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 break
Miley 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]
Live performances
