Six Grammys, five years off: Adele puts love before career

Singer stuns music industry by saying she wants to give romance a chance

News in pictures
News in pictures
On Facebook
Arts & Ents blogs

Something For The Weekend in London: May 25 – May 27

With 20+ degree weather expected to last all weekend in the capital, we'd be silly not to make the m...

George Fitzgerald: I love having stuff that other people don’t have

London beatsmith, George Fitzgerald, concocts a shadowy brew of garage, house and techno that has th...

Brighton Fringe: The last hoorah

THE finish line for the Brighton Fringe is in sight, and as ever, it’s with a mixture of sadness and...

The music industry was left struggling to contemplate life without its biggest star yesterday after Adele, hailed as the saviour of pop after winning six Grammy awards and selling 17 million albums, revealed that she now intends to depart the stage.

The all-conquering singer, whose earlier heartbreak fuelled her best-selling 21 album, said she would take up to five years off in order to focus on her relationship with boyfriend Simon Konecki, an Old Etonian charity fundraiser.

Adele, 23, told US Vogue: "I am f****** off for four or five years. If I am constantly working, my relationships fail. So at least now I can have enough time to write a happy record. And be in love and be happy." She may choose to retire from show business altogether. "And then I don't know what I'll do. Get married."

Whilst an extended career-break might complete the Tottenham singer's joy, it could prove disastrous for the struggling music industry. Adele's dominance of the charts generated a 1.4 per cent increase in US album sales last year, reversing years of decline.

Adele's UK album sales pushed the market share of British artists to their highest levels for 15 years, the BPI said.

Her record companies, the UK independent label XL and their Stateside partner Columbia, part of the Sony Entertainment group, were anticipating a third blockbuster Adele album next year.

It was what Adele described as a "rubbish relationship" which inspired the 21 album. But in the Vogue interview the singer, 23, described her blissful existence with the 37-year-old Konecki, with whom she is "madly in love".

"He's wonderful. He looks after me. I don't think I would have gotten through the recovery if it hadn't been for him," said Adele, referring to the serious surgery she underwent last year to remove polyps from her vocal chords.

The bearded Konecki, known as "Swampy" to his friends, is chief executive of Drop4Drop, a Brighton-based charity which works to bring access to clean water to people in developing countries. A contemporary of Tom Parker Bowles at Eton, Konecki was the director of an investment holding company but left the City because of his "leftie views" to found the bottled water company, Life. He has a daughter from a 2004 marriage to fashion stylist Clary Fisher. The couple divorced four years ago.

Her enforced silence when she recovered from throat surgery changed Adele's perspective on life. "I've never fully appreciated the things that I've achieved until now," she said. "In fact, my entire life has changed in the last 10 weeks. I've never been so happy, and I love it."

Some industry figures believe Adele could follow the example of Kate Bush, who retired from public performance and retreated into domesticity, emerging every seven years or so to present a new album. But those hoping for another 21-style album, with huge hits like "Someone Like You", are secretly hoping the path of true love runs into a few obstacles. As Adele told Vogue: "I love a bit of drama. That's a bad thing. I can flip really quickly."

Hit the pause button: Stars who took a break

Leonard Cohen The mournful songwriter did no harm to his reputation for isolation when he gave up music for life as a Buddhist monk in 1994 and took the name Jikan, meaning "silence". He made a comeback in 1999 – and is surely the only singer to have a period of his career labelled "the post-monastery era".

Kate Bush After releasing seven albums in 15 years, the singer disappeared from public view in 1993 to spend time with her family and bring up her son, Bertie. In 2005 she made a comeback with the album Aerial. However, she has yet to make a live comeback following her only tour in 1979.

Captain Beefheart A cult figure who influenced many rock bands from Oasis to Red Hot Chili Peppers, yet never secured a mainstream fanbase himself, Don Van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart, retired from music after his 1982 album Ice Cream For Crow to pursue a passion for painting.

Rob Hastings

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Career Services

Day In a Page

Is Ridley Scott the most macho man in movies?

Ridley Scott: The most macho man in movies?

His cinematic CV is unparalleled. Yet the Alien director is still obsessed with beating his rivals.
Being Gary Lineker: The clean-cut anchorman is this summer's Mr Sport

Being Gary Lineker

The clean-cut anchorman is this summer's Mr Sport...
Gallic gourmets are putting French cuisine back on the culinary map

Gallic gourmets put France back on culinary map

Overdone, out of touch and old-fashioned: French cuisine has never been at a lower ebb...
So Moorish: Mark Hix offers his own take on classic Moroccan dishes

So Moorish: Mark Hix's Moroccan dishes

Why not create a north African-inspired feast to share with your friends?
Sin and the single mother: The history of lone parenthood

Sin and the single mother

Maureen Paton explores the history of lone parenthood.
The outsider: Margaret Howell is British fashion's queen of minimalism

The outsider: Margaret Howell

The designer tells Susannah Frankel why she has never felt part of the fashion industry.
The 50 Best luggage

The 50 Best luggage

From chic cases to compact baggage, pack it all in this summer
For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos in Greece

For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos

On a secluded peninsula in north-east Greece lies an enclave that's way off the tourist map, especially for women...
48 Hours In: Faro

48 Hours In: Faro

More than just the gateway to the Algarve, this city has much to tempt you off the beach.
Here, the coast is always clear: Celebrating sixty years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

60 years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

Mick Webb reveals a land of puffins, tanks and Hollywood blockbusters.
Free Range: Meet the designers of tomorrow

Free Range

Meet the artists of the future
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

As scientists at Rothamsted's GM trials plead with activists not to sabotage their work, Michael McCarthy visits the battle field
Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Deep in Cameroon's rainforests, poachers are killing primates for food. Evan Williams reports from Yokadouma on a practice that could create a pandemic
Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Government urged to take abuse more seriously as London study shows 41 per cent are harassed
Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Militant Tuhoe tribe members defiant amid claims race relations had been set back 100 years