New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Adele Official Website) Adele's second full-length album, "21", has won the second IMPALA European Independent Album of the Year Award from a shortlist of 23 albums from across Europe, covering genres such as synth-pop (Rubik), dubstep (ModeSelektor and SBTRKT), electro (Little Dragon and M83), metal (Arrayan Path), punk rock (Hladno Pivo, Iceage, The Glockenwise) and post-rock (Sigur Ros) (see all 23 nominees below).
"21" is the London singer songwriter's second album on UK label XL Recordings, who released the record in
Europe on 24th January 2011.
Thanks to its understated production and Adele's vocal performance, 21 turned into a massive success worldwide, topping the album charts in more than 26 countries. Its three singles, "
Rolling In The Deep", "
Someone Like You" and "Set Fire To The rain" became number-one hits all over the world. With sales of 17 million copies as of January 2012, "21" was the best-selling musical release of 2011, and helped to dynamise sales of the European music industry.
Quote
Helen Smith, Executive Chair of IMPALA, commented: "The ability of this exceptional album to touch so many people all over the world, is such an achievement for a European artist and makes "21" the well-deserved winner for this year's award, whilst the complete list of 23 nominees demonstrate once again the diversity and vitality of the independent sector all over Europe".
More about Adele
London-based
Adele (full name
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins) was offered a recording contractfrom XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on MySpace in 2006. Her debut album, "19", was released in 2008, to much commercial and critical success in the UK. She became the first recipient of the BRIT award Critics' Choice and was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2008.
More about the album - "21"
Adele released her second studio album in early 2011. The album was inspired by Adele's personal experiences in love. Its sound has been described as classic and contemporary roots and country music. The album was very well received and surpassed the success of her debut, reaching 17 million copiessold in February 2012.
With "21",
Adele has won a record six Grammy Awards in 2012 (including Album of the Year). The album has also received numerous other awards, including twoBrit awards and three American
Music Awards.
This phenomenal success has granted
Adele numerous mentions in the Guinness Book of Records, including longest running number one album by a female solo artist on the UK Albums Chart and longest running number one album by a female in Billboard history.
One year after its release, "21" has simply turned into a worldwide phenomenon, gaining
Adele millions of music fans all over the planet.
More information on Adele: www.adele.tv
More information on XL Recordings: www.xlrecordings.com
More about IMPALA's Independent Album of the Year Award
The "European Independent Album of The Year" award was launched last year, together with the annual "Outstanding Contribution to European Music" award, to mark the 10th anniversary of IMPALA. The European Independent Album of the Year Award showcases the breadth and diversity of independent talent across Europe. The winner is selected on the basis of completely open criteria from a shortlist compiling national and non-national album nominations from territories across
Europe put forward for their musical, artistic or other exceptional quality. Nominated albums were required to have been released in 2011 (January - December), on a European independent label. A jury of IMPALA board members choose the winner.
The 23 nominees for the 2011 Award were:
Artist Album Label Country of Artist Country of Label
Adele 21 XL Recordings United Kingdom United Kingdom
Ane Brun It All Starts With One Balloon Ranger Recordings Sweden Sweden
Arrayan Path Ira Imperium Pitch
Black Records Cyprus Cyprus
Claude Hugo
Claude Hugo Fakto/2Brains Belgium Belgium
Hladno Pivo Svijet Glamura Menart Croatia Croatia
Iceage New Brigade Tambourhinoceros Denmark Denmark
Justyna Majkowska Zakochana Od Jutra Anaconda Poland Poland
Kaizers Orchestra Violeta Violeta Vol. 1 Petroleum Records Norway Norway
Kitty,
Daisy & Lewis Smoking In
Heaven Sunday Best United Kingdom United Kingdom
Little Dragon Ritual Union Peacefrog Sweden United Kingdom
M83 Hurry Up We're Dreaming Naïve France France
Maia Vidal God Is My Bike Crammed Discs France/U.S. Belgium
Modeselekor Monkeytown Monkeytown Germany Germany
Nick & Simon Symphonica in
Rosso Volendam
Music The Netherlands The Netherlands
Ocho Macho Online A Vilag CLS
Music Hungary Hungary
Pegasus Human Technology Muve Recordings Switzerland Switzerland
Raphael Gualazzi Reality and Fantasy Sugar
Music Italy Italy
Rubik Solar Fullsteam Finland Finland
Selah Sue Selah Sue Because
Music Belgium France
SBTRKT SBTRKT Young Turks United Kingdom United Kingdom
Sigur Ros Inni Krunk Iceland United Kingdom
The Glockenwise Building Waves Lovers & Lollypops Portugal Portugal
Vetusta Morla Mapas Pequeno Salto Mortal Spain Spain
The Spotify playlist of nominated albums is available at: https://spoti.fi/wdSzbW
