Released 23 October 2015
Format Digital download
Recorded 2014–15
Studio Metropolis Studios (London)
Genre Soul
Length 4:55
Label XL
Writer(s)
Adele Adkins Greg Kurstin
Producer(s) Greg Kurstin
“Hello” is a song by English singer Adele. It was released on 23 October 2015 by XL Recordings as the lead single from her third studio album, 25 (2015). Adele co-wrote the song with her producer, Greg Kurstin. “Hello” is a piano ballad with soul influences, and lyrics that discuss themes of nostalgia and regret. Upon release, the song was well received by music critics, who compared it favourably to Adele’s previous work and praised the song’s lyrics and Adele’s vocals. It was recorded in London.
“Hello” reached number one in almost every country it charted in, including the United Kingdom, where it became her second UK number-one single, following “Someone like You”, and has the largest opening week sales in three years. In the United States, “Hello” debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Adele’s fourth number-one on the chart and breaking several records, including becoming the first song to sell over a million digital copies in a week. By the end of 2015, it had sold 12.3 million units globally (combined sales and track-equivalent streams) and was the year’s 7th best-selling single.
The accompanying music video was directed by Xavier Dolan and co-stars Adele and Tristan Wilds. The music video for the song broke the Vevo Record by achieving over 27.7 million views within a 24-hour span, held previously by Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” which accumulated 20.1 million views in that timeframe. It also broke the record for shortest time to attain 100 million Vevo views, previously held by Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball”, as well as shortest time to reach 1 billion YouTube views (88 days). The clip received seven nominations at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year and Best Female Video. Adele promoted the song with a live performance on a BBC one-hour-long special, entitled Adele at the BBC. At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, “Hello” won three Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance.
“Hello” was written by Adele and Greg Kurstin and produced by the latter. Kurstin also played bass, guitar, drums, piano and keyboards, while Adele also played drums. “Hello” was written in Chiswick, London, something not normally done by Adele, who said she likes to write her music at home.[7] The writing process for the song was slow, taking six months to complete. Initially Adele and Kurstin started writing the first verse; finishing half of the song, six months later Adele contacted Kurstin to finish the song with her, with Kurstin stating he was not sure “if Adele was ever going to come back and finish it.”
“Hello” is a soul piano ballad, played in the key of F minor at a tempo of 79 beats per minute. The repeated chord progression heard in the verse, played by the piano, follows a progression of Fm–A♭–E♭–D♭. According to Musicnotes.com, Adele’s vocals span from F3 to A♭5 in the song.During the chorus Adele is heard singing the lines over layers of backing vocals, piano and drums which were described by the The Daily Telegraph as leaning “towards a very luscious wall of sound”
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 song’s lyrics were also seen as being conversational, revolving around “all the relationships of her past”, ranging from friends, family members and ex-partners. Speaking on the song’s lyrical content, Adele told Nick Grimshaw on The 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.” 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.”