23-year-old pop singer, Adele.
If you’re a popular actor or singer, revealing yourself as someone with conservative principles is close to career suicide. Conservatives in Hollywood and the top-40 music industry are few and far between. But don‘t tell that to one of today’s most popular singers in both the UK and the US.
Adele — the curvy British woman with a raspy voice — is currently one the hottest singers on the radio. But now she’s taking heat not for her the melodic notes coming out her mouth, but for her words. Just get a load of what she said recently about nationalized health care and high taxes:
“I’m mortified to have to pay 50 per cent! [While] I use the NHS, I can’t use public transport any more. Trains are always late, most state schools are s**t, and I’ve gotta give you, like, four million quid – are you having a laugh? When I got my tax bill in from [her album] 19, I was ready to go and buy a gun and randomly open fire.”
Adele‘s comments come during a time in Britain where many of the country’s youth are blasting austerity. Consequently, the comments have been panned.
“Now, I love Adele. But that doesn’t exactly endear you to her, does it?” writes Guardian blogger Rob Fitzpatrick. He goes on to make a case that Adele pays nothing compared to the Beatles, who complained about being taxed at 95 percent.
But at least one Brit is praising her comments. James Delingpole writes in The London Telegraph that Adele is truly being unique and different by disavowing the “socialist principles” in showbiz:
A rock star can get away with many vices – from drugs to Satan worship to on-stage bat decapitation – but the one perversion that remains absolutely verboten is the kind of conservatism expressed by Adele. Rock stars, after all, are traditionally supposed to be champions of the underdog. Their fans may permit them the odd stately home or private jet, but what they absolutely won’t forgive is any sign that they’ve abandoned their socialist principles. That would be “selling out”.
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Adele, your openness, fearlessness and integrity puts the rest of your industry to shame.
And just in case you think Adele is a nobody, the Guardian has named her the most powerful forcein the UK music industry. Her song “Rolling in the Deep” is currently number one on the Billboard Hot 100. You can listen below:
It seems Adele’s political views are as counter-cultural as her modest image.
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