When looking back at the start of her career, it seems like the soulful singer, Adele, appeared out of thin air. Was that because she was on the reality TV show American Idol?
Adele was not on American Idol. In fact, you have to be a US resident to be on the show and Adele is British. She did not garner her fame from any reality TV show where people show off their singing talents. However, Adele has appeared on some reality TV shows as a guest star. One of those was the British talent reality show The X Factor.
Scroll down to learn more about how Adele got her big break and her subsequent appearances on reality shows.
How Did Adele Become Famous?
Throughout the 2000s there was this really popular website that every pre-teen and teen was using before the website called Facebook gained huge traction. The website in question was called MySpace. MySpace was actually the biggest social networking website from 2005 to 2008. And it was the platform where a lot of musicians managed to get their big break.
So it comes as no shock to learn that it was through MySpace that Adele got her big break. She had recorded three demo songs while in school and had one of her friends post the songs to MySpace. It wasn’t that long after the songs were posted that Adele was asked to meet with the independent record label XL Recordings. The co-owner of the label, Richard Russell, had heard her music and was interested in signing her. She was signed a mere four months after graduating from the BRIT School at age eighteen.
Some other artists who managed to get their big break from MySpace were Arctic Monkeys, Calvin Harris, and Panic! At the Disco.
What Reality Shows Has She Appeared On?
Adele wasn’t on American Idol and she didn’t get her big break from any sort of reality TV show, but she has been on a reality show before. She has actually performed on more than one.
In 2009 and 2011, Adele sang her music on the American reality TV show Dancing with the Stars as a guest performer. It was on season eight of the reality show in 2009 that Adele performed Chasing Pavements; the second single from her debut album, 19. Two years later she appeared again on the show’s twelfth season. This time she performed her smash hit Rolling in the Deep from her second studio album, 21.
Another reality TV show that Adele has famously appeared on was The X Factor. In 2015 on the Season 12 finale, she sang her song Hello to thousands of fans and judges Rita Ora, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, Nick Grimshaw, and Simon Cowell. It is through Simon Cowell that the link between Adele and American Idol has most likely come from. Simon became notoriously famous for his judging role on American Idol. He sat on the judges panel for eight years from 2002 to 2010.
You can watch Adele’s X-Factor performance by following the YouTube link below.
Has Adele Been on any Other Shows?
Like so many musicians, Adele has been a guest performer or simply guest on so many TV shows throughout her career. She has performed on Saturday Night Live, been the musical guest on Ellen, and been interviewed by pretty much every single late night host out there.
Adele also had a cameo on a TV show once. In 2009, she appeared as herself on the television show Ugly Betty for the episode titled In the Stars. In the episode, Adele performs her song Right As Rain and is brought in to perform at an event hosted in a planetarium.
While Adele was never on American Idol, she has appeared as a guest on a lot of different shows. With her music career continuing, it is possible we will see her in even more prolific TV roles in the future.