With her Slovakian roots and hot-pink hair, ADÉLA hit the music world with her new album, PRIMA. As a nod to her early ballet training, PRIMA takes its title from “prima ballerina,” the most prestigious title a ballerina can have. The album hypes up ADÉLA in her journey to becoming a pop star, exploring the highs and lows of trying to achieve that dream. 

But to those who have never heard the name, who is ADÉLA? 

In June 2022, a training program for a new international girl group managed by HYBE and Geffen Records (HxG) — both K-pop management companies — sprung up. Out of over 120,000 applicants, 20 girls were chosen to try out in “Popstar Academy” and compete for a spot in the group now known as KATSEYE.

ADÉLA was one of the 14 girls who were eliminated from the program. Despite her dreams being cut short, she didn’t stop working toward becoming the first Slovak popstar. This is where PRIMA comes in.

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In the first song, “KGB,” ADÉLA immediately establishes her ethos with the lines, “I was like eight, working the night shift to learn English/I’m like a spy, I studied this s—, call me the KG, b—-.” Not only does ADÉLA introduce that she is from a post-Soviet Union country within the first lyric, she retorts in a confident attitude about how hard she worked to become self-made. 

Despite knowing she’s earned her place, she tries to stay humble with the last prechorus, “I’m forward, I’m foreign/Forgive the way I say this/I’m pretty important.” And, of course, the dance sequence at the end of the music video helped this song officially ‘pop off’ while it was still a single.

In the tenth song, “Therapy,” ADÉLA speaks on how much she misses her younger sister: “I miss when my little sister used to call me mom/‘Cause now she gets a little awkward when she talks to me/When I left home, she was so tiny/Now I come back, and she’s my size.” For anyone who has a younger sister, the message served as a tug to the heartstrings.

Overall, “Therapy” isn’t a song just about missing the milestones in her sister’s life. She speaks about wanting to get her mother out of Slovakia, how she’s mad that her voice gives out, and how she’s pissed off at her dad. 

It’s about everything she is irritated and upset about as her career has gotten bigger. It’s about how everything in Slovakia is moving on without her. All she feels she has to show for it is a voice that doesn’t always work and the annoying “old white men” who hold the keys to her future.

If “KGB” was ADÉLA establishing her ethos, “Ain’t in LA” carries her pathos. She opens the song with a vocal effect reminiscent of late-2010’s pop, using reverb and the artist’s deepened voice to pull listeners into ADÉLA’s world once the verses begin.

“She shares a room with her younger brother/Clothes secondhand from her bestfriend’s mother/Cut ‘em all up yeah she got her own style/Madonna on the wall next to Destiny’s Child,” she sang.

The lyrics paint a picture of a young ADÉLA, growing up in Slovakia with her idols on the wall looking back at her. She doesn’t have much, but she dreams of a day when she can become someone like Madonna or Beyoncé.

In the song “Ain’t In LA,” ADÉLA calls out to all the other girls in the chorus who are from unknown countries and cities just like she is. 

“Maybe tonight, we don’t gotta run away/It’s all a lie, the baddest b—— ain’t in LA/Enjoy the ride, I know that you might wanna escape,” she sang.

With these lyrics, she tells the girls they’re beautiful and don’t need to go to LA in order to become who they’re meant to be.

ADÉLA is still on the rise, but PRIMA has already shown how iconic she can be. Swag, hot pink, ballet, and the reality of what the “American Dream” means today all come together to make PRIMA.

With so much of her story left to tell, I’m itching to see where ADÉLA goes next.