Adele new album release date: Singer confirms 25 will arrive on 20 November

Adele posted a lengthy explanation earlier this week describing 25 as a 'make-up' record

Adele describes her follow-up to 21 as a 'make-up record' (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Adele has confirmed that her long-awaited third album, 25, will be released on 20 November.

The bestsellling singer-songwriter revealed the news on her new Instagram account, posting a black and white headshot of herself with a caption reading: “25 out November 20th”.

Just yesterday, Adele posted an update on the forthcoming album, apologising to fans for her hiatus and describing the project as a “make-up record”.

She wrote a lengthy explanation about how the album sees her "making up for everything I ever did and never did". Read it in full below:

“When I was 7, I wanted to be 8. When I was 8, I wanted to be 12. When I turned 12 I just wanted to be 18. Then after that I stopped wanting to be older. Now I'm ticking 16-24 boxes just to see if I can blag it! I feel like I've spent my whole life so far wishing it away.

“Always wishing I was older, wishing I was somewhere else, wishing I could remember and wishing I could forget too. Wishing I hadn't ruined so many good things because I was scared or bored.

“Wishing I wasn't so matter of fact all the time. Wishing I'd gotten to know my great grandmother more, and wishing I didn't know myself so well, because it means I always know what's going to happen. Wishing I hadn't cut my hair off, wishing I was 5'7”. Wishing I'd waited and wishing I'd hurried up as well.

“My last record was a break-up record and if I had to label this one I would call it a make-up record. I'm making up with myself. Making up for lost time. Making up for everything I ever did and never did. But I haven't got time to hold onto the crumbs of my past like I used to. What's done is done.

“Turning 25 was a turning point for me, slap bang in the middle of my twenties. Teetering on the edge of being an old adolescent and a fully-fledged adult, I made the decision to go into becoming who I'm going to be forever without a removal van full of my old junk.

“I miss everything about my past, the good and the bad, but only because it won't come back. When I was in it I wanted out! So typical. I'm on about being a teenager, sitting around and chatting shit, not caring about the future because it didn't matter then like it does now.

“The ability to be flippant about everything and there be no consequences. Even following and breaking rules...is better than making the rules.

“25 is about getting to know who I've become without realising. And I'm so sorry it took so long, but you know, life happened.

“Love, Adele.”

Fans were surprised with a 30-second teaser clip of one song from 25 during an ad-break for The X Factor on Sunday night. No information was shown, just a black background on which lyrics appeared while Adele sung over sparse piano chords.

The lyrics read: “Hello, it’s me / I was wondering if after all these years, you’d like to meet to go over everything. They say that time’s supposed to heal ya but I ain’t done much healing…”

Adele’s collaborators, believed to include Dagner Mouse, Tobias Jesso Jr and OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, suggest she has not strayed far from her R&B/soul style.

Her last album, 21, won six Grammys in 2012, while her James Bond theme “Skyfall” picked up Best Original Song at the Oscars.

25 track list:

1. “Hello”

2. “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)”

3. “I Miss You”

4. “When We Were Young”

5. “Remedy”

6. “Water Under the Bridge”

7. “River Lea”

8. “Love in the Dark”

9. “Million Years Ago”

10. “All I Ask”

11. “Sweetest Devotion”