{"id":341229,"date":"2025-08-13T13:19:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T13:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/341229\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T13:19:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T13:19:16","slug":"adela-is-relishing-her-role-as-pops-newest-provocateur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/341229\/","title":{"rendered":"AD\u00c9LA is relishing her role as pop’s newest provocateur"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/strong>D\u00c9LA named her debut EP \u2018The Provocateur\u2019 because she\u2019s \u201ca little bit of a rage-baiter\u201d. A year after her first brush with public perception on Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE, a Netflix series about the making of girl group KATSEYE<\/a>, she\u2019s building a career as a wildly exciting solo artist. AD\u00c9LA<\/a> is the \u201cfuture reigning pop<\/a> star\u201d \u2013 Grimes<\/a>\u2018 words, not ours \u2013 who prefers spiky home truths to smooth sugarcoating.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot in the way that I necessarily want to just make people mad,\u201d the 21-year-old tells NME over Zoom. \u201cbut I think my bluntness and honesty gets people kind of jarred and makes them uncomfortable, which I\u2019ve always kind of enjoyed\u201d. AD\u00c9LA points out that the EP\u2019s cover art shows her \u201cpissing on a wall\u201d, a visual that some may find \u201cuncomfortable\u201d, but which she thinks is \u201ckind of funny\u201d.<\/p>\n

AD\u00c9LA is a devoted student of pop music who\u2019s watched \u201cevery documentary about Lady Gaga<\/a> and Beyonc\u00e9<\/a>\u201c. When she logs onto the video call from her LA apartment, the second thing we notice after AD\u00c9LA\u2019s signature pink hair is a framed photograph of Madonna<\/a> on the wall behind her. Not coincidentally, it\u2019s an iconic shot from the pop queen\u2019s infamous Sex book, a provocative highlight in her massively provocative career.<\/p>\n

\"AD\u00c9LAAD\u00c9LA. Credit: Patricia Garate<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw the \u2018Like A Prayer\u2019 video, I was so young and I was like, \u2018Wow, there\u2019s so much more to being a pop star than just being pretty and on stage,\u2019\u201d says AD\u00c9LA, who hails from Bratislava in Slovakia. \u201cI think that\u2019s why I love pop music, because you can kind of hide the meaning in a super-catchy song. There can be so much depth in an \u2018if you know, you know\u2019 kind of way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dropping on August 22, her debut EP \u2018The Provocateur\u2019 has plenty of depth. As it pivots from MARINA<\/a>-esque electro (\u2018Homewrecked\u2019) to Britney<\/a>-style robopop (\u2018Superscar\u2019) and industrial club thumpers, AD\u00c9LA documents the thrills and pitfalls of navigating the music industry as a self-aware and very ambitious young woman. \u201cMaybe I should count myself so lucky, so lucky,\u201d she sings on \u2018Superscar\u2019. \u201cAll these dirty hands, they wanna touch me, so touch me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The project is smart, sharp and savagely catchy, but \u201cnot musically very cohesive\u201d in AD\u00c9LA\u2019s eyes \u2013 something she\u2019s perfectly happy with. \u201cIt\u2019s got the first song I ever made and the last song, which was finished literally last week,\u201d she says. \u201cSo to me, it\u2019s meta in a way, because it\u2019s this snapshot of, like, \u2018How does this girl feel about what she\u2019s trying to achieve, and how is she finding all the things she has to do to get there?’\u201d<\/p>\n

One such thing is dealing with the way \u201cthe public is suddenly perceiving her\u201d, which she believes is \u201cso different from who I am as a person, really\u201d. But ultimately, she \u201cdoesn\u2019t give a fuck\u201d about it all. On the hyperpop stomper \u2018Machine Girl\u2019, which was co-produced by Grimes, AD\u00c9LA sings about being a \u201cpinned up poster of pop perfection\u201d who\u2019s \u201cd-d-drippin\u2019 in drama\u201d, but also tells us: \u201cPast her lips, you will find her brain.\u201d She\u2019s committing to the role of high-maintenance pop starlet with a knowing wink.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to make people more comfortable with being uncomfortable\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A<\/strong>D\u00c9LA\u2019s pop star training began long before she signed up for a reality show. When she was growing up in Slovakia in the 2000s, Ad\u00e9la Jergov\u00e1 became \u201cobsessed\u201d with American pop culture. She remembers watching Hannah Montana and thinking \u201cthis is what I\u2019m going to do\u201d.<\/p>\n

Her older brother tried bringing her down to earth \u2013 \u201che said, \u2018You know that girl [Miley Cyrus<\/a>] is American. It\u2019s very hard to do that here\u201d \u2013 but AD\u00c9LA wasn\u2019t deterred. She committed fully to her ballet lessons, which offered a \u201cvery structured and traditional\u201d career path in Slovakia, but also taught herself English \u201cin secret\u201d so she could chase her American dream when she was older. \u201cIt was kind of a delusional vibe,\u201d she recalls with a shrug, \u201cbut not really, because I guess I\u2019m on my way to doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a teenager, AD\u00c9LA trained at the Vienna State Ballet and then at the English National Ballet School in London, which taught her the \u201cdiscipline\u201d she still values today. She notes wryly that sitting down for an interview at 9:30am \u2013 early for a pop star \u2013 is easy when you\u2019re used to \u201cwaking up at 6am to do ballet for like 12 hours a day\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AD\u00c9LAAD\u00c9LA. Credit: Patricia Garate<\/p>\n

When she moved to Los Angeles three years ago to pursue a music career, she felt immediately at home. \u201cWhereas in Slovakia,\u201d she adds, \u201cI stick out like a sore thumb.\u201d Did she try to soften her natural bluntness? After all, LA\u2019s entertainment enclaves practically run on tactful euphemisms. \u201cNo, I refuse!\u201d AD\u00c9LA replies gleefully. \u201cI think it\u2019s kind of funny, and people actually like it because they\u2019re just not used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, she landed a place on The Debut: Dream Academy<\/a>, a YouTube reality series that created the K-pop-inspired girl group KATSEYE. AD\u00c9LA was the first of 20 hopefuls to be eliminated, but again, she was undeterred. When it was followed a year later by the Netflix docuseries Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE, she was ready with an attention-grabbing debut single. \u201cI\u2019ll catch you with that dirty little whore,\u201d she sings on \u2018Homewrecked\u2019, chastising her father for his extramarital affair.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very logical about it,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause no matter if I was a background character or more prominent, I knew I\u2019d have the most eyes on me ever. But I ended up being quite the provocateur on the show.\u201d AD\u00c9LA isn\u2019t exaggerating: after the series premiered, the first comment she read was from a troll calling her an \u201cugly, stupid ass bitch\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI love pop music because you can hide a deeper meaning in a super-catchy song\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

AD\u00c9LA wrestles with her post-reality show reputation across the EP, her own way of telling trolls that \u201cI\u2019m not gonna be submissive just to win over public perception, because that\u2019s not reality, it\u2019s bullshit\u201d. Besides, bullshit would get in the way of her purpose as a pop star. \u201cI\u2019m here to make people more comfortable with being uncomfortable,\u201d AD\u00c9LA says. \u201cBeing human \u2013 truly human \u2013 in pop music, I like to talk about my imperfections. To me, the negative sides of myself are just as interesting as the positive sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The Provocateur\u2019 by AD\u00c9LA drops August 22 via Capitol Records and Polydor<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AD\u00c9LA named her debut EP \u2018The Provocateur\u2019 because she\u2019s \u201ca little bit of a rage-baiter\u201d. A year after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,3020,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-341229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-pop","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115021661205235157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}