A music video that pretty much broke the Internet and a highly anticipated world tour than a Time magazine cover? The new issue, which hits newsstands Monday, features Adele in all of her (hometown) glory covering the iconic magazine. Dressed in red and looking over her shoulder, the Grammy winner’s hypnotic gaze and pose recalls Vermeer’s famous painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” but in Adele’s case, it’s more like Girl with the Platinum Record.
In the accompanying interview, Adele credits some of her success to her emotional vulnerability, but admits she’s still taken aback by just how big “25” turned out to be.
“The fact that I’m not shy or embarrassed to be falling apart,” Adele tells Time of why she thinks she’s successful. “Sometimes when you know someone else feels as shit as you do, or approaches things in a certain way just like you do, it makes you feel better about yourself … I hope I do bring joy to people’s lives, and not just sadness, but I think there’s a comfort in it. But I honestly don’t know. If I knew, I would bottle it, and sell it to everyone else.”
One of the main influences on the album was her 3-year-old son Angelo, whom Adele thanks for “keeping [her] totally cool and calm about the whole thing.”
“He makes me so proud of myself, and he makes me like myself so much,” she says. “I’ve never not liked myself. I don’t have hangups like that. But I’m so proud of myself that I made him in my belly … I can’t wait to know who his best friends are going to be, who his girlfriend or his boyfriend is going to be or what movies he likes … Whatever my kid wants to do or be I will always support him no matter what.”
There’s only person who rivals Adele’s affection for her son — Beyoncé, of course.
Laughing off gossip about passing up a chance to record a duet, Adele says, “Whoever started that rumor must have been having a laugh because anyone who knows me knows that my main priority in life outside of my child is Beyoncé. I really wanted to do a duet on this album. I spoke to someone about it who I wanted to do it with, and we got on like a house on fire, and then we just couldn’t logistically really get it to work. I can’t say who it is because I want to do it in the future. That’s the only reason. It wasn’t Beyoncé!”
See Time Magazine for the full interview.