Adele - Hello
"Hello" is a song by English singer Adele. It was released on 23 October 2015 by XL Recordings as the lead single from her third studio album, 25 (2015). Adele co-wrote the song with her producer, Greg Kurstin. "Hello" is a piano ballad with soul influences, and lyrics that discuss themes of nostalgia and regret. Upon release, the song was well received by music critics, who compared it favourably to Adele's previous work and praised the song's lyrics and Adele's vocals.
"Hello" attained international commercial success reaching number one in almost every country it charted in, including the United Kingdom, where it became her second UK number-one single, following "Someone like You", and has the largest opening week sales in three years. In the United States, "Hello" debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Adele's fourth number-one on the chart and breaking several records, including becoming the first song to sell over a million digital copies in a week.
The accompanying music video was directed by Xavier Dolan and co-stars Adele and Tristan Wilds. The music video for the song broke the Vevo Record by achieving over 27.7 million views within a 24-hour span, held previously byTaylor Swift's "Bad Blood" which accumulated 20.1 million views in that timeframe. It also broke the record for shortest time to attain 100 million Vevo views, previously held by Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball", as well as shortest time to reach 1 billion YouTube views (88 days). Adele promoted the song with a live performance on a BBC one-hour special, entitled Adele at the BBC.
Writing and composition
"Hello" was written by Adele and Greg Kurstin and produced by the latter. Kurstin also played bass, guitar, drums, piano and keyboards, while Adele also played drums.[3] "Hello" was written in Chiswick, London, something not normally done by Adele, who said she likes to write her music at home.[4] The writing process for the song was slow, taking six months to complete. Initially Adele and Kurstin started writing the first verse; finishing half of the song, six months later Adele contacted Kurstin to finish the song with her, with Kurstin stating he was not sure "if Adele was ever going to come back and finish it."[5]
"Hello" is a soul piano ballad,[1][6] played in the key of F minor at a tempo of 79 beats per minute. The repeated chord progression heard in the verse, played by the piano, follows a progression of Fm–A♭–E♭–D♭. According to Musicnotes.com, Adele's vocals span from F3 to A♭5 in the song.[7] During the chorus Adele is heard singing the lines over layers of backing vocals, piano and drums which were described by the The Daily Telegraph as leaning "towards a very luscious wall of sound".[2]
Lyrically, the song focuses on themes of nostalgia and regret and plays out like a conversation. The song was noted for containing themes of regret and was seen as a follow-up to her single "Someone like You" appearing to reflect on a failed relationship. The songs lyrics were also seen as being conversational, revolving around "all the relationships of her past", ranging from friends, family members and ex partners.[8] Speaking on the song's lyrical content, Adele told Nick Grimshawon the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show: "I felt all of us were moving on, and it's not about an ex-relationship, a love relationship, it's about my relationship with everyone that I love. It's not that we have fallen out, we've all got our lives going on and I needed to write that song so they would all hear it, because I'm not in touch with them."[9] According to Adele, the line "Hello from the other side" signifies "the other side of becoming an adult, making it out alive from your late teens, early twenties."[5]
Release and reception[edit]
On 18 October, a 30-second clip of "Hello" was played during a commercial break on The X Factor in the United Kingdom. The commercial teased what was then new material, with her vocals accompanied by lyrics on a black screen.[10] Josh Duboff of Vanity Fair wrote that "the Internet collectively lost its mind" after the broadcast of the trailer.[11] On 22 October, Adele announced the upcoming release of 25 to her fans on Twitter. She also shared that "Hello" would be released on 23 October as the lead single off of the album.[12][13][14] On 23 October, Adele joined Nick Grimshaw's show on BBC Radio 1 for the song's premiere.[15][16]
Upon release, "Hello" was well received by music critics. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian described it as "a big ballad, but a superior example of its kind", and opined that the song is "precisely the kind of lovelorn epic ballad that made Adele one of the biggest stars in the world."[17] Writing for The Independent, Emily Jupp stated in her review of the song that it "might not be groundbreaking, but Adele's return with her familiar, smoky sound is very welcome". She called it an "'if it ain't broke' ballad" and said: "Adele does what she does best, belting out emotional tales of love and loss much the same as with her last album, 21, but this time, with a little more self-forgiveness."[18]
Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune wrote: "Lyrics that work best when they zoom in on personal details match her combination of vocal power and restraint."[19] Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph called it "a beautiful song of loss and regret", adding that "it takes a grip on the kind of memory every listener holds somewhere in their heart and merges it with Adele's own drama."[2] Rolling Stone ranked "Hello" at number 6 on its year-end list to find the 50 best songs of 2015.[20] Several publications have commented on similarities in the theme of the song and accompanying video with that of "Hello" by American singer Lionel Richie.[21][22]
Commercial performance
Europe and Oceania
Three days after its release, the Official Charts Company announced that "Hello" had accumulated 165,000 chart sales in the United Kingdom, of which 156,000 were downloads.[23] "Hello" entered at the top of the UK Singles Chart on 30 October 2015, – for the week dated 5 November 2015 – with 333,000 combined sales, of which 259,000 were downloads, making it the biggest selling number-one single on the chart in three years. It marked Adele's second UK number-one single, after 2011's "Someone like You". Additionally, "Hello" was streamed 7.32 million times in its first week, breaking the streaming record previously held by Justin Bieber's "What Do You Mean?". Including streaming sales and excluding The X Factor and Pop Idol winners' singles, major charity campaign records and Christmas number ones, "Hello" was the second biggest selling number one of the 21st century in the UK, beaten only by Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me", which sold 345,000 copies in a week in February 2001.[24] The following week the song remained at number one on the UK Singles Charts, "Hello" sold a further 121,000 downloads and was streamed 5.78 million times, the same week the song was certified Gold by the BPI.[25] The song also debuted at number one in Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland.[26]
In Australia, "Hello" entered at the top of the ARIA Singles Chart on 31 October 2015, selling over 59,075 units, which earned the song a gold certification in its first week. The song also became the second fastest-selling single of the year, behind Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again."[27] It marked Adele's second number-one single on the ARIA Singles Chart following 2011's "Someone like You".[28] The single stayed atop the chart for a second week and was certified platinum selling over 70,000 units.[27]
In New Zealand, the song debuted at number one on the New Zealand singles chart, holding the position the following week and was certified platinum.[29]
North America
In the United States, "Hello" entered at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 on 2 November 2015, for the chart dated 14 November 2015, becoming only the 24th song to debut at number one. "Hello" started at number 49 on the Radio Songs chart, after three days of release. In its first full week of airplay, it rose from 45 to 9, up 146% to 70 million all format audience impressions. The track started at number one on the On-Demand Songs chart with a record 20.4 million on-demand streams, becoming her first number-one song on the chart. "Hello" entered at the top of the Digital Songs chart with sales of 1,112,000, the first track to sell one million digital copies in a single week and almost doubling the record for the most downloads sold in a week, previously held by Flo Rida's "Right Round", which sold 636,000 downloads in the week ending 28 February 2009. "Hello" started with 61.6 million US streams, becoming her first number-one song and the second greatest weekly total on the Streaming Songs chart, behind Baauer's "Harlem Shake", which registered 103 million streams on week of 3 March 2013.[30] "Hello" is the first song to sell more than a million digital copies in a single week and the third highest weekly sales total since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. Only Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About the Way You Look Tonight" has sold more in a single week, selling 3.446 million copies in its opening week and 1.212 million copies in its second week.[31]
In its second week, "Hello" stayed at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, selling another 635,000 digital copies marking the third-best digital sales week and the highest for a non-debut week. "Hello" also held atop Streaming Songs with 47.4 million US streams, down 23 percent from 61.6 million in its first week, the track also stayed atop the On-Demand Songs with 18.1 million streams. On the Radio Songs chart, "Hello" moved from 9 to 6, up by 46% to 106 million all-format audience impressions, thus becoming the top Airplay Gainer on the Hot 100. The track also moved from two to one on the Adult Alternative Songs airplay chart and moved nine to four on the Adult Contemporary format.[32] The following week, the song stayed at the top of the Hot 100 and Digital Songs chart, selling 480,000 downloads and becoming just the third song to sell over 400,000 copies for three straight weeks. "Hello" also rose from 6 to 1 on the Radio Songs chart in just its fourth week (the greatest leap to number one on the chart's 25-year history), marking the quickest climb to number one on the chart in 22 years, since Mariah Carey's "Dreamlover" reached the top in its fourth frame on August 28, 1993. Additionally, "Hello" became just the third song to top the Hot 100, Digital Songs, Streaming Songs, On-Demand Songs and Radio Songs tallies simultaneously in the nearly three years all five charts had coexisted. "Hello" remained atop the Hot 100 for ten consecutive weeks, becoming only the 31st No. 1 in the Hot 100's history to reign for at least 10 weeks. By spending a tenth week at the top of the chart, it became Adele's longest-running number-one single and the longest-leading Hot 100 No. 1 since Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again," featuring Charlie Puth, which ruled for 12 weeks in 2015. "Hello" also logged the most weeks atop the Hot 100 by a solo female since Rihanna's "We Found Love," featuring Calvin Harris, which led for 10 weeks in 2011-2012. As of January 2016, it had sold 3.7 million downloads. [33] The Recording Industry Association of America certified the song quadruple platinum.[34] The single also benefitted from numerous Dance/EDM remixes as well,[35] thus resulting in "Hello" topping Billboard's Dance Club Songs and Dance/Mix Show Airplay charts.[36][37]
"Hello" entered at the top of the Canadian Hot 100 as the 100th song to top the chart, selling 140,000 copies and outsold Justin Bieber's "Sorry", which sold 40,000 units and debuted at number two the same week. The song was streamed 4.79 million times, setting a record for the most streamed track in a week.[38]
Music video
"[The video] is highly unoriginal. The lyrics are 'Hello, it's me' and then you see someone picking up a phone. I'm not good at imagining super conceptual videos. I just thought it would be nice to have her walk around the house and make phone calls and end up in a forest, with maybe some flashbacks in it."
—Dolan, behind the concept of the music video[39]
The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Canadian actor and director Xavier Dolan and released on 22 October 2015.[40][41] The concept of the video revolves around a recently broken-up woman calling a younger version of herself.[39] Portions of the video—mostly the finale on the pond and the shot of her opening her eyes in the beginning—were filmed with IMAX cameras, making it the first music video in IMAX format.[42] The video draws inspiration from Dolan's semi-autobiographical debut I Killed My Mother, which was made when Dolan was barely 20.[39] The video was filmed on a farm in Québec over a few days in September 2015.[39]
The video stars American actor Tristan Wilds. Dolan contacted Wilds via Skype and explained the concept for the video, which Wilds agreed to take part in.[43] During the filming both Adele and Wilds were asked to improvise and "tap into" their past relationships in order to convey the correct emotions. Dolan also filmed shots of both Adele and Wilds having conversations and laughing.[43] The sepia toned video shows Adele performing the song in a small house and outside in a wooded forest, intercut with scenes of her making a tearful phone call and flashbacks to a past relationship with Wilds' character.[44]
The flip phone used by Adele in the video was widely commented upon due to being of a retro style. Dolan replied to the remarks by saying: "It makes me uncomfortable filming iPhones because I feel like I'm shooting a commercial. Those things: iPhones, laptops, all those elements, to me, they bring me back to reality: That's not what you want. You want to get out of your own life; you want to enter someone else's; you want to travel somewhere; you want to be told a story. I'm realizing maybe I've been more distracting than anything else with that flip phone, but it wasn't intentional!"[45]
The music video for the song broke the previous Vevo Record by achieving over 27.7 million views within a 24-hour period.[46] Later, the video continued to breakMiley Cyrus's "Wrecking Ball" Vevo record for the fastest video to reach 100 million views in 5 days.[47] The phrase "Adele hello" was also the top YouTube search term of Friday and Saturday, and on average the video was getting one million views per hour during the first two days, peaking at 1.6 million in a single hour, beating the peak view rate of the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which peaked at 1.2 million views per hour.[48]
As of February 6, 2016, the video has become the 15th most viewed video on YouTube,[49] having earned over 1.12 billion views.[50]
Live performances
Adele performed "Hello" live for the first time for a BBC one-hour special, Adele at the BBC, which was recorded on 2 November and was broadcast on BBC One on 20 November.[51][52] She also performed the song at the 17th NRJ Music Awards on 7 November 2015,[53] at Radio City Music Hall in New York on 17 November 2015 as her opening number (Adele Live in New York City), and on Saturday Night Live on 21 November 2015.[54] On 23 November 2015, after appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Adele recorded the song with Fallon and his house band, The Roots, playing classroom instruments. The version was broadcast on the show the following night.[55] On 13 December 2015 Adele performed "Hello" on the X Factor live final at Wembley arena.[56]
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