This past Friday, Sept. 4th, Dream Academy alumna Adéla released her debut album, “PRIMA.”
“PRIMA” features the most vibrant look into self-discovery, love and female empowerment by Adéla yet. By unapologetically blending genres with finesse, it establishes her “cool girl” persona she often plays onstage.
The song “Nicole Kidman” highlights this signature self-assuredness central to the album’s themes with lyrics such as “And every single day/ I wake up, the world is my buffet / I fly out, f— up another stage/ Babygirl in control, I feel like Nicole.”
Just when Adéla appears unstoppable, she shows her vulnerability with songs like “Therapy,” which hits listeners where it hurts:
“I miss when my little sister used to call me ‘Mom’/ ‘Cause now she gets a little awkward when I talk to her/ When I left home she was so tiny/ Now I come back, and she is my size.”
Adéla sings about the distance that grew between her and her family as she pursued fame and found her own footing in the music industry. While other songs on the album, such as “KGB,” describe her path to fame and what she had to give up, Adéla makes it explicitly clear she would not want it any other way.
The unspoken shift between her and her sister, however, shows that love doesn’t always take the same shape. Sometimes, love can exist at a distance, painfully and quietly, but still feel just as real. Adéla copes with the loss of her sisterhood through music, channeling her feelings into quality music that resonates with the masses.
Her vulnerability doesn’t end there, in her song “Red Bottoms,” where she uses the term as a metaphor for baring one’s soul or vulnerabilities, such as the boldness or even fragility of wearing something so eye-catching yet evocative as Louboutin shoes.
The song delves into themes of trust and self-doubt in romantic contexts, celebrating authenticity even when it’s most risky.
Adéla then ends the album with her viral single “Ain’t in LA”, in which she talks about the experience of entering the Western music industry as an immigrant. Wholeheartedly she sings about what it felt like as an outsider in a world that celebrates an occidental perspective of success:
“‘Cause she knows she’s beautiful, uh/ And she’s taught that her dreams don’t live at home.”
Adéla knows that her self-image is not defined by what she’s told, but by how she feels. And with this album, “PRIMA” teaches all of us that we, too, should feel assured in our own definitions of success and confidence.
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Pehnina is a writer at The Express. Follow her on her Instagram, @pehnina.
