Adele might have only just released her debut album, but she’s already tipped to be one of the biggest acts of 2008. Last month her soulful debut single, Chasing Pavements, went in at number 2, but before she’d even released it she’d already appeared on Jools Holland and Jonathan Ross, worked with Mark Ronson, Jim Abiss and Eg White, and supported Jack Penate, Raul Midon, Amos Lee and Devendra Banhart. And the girl is only 19.

Adele says she owes her distinctive sound to a trip to HMV about six years ago when, trying to impress her friends with her musical taste, she picked Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald out of the sale basket. It took her a year or so to even listen to them, but once she did she was hooked.

Her role model is Zoë Ball. She saw a photo of Zoë on her wedding day climbing out of the car, wearing her wedding dress and clutching a bottle of Jack Daniels. She says she knew straight away that was how she wanted to be – ‘real’.

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