Adele says being a white woman has definitely helped her music career.
The singer acknowledged her privilege while offering advice to young women in a Hollywood Reporter interview published Thursday.
“More than anything, it’s just being yourself,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons I’ve been so lucky with my career — on top of the obvious of me being a white woman in music.”
The “Hello” singer said she’s also been able to have a unique amount of control over her career, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “I think people are quite scared of me, and they’ve been like that since I was 18.”
She added: “I don’t know what it is; I think there’s no room for negotiations when it comes to what I want to do and how I want to do it. And it’s always been like that.”
Adele has previously spoken about the influence that Black artists have had on her music, citing Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige and Etta James as inspirations.
“She was the first time a voice made me stop what I was doing and sit down and listen,” Adele said of James during a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone. “It took over my mind and body.”
Adele dedicated a 2017 Grammy win for Album of the Year to Beyoncé, telling the artist how her “Lemonade” album deserved the honoUr because “the way you make my Black friends feel is empowering, and you make them stand up for themselves.”
“My personal opinion is that Beyoncé definitely should have won,” the “Easy on Me” singer said in a 2021 interview with Vogue.
“For my friends who are women of colour, it [‘Lemonade’] was such a huge acknowledgment for them, of the sort of undermined grief that they go through,” she explained.