From her very first steps into the music industry, ADÉLA seemed completely uninterested in conventional, measured or understated introductions. That exact attitude runs through her debut album, PRIMA, a record dominated by ambition, confidence, desire, pop maximalism and an almost obsessive determination to achieve pop stardom.
Even the title itself functions as a statement. PRIMA evokes both the idea of being first, deriving from the Latin primo or primus, meaning “first” and the figure of the prima ballerina, creating an immediate connection to the Slovak pop star’s past as a ballet dancer. Beyond being incredibly intriguing, it is a title that feels perfectly suited to a debut album that revolves, on the one hand, around the desire to stand at the centre of the stage and, on the other, around all the sacrifices required to actually get there.
This becomes clear from ‘KGB,’ the album’s opening track. Against a powerful electronic production, ADÉLA shows us how she went from Slovakia to finding herself at the centre of the pop industry. “Staring at a TV screen till I got bloody eyes, Just a little European girl, was plotting on my rise,” she sings, speaking directly about the desire she had from a very young age to become part of the entertainment world, the same world she used to watch for endless hours through a television screen. With: “No, I’m not being cocky, I just worked my whole life,” she makes it even clearer that her confidence is not the result of arrogance, but of years of deliberate, relentless work.
A more playful and sensual side of ADÉLA emerges on ‘Starving Artist,’ where an ex’s lack of money becomes an opportunity to play with the idea of both literal hunger and a different kind of “hunger” for success. With “Nothin’ in the bank, but you’re makin’ deposits, Eat real good for a starvin’ artist,” she proves that, despite her success, she does not feel the need to take herself seriously all the time. Instead of the pop glamour and limitless ambition that dominate other parts of PRIMA, here the pop star chooses to communicate primarily through humour, provocation and unapologetic sexuality.
The rawest and most personal moment on PRIMA arrives with ‘Therapy,’ a song that feels more like an unfiltered confession than a conventional pop track. ADÉLA speaks without metaphors about family, money and the pressures she faces from the “annoying old white men” who “hold the keys” to her future in the music industry. She becomes even more vulnerable with: “When I left home, she was so tiny, Now I come back, and she is my size,” as she reflects on her younger sister growing up in her absence and the pain that comes with it. In contrast to the confidence and insatiable hunger for success that define much of the record, here ADÉLA confronts the deeply personal cost of choosing to chase her dreams.
For all these reasons, ‘Ain’t In LA,’ feels like the ideal way to close the album. Once again, ADÉLA turns her attention towards all those girls who, just like she did, grow up far away from the cities where big dreams are supposedly made possible: “And she’s taught that, Her dreams don’t live at home.” As the song progresses, however, it gradually transforms into an anthem for the girls from “unknown cities” who, despite the pressure of the American dream, are learning to love themselves and embrace what makes them different. After all: “It’s all a lie, the baddest bitches ain’t in L.A.”
Sonically, PRIMA moves between electro-pop, club music and hip-hop, while carrying strong references to the pop sounds of the 2000s and 2010s. Not every musical experiment on the album works equally well from a production standpoint, but what matters most is that ADÉLA’s identity and personality remain bright, distinctive and uncompromised throughout the entire record.
Perhaps, then, this debut album does not introduce an artist who feels the need to explain herself to the world. Instead, it presents one who simply announces and underlines her arrival.
At this point, it almost seems irrelevant whether ADÉLA will become the pop star she has always dreamed of being. She already behaves like she is one and ultimately, that might matter far more.
Could mainstream pop finally be getting interesting again?
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Words: Nikos Aggelis Anthis
Photographer: Iulia Matei and Bella Newman