Grammy Award winning singer songwriter Adele has a new trophy to add to her 9 Grammy Awards, 4 American Music Awards, 12 Billboard Awards and 4 BRIT Awards. During last night’s live broadcast of the Academy Awards on ABC, Adele and co-writer Paul Epworth picked up the Oscar award for Best Original Song for the song “Skyfall” from the latest installment of James Bond movies.
“Skyfall,” which Epworth also produced, is the first time a James Bond theme song has won the Academy Award. It’s also the first time a Bond song has been nominated for an Oscar since 1982’s “For Your Eyes Only” recorded by Sheena Easton. During the broadcast, it was the first time Adele performed the Bond theme, which also snagged her Best Original Song at the Golden Globe Awards and a BRIT award for Best British Single.
Recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, Adele’s “Skyfall” was released on October 5th and 180 Clear Channel radio stations played the song at the top of every hour. In less than a day, it had totaled over 10 million audience impressions and helped Adele have her first song enter the top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart at No. 8. And though the song charted at No. 8, it was the third best selling song of the week as the Hot 100 at the time tallied downloads, radio airplay and on-demand streaming. “Skyfall” also was released as a physical CD single, a rare occurrence in the United States, and has gone on to sell 1.6 million copies in the U.S. As with most award shows and wins, a sales bump is expected following the Oscar win for Best Original Song.
This is not the first time Adele has worked with Paul Epworth and hit success. Her lead single “Rolling in the Deep” from her sophomore album “21” was co-written and produced by Epworth. The first time she talked with Paul, she cried and the result was a worldwide hit selling in excess of well over10 million copies, more than 7.5 million in the United States alone.
The success of “Rolling in the Deep” followed by the piano ballad “Someone Like You” with a large push from the 3rd single “Set Fire to the Rain” helped move the “21” set to over 25 million copies sold worldwide, a rare feat in today’s industry.
The 24 year old powerhouse is already planning a third album. She told Billboard that she’s been “having lots of meetings” and has been in L.A. from the time of the Golden Globes to the Oscars. Adele plans to work with Epworth again and see what kind of magic may happen again.
