Adéla Jergová imagines her own future on Prima

Even though it is 2026 and it has never been easier to bring music to audiences on the other side of the world, it is still not particularly easy for European artists to break into the US charts and become part of the global scene. Of course, in recent years we have seen exceptions, from Måneskin to artists who, thanks to TikTok, have managed to cross borders that once seemed much more firmly drawn, but the center of the music industry, especially pop, still very clearly lies several thousand kilometers farther west. That is why, in recent weeks, I have become so intrigued by the fact that numerous American and British media outlets are devoting considerable attention to explaining the phenomenon of a 22-year-old Slovak woman. Her name is Adéla, and if you have not yet come across her vivid pink hair, incredible choreography, or the song Ain’t In LA, I am fairly certain it is only a matter of time.

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Who is Adéla?

Adéla Jergová grew up in Bratislava, trained in ballet from childhood, and spent years studying American pop stars in the hope of one day joining them onstage. She was first introduced to a wider audience through The Debut: Dream Academy, the reality project that produced the group Katseye. Adéla was eliminated very early on, but this ultimately steered her toward something completely different. Her immense determination to become a star, as well as her willingness to say so publicly, immediately reminded me of the early stages of Addison Rae’s career. Not so much because of the music, but because of the way audiences initially regarded both of them with a certain degree of skepticism. Addison spent a long time trying to overcome the label of a TikTok star attempting to build a pop career, until her dedication became impossible to ignore. Adéla’s initial label is different. People know her as the girl who did not make it into Katseye, but the beginning of her career feels familiar. In both cases, it is fascinating to watch someone who clearly understands what a pop star is supposed to be, who is obsessed enough with that world to study it in detail, and who then turns being underestimated into part of her own story.

Adéla has now released her debut album, Prima

With her debut album, Prima, Adéla has finally found the space to write her own version of the future. Its eleven songs sound like a manifestation of a life she does not yet fully have, but which she clearly believes belongs to her. The title itself takes her back to her first language, ballet, where prima ballerina denotes the highest rank a female soloist can attain. Adéla is now bringing that idea into music. She wants arenas, grand choreography, fashion moments people will talk about, and the kind of recognition that makes an artist’s name bigger than any single song. On Prima, boldly and confidently, she makes no attempt to present any of this as an accidental by-product of making music. Fame is part of the plan, perhaps even its most honest part, and the album sounds as though she has already begun living in accordance with the life she is only now trying to claim.

That particular hunger runs throughout the album. On KGB, she turns her Eastern European roots into mythology and sings about learning English by studying American culture. On Therapy, she speaks directly about the industry figures she has to talk to because they hold the keys to her future, while Ain’t In LA, the song that took her onto the Billboard Hot 100 and made her the first Slovak artist ever to achieve that feat, is perhaps the clearest expression of her entire vision. The American dream is here, and Adéla is no longer watching it from the other side of the ocean.

The album’s most anticipated song, symbolically titled Nicole Kidman, was born at a Hollywood event where Adéla arrived fully dressed up, wearing a corset so tight that she thought she looked like Nicole Kidman, and turned that thought into a song about glamour, control, and a life that is slowly beginning to resemble a movie. The story became even better when Kidman heard about the song, publicly showed that she knew who Adéla was, and then made her TikTok debut to Ain’t In LA. For someone who grew up obsessed with American pop culture, it is difficult to imagine better proof that the world she spent years watching from a distance is now slowly beginning to look back at her.

Musically, Prima bears the clear influence of stars such as Ariana Grande, Britney Spears, Miley, and Timbaland, along with the entire canon of Y2K dance-pop and the early 2000s, as well as traces of all the artists Adéla readily names as her inspirations. As on Addison’s debut album, the cohesion here comes less from a single distinctive sound than from the person at its center. Some songs are far more striking than others, and at times it is clear that we are listening to someone’s first album, but Adéla already possesses something that is much harder to manufacture later: a very precise idea of who she wants to be.

Based on everything we know so far, Adéla is not an accidental viral star trying to extend her fifteen minutes. She seems like someone who has been planning those fifteen minutes since childhood and now wants to turn them into an entire career. As with all debut albums, Prima is not proof that she has already become the pop star she wants to be, but it has served perfectly as a document of the moment in which we are watching someone who is utterly convinced that she will get there. Still, it is refreshing to see someone speak so honestly about that ambition and be willing to show just how far she intends to go to fulfill it. And I, along with, I suspect, the rest of her fans, cannot wait to see how far that confidence will take her.

Adéla Jergová imagines her own future on Prima

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