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'New Winehouse' Adele Adkins wins Brit award
Alex Stephens, Evening Standard10 Dec 2007
A teenage jazz singer from north London has become the first winner of the Brit Awards Critics Choice Prize.
Adele Adkins, who has been dubbed the new Amy Winehouse, was chosen by a panel of 50 music writers for the prize, which is aimed at artists who have yet to release an album and encourage new talent.
A graduate of the Brit School of Performing Arts in Croydon, Adkins, 19, first received critical acclaim for songs she had posted on MySpace. She was then invited to perform on the BBC's Later With Jools Holland.
Her debut album is set to be released next month by XL, the independent record label whose artists include Radiohead and the White Stripes.
"The whole album is about being 18 and 19, about love," she said. "It's quite a sad album, with songs about being cheated on and not getting what you want.
"I've always wanted a Brit and I'm made up to be getting one so early."
Like her fellow north Londoner, Amy Winehouse, Adkins grew up listening to jazz greats such as Ella Fitzgerald and Etta James. But she says the similarities end there.
