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On Nov. 20, Adele released her highly anticipated third album, 25. Arriving over four years after her last album, titled 21, her latest 25 quickly became one of the most successful records of all time. Within days, the album broke numerous records previously held by other big name artists from *NSYNC to Taylor Swift.
Prior to the album’s debut, Adele premiered “Hello” and an accompanying music video. This began a cycle of record-breaking that would continue for several weeks through 25’s release. “Hello” sold 1.1 millions copies in the first week after its release, becoming the first single to ever do so. The song smashed the record held by Flo Rida’s single “Right Round” for one week sales, which sold 636,000 copies in 2009. Additionally, it more than doubled the record for most on-demand streams in one week, beating Justin Bieber’s “What Do You Mean?” 10.1 million to 20.4 million.
The sepia-toned music video for “Hello” is directed by Xavier Dolan and stars Adele and Tristan Wilds. The video is emotional but untheatrical, featuring flashbacks to a lost love and a phone call full of regret. It is the first music video to feature clips shot with an IMAX camera. On its first day of release the video was watched 27.7 million times, breaking yet another record; Vevo’s record for the most views in 24 hours was previously held by Taylor Swift’s highly advertised “Bad Blood” music video, with 20.1 million views.
Upon 25’s release, the album became the first ever to sell 3 million copies in a week. The previous record for most albums sold in a week was *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached, which sold 2.41 million copies in 2002. Adele’s reached 2.43 million in just over three days, reaching 3.38 million by the end of the week. 25 also took the title for best selling album of 2015 within a week, beating Taylor Swift’s 1989, which sold 1.8 million copies since January 2015. 25 sold another 1.1 million copies the next week, becoming the first album to ever sell over a million copies the second week of its release.
Adele also plans to launch a European and North American tour at the end of February, including two local shows at the SAP Center and one at the Oracle Arena. Tickets went on sale in December and sold out in less than an hour, with ten million people trying to purchase tickets from Ticketmaster as soon as they went on sale. Tickets are now available for resale.
photos courtesy Google
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