According to Simon Cowell "Adele`s is an incredible story. ` You wouldn't have predicted this years ago when we were such an image-infatuated business."Here is somebody who has done everything her own way, gone back to basics and achieved this incredible success. She's one of the most down-to-earth people you'll meet - and she hasn't changed a bit." Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, better known simply as Adele is an English recording artist and songwriter. Adele's debut album, 19, which is named for the singer's age when she began recording it, hit record stores in early 2008. Adele cemented her commercial success with an appearance in October 2008 on Saturday Night Live. At the taping of the show, the album was ranked No. 40 on iTunes. Less than 24 hours later, it was No. 1. At the 2009 Grammy awards,Adele took home Best New Artist. In addition, the album earned the singer the distinction of being named the "Sound of 2008" by the BBC. Her much anticipated follow-up album, 21, again named for her age when she recorded it, did not disappoint upon its release in early 2011. In 2012, she swept the Grammy Awards, taking home six wins, including Album of the Year. She found herself with two top-five singles and a pair of top-five albums in the same week, the first artist since the Beatles to achieve that milestone. She is the only child of Penny Adkins, who was just 18 at the time of her birth, and a Welsh father, Mark, who left the family when Adele was only 4 years old. Mark, who never married Penny, remained in contact with his daughter up until her teen years, when his problems with alcohol, and increasing estrangement from his daughter, caused their relationship to deteriorate. Early on, Adele developed a passion for music. But her true, eye-opening moment came when she was 15, and she happened upon a collection of Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald records. "There was no musical heritage in our family," Adele told The Telegraph in a 2008 interview. "Chart music was all I ever knew. So when I listened to the Ettas and the Ellas, it was like an awakening. I was like, oh, right, some people have proper longevity and are legends. I was so inspired that as a 15-year-old I was listening to music that had been made in the 40s." Coupled with the success is Adele's own maturity, and ability to avoid the same kind of fame-induced pitfalls that plagued the late Amy Winehouse. Adele, whose larger, curvier body bucks the trend of most Top 40 celebs, is also supremely confident not just in her talent, but also in her looks. "I've seen people where it rules their lives, you know, who want to be thinner body, and how it wears them down," she told Vogue magazine in 2011. "And I just don't want that in my life." According to Adele, she likes having her hair and face done, but will not lose weight just because someone tells her to. She says that she makes music to be a musician not to be on the cover of a magazine. Please view the clip below to see and hear the genius of Adele.