Adele’s 21, which was released in North America 15 years ago on Saturday (Feb. 22), is an example of what’s possible in the music business when everything goes right – when a talented artist makes the right record at the right time and the record company knows just how to maximize its potential.
21, which had been released a month earlier in Europe by XL Recordings, was an instant hit when Columbia Records released it in the U.S. It entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 – a huge improvement over Adele’s debut album, 19, which had debuted at No. 62 in June 2008.
19 in many ways had been a dry run for 21. It won two Grammys in February 2009 – best new artist and best female pop vocal performance for “Chasing Pavements.” It also led to Adele’s first performance on the Grammy telecast, where she sang that emotive ballad in tandem with Jennifer Nettles of the country duo Sugarland. “Chasing Pavements” reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 2009, in the week following the Grammy telecast. 19 made the top 10 on the Billboard 200 for the first time that same week, zooming from No. 27 to No. 10. (It ultimately peaked at No. 4 following her much larger 2012 Grammy sweep.)
21 displaced Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never: The Remixes to first claim the No. 1 spot in the week of March 5, 2011. The album had 10 separate runs in the top spot, the last coming in the week of June 23, 2012.
But the album’s success transcended charts and awards. 21 unified the fragmented pop audience like few other albums have in this century. Old and young, Black and white, hip and square – everybody, it seemed, liked Adele.
Billboard editors named 21 the best album of 2011, with Jason Lipshutz and Jillian Mapes writing:“21 became one of those very rare moments in the music world where an album is as commercially successful as it is critically praised, not to mention beloved by fans across all demographics.”
Here are 12 records that 21 set.
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Longest run at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for an album by a female solo artist
21 logged 24 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the longest run by any album since Prince & the Revolution’s Purple Rain completed a 24-week run at No. 1 in January 1985. Moreover, it was the longest run by an album by a female solo artist in the history of the chart (which originated as a consistent weekly feature in March 1956). That record was formerly held by Whitney Houston’s soundtrack to The Bodyguard, which led for 20 weeks in 1992-93.
These two iconic singers share another common bond. Houston died the day before the 2012 Grammy Awards, where Adele won six Grammys. In a superficial sense, Houston’s death upstaged Adele on her big night, but in another, more important way, Houston’s death greatly expanded the audience for that year’s telecast, as millions of viewers tuned in to see how the Grammys would react to a development they couldn’t possibly have foreseen. The show had the second largest audience ever for a Grammy telecast, topped only by the 1984 show which was a virtual coronation of Michael Jackson. That obviously worked to Adele’s benefit on a show where she swept the top awards and performed “Rolling in the Deep.” In the week following the Grammys, 21 sold 730,000 copies (up 207% from the previous week for its best sales week ever).
On the CBS broadcast, Adele performed live for the first time in nearly five months, after being forced to cancel a sold-out U.S. tour to undergo surgery on her vocal cords. That brought a little more drama to the night, which may have also stoked viewer interest.
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Most weeks in the top 10 for an album by a female artist (record since broken)
21 logged 84 weeks in the top 10 on the Billboard 200, which was for many years the record for an album by a female solo artist. SZA broke the record in April 2025 with SOS, which has logged 115 weeks in the top 10.
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Most weeks on the Billboard 200 for an album by a female artist (record since broken)
In the spring of 2017, 21 broke the record for the longest-charting album by a female artist on the Billboard 200, surpassing Carole King’s era-defining 1971 blockbuster Tapestry.
21 has logged 617 weeks on the Billboard 200, but an album by another female artist has surpassed it. Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die is out front with 627 weeks on the chart. Born to Die debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 the week of Feb. 18, 2012, blocked from the top spot by (you guessed it) 21.
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First album by one artist to spawn three Hot 100 hits that were No. 1 concurrent with the album topping the Billboard 200
“Rolling in the Deep,” “Someone Like You” and “Set Fire to the Rain” all topped the Billboard Hot 100 while 21 topped the Billboard 200.
The multi-artist Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was the only previous album to achieve this feat, heading up the Billboard 200 while the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” and “Night Fever” and Yvonne Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You” each reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 1978.
“If I Can’t Have You” topped the Hot 100 for just a single frame, whereas all three of these Adele singles had multiple weeks on top. That makes 21 the only album to top the Billboard 200 while three of its singles were multi-week Hot 100 No. 1s.
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First woman with three songs in the top 10 on the Hot 100 as a lead artist at the same time
Adele achieved the feat in the week of March 3, 2012, following her Grammy sweep. “Set Fire to the Rain” held at No. 2, “Rolling in the Deep” rebounded from No. 17 to No. 5 and “Someone Like You” rebounded from No. 11 to No. 7. All three songs had previously reached No. 1.
The Fine Print: Ashanti had three songs in the top 10 in March 2002, but that combined lead and featured credits. Whitney Houston came agonizingly close in March 1993, when she had three songs in the top … 11. In the years since 2012, such artists as Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift have tied or broken the record.
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First album by a female artist to rank as Billboard’s top album of the year twice
21 was Billboard’s No. 1 album of the year for both 2011 and 2012. It was only the fourth album to repeat as the year’s top album, following the Broadway cast album from My Fair Lady (1957-58), the film soundtrack to West Side Story (1962-63) and Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1983-84).
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Fastest climb to 10 million in U.S. sales in more than 10 years
21 surpassed 10 million in U.S. sales on Nov. 25, 2012, according to Luminate. That was the fastest that any album had reached the 10 million sales mark since ‘N Sync’s No Strings Attached, which raced to that milestone in its 43rd week (in January 2001). Of course, that was at the peak of the blockbuster CD era. 21 was released at a time when many thought such megahits were a thing of the past.
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Highest RIAA certification level of any album released in the 21st century
21 is certified for U.S. shipments of 17 million copies, the highest level of any album released in the 21st century. It is trailed by Taylor Swift’s 1989 and Usher’s Confessions, both at 14 million, and OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, at 13 million.
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Tied existing record for most Grammy wins by a female artist in one night
Image Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images At the 54th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 12, 2012, Adele won six Grammys, tying Beyoncé’s record set two years earlier for the most Grammys won by a female artist in one night. The two superstars still share that record.
The two artists were forever linked in Grammy lore in 2017, when Adele’s 25 and Beyoncé’s Lemonade competed for album of the year. In one of the most selfless and generous moments in Grammy history, Adele, the victor in that category, said, “I can’t possibly accept this award. And I’m very humbled, and I’m very grateful and gracious, but my artist of my life is Beyoncé. This album, the Lemonade album, was to me was so monumental, and so well-thought-out and so beautiful and soul-baring… and all us artists here, we f—ing adore you. You are our light.”
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Second female artist to win Grammys for album, record and song of the year in one year
Adele won album of the year for 21 and record and song of the year for “Rolling in the Deep.” Carole King was the only female solo artist who had previously achieved this sweep, in 1972 when Tapestry won album of the year, “It’s Too Late” took record of the year and “You’ve Got a Friend” won song of the year.
Also, Adele was only the second British artist, after Eric Clapton in 1993, to sweep each of the top three Grammys in one night. At 23, she was the youngest artist at the time to achieve this feat. The latter record was later broken by Billie Eilish, who was 18 when she achieved the feat in 2020.
Adele did it again in 2017, making her the only artist to do it twice.
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Longest run at No. 1 for an album by a female artist on the Official U.K. Albums chart
21 logged 23 weeks at No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums chart, setting a new record for an album by a female artist. The old record was jointly held by Alanis Morisette’s 1995 blockbuster Jagged Little Pill and Shania Twain’s 1998 smash Come On Over, each of which had 11 weeks on top.
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First album in 26 years to win both album of the year at the Grammys and British album of the year at the BRITs
Image Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images 21 was the first album to win both album of the year at the Grammys and British album of the year at the BRIT Awards since Phil Collins’ No Jacket Required in 1986. Adele repeated the transatlantic feat with her next studio set, 25. Harry Styles’ Harry’s House is the only other album to achieve the feat.
Note: In addition to its Grammy win for album of the year, Michael Jackson’s Thriller won best-selling album of the year at the Brits in 1984, but that’s not the same thing.
