Adele is a British singer with an estimated net worth of $75 million. Born May 5, 1988 to Penny Adkins and Mark Evans, the English singer was raised by her single mother. Only 18 when she gave birth to her daughter, Adele’s father left her mother alone with the singer was only 2, leaving her mother to raise her on her own. She was only 4 when she took an interest in voices, and she began singing most everything that she did. She spent her childhood writing songs and singing, and she graduated from the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in 2006. While there, she was a classmate of a few other famous singers you might have heard of; Jessie J and Leona Lewis.

When Adele graduated from school, she published two songs and gave them to a friend. That friend posted her music to the then very popular MySpace, where Richard Russell, the big man at XL Recordings took notice and began calling Adele. Her first album, 19, was produced and she began making headlines as the most talented singer to come out of Britain in a long time. In 2008, she was named the Brit Awards Critic’s Choice for the number one breakthrough act. She names all of her albums after her age when she writes them, and that’s how the world knows when she is going to drop a new album. Her first album was a smashing success, and she earned countless awards and accolades for her beautiful voice, her sultry sound and her amazing lyrics. People all over the world fell instantly in love with the teenage singer.

However, her career almost took a nosedive when she cancelled the US portion of her first tour because she wanted to be with her old boyfriend. She admitted at the time she was drinking far too much and behaving in a way that was not very popular with anyone, and she is deeply ashamed and embarrassed for her decisions and her choices at that time. In 2011, her second album, 21, broke records in more than 26 countries when it reached number 1 in all of them. Her first two singles from the album are two of the most famous and most popular songs in the world “Someone Like You,” and “Rolling in the Deep,” and the album was inspired by the breakup she experienced with her less than idea boyfriend.

This is also the same year she met her current partner, Simon Kinecki. She toured, they lived happily together and then she announced in 2012 that the two were expecting a child. She won more awards for this one album that most people earn in a lifetime and then Adele decided that was enough. She wanted to be with her family, so she dropped out of the spotlight and hasn’t been heard from since; until this year. When the singer posted the number “25” on social media in early 2015, the world went crazy. Deprived of her beautiful music for more than four years, the world wanted more of Adele, and she brought it. Her first single from the new album, which dropped in November, went number one right away and her album sold more than 3.38 million copies in the first week alone. It’s safe to say that Adele is back; and she will perform for a few months, disappear for a few years and do the same thing once again.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

ncG1vNJzZmiblaGyo77IrbCtp5%2BXe6S7zGiYnZ2cmnqvsdNmrqiqpJ18