adele was voted top after she managed to hit number one in 15 countries with '21' and sell six million copies of the album in a time when album sales are declining.

Richard Russell, head of Xl records, Adele's label, said: "The whole message with her is, it's just music. There's no gimmicks, there's no selling of sexuality."

Second place on the list were Lucian Grainge and David Joseph, the executive head CEOs of Universal Music Group and Universal Music UK respectively, the label which is home to Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and The Rolling Stones.

'The X Factor' TV talent show boss Simon Cowell - who runs the Syco label, part of Sony records - was number three on the list while Nigel Harding, boss of public broadcasting station Radio 1 was fourth. Fifth place went to the controllers of music download service iTunes UK.

Music Power 100 list, top ten entries:

1. Team Adele: Label executive: Richard Russell, XL Recordings, Manager: Jonathan Dickins, Publisher: Paul Connolly, Universal Music Publishing Group, Radio plugger: Brad Hunner, Radar Plugging.

2. Lucian Grainge: Universal Music Group and David Joseph: Universal Music UK

3. Simon Cowell: Managing Director, Syco

4. Nigel Harding: Broadcaster, Music policy executive, Radio 1

5. Person or persons unknown: Retailer: iTunes UK

6. Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim: Digital media: founders, YouTube

7. George Ergatoudis: Broadcaster, head of music, BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra

8. Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt: Digital media, co-founders, Google, and their executive chairman

9. Simon Moran: Live music promoter, managing director, SJM Concerts

10. Jeff Bezos: Retailer, president and CEO, Amazon.com