Stolen Hearts: Listen Now: Terribly Famous

Hello Stolen Hearts listeners, my name's Anna and I'm Emily and we're quickly dropping in

to tell you about a new podcast from Wondery that we think you'll love.

It's called Terribly Famous and each week we'll take you inside the intense drama-fuelled

lives of Britain's celebrity elite to find out what it's really like to walk in their shoes.

They're beautiful, Prada shoes.

No but it's true.

So they've got lots of money, adoring fans, houses around the world but they've also got all of us

watching, judging, pulling out our phones.

Yeah, being really, really famous, it's not easy.

We're about to play you a clip from our first episode, all about the icon that is Adele.

If you like what you hear, make sure to search and follow Terribly Famous wherever you get

your podcasts.

And if you're a prime member, you can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music.

Lucky you!

Leaving her guitar at the studio, she heads out into Central London to surprise her boyfriend,

who she knows is out too.

Probably at the mean fiddler on Charing Cross Road, she thinks.

The dark streets are buzzing.

This is what she loves about the city, her city.

Adele walks into the club and scans the crowded room.

As her eyes adjust to the sweaty gloom, she sees her boyfriend.

Just as she's about to make her way over, she clocks that he's kissing someone else.

The scumbag! This is Adele, sir.

Exactly. Adele can't believe what she's seeing.

I can't believe what I'm seeing.

She could run out crying.

Instead, she feels a wave of anger rising up inside her.

So do I.

She charges over, too furious to speak, and just punches him.

Oh, no punching.

Use your words.

Use your words.

That's what I say to my three-year-old, and it counts for a 17-year-old too.

Two big burly bouncers are heading towards her.

Time for a quick exit.

She doesn't even bother looking back as she braces out and sets off down the street.

She doesn't know where she's going.

She's weaving through the crowds of tourists, snapping photos,

dodging audiences, spilling out of West End theatres.

She doesn't stop.

Actually, she can't stop.

On to Regent Street, then Oxford Street, running, running,

and the whole time, one thought keeps spinning round and round in her head.

I'm not even doing anything, just chasing the pavement.

A phrase that no one would ever hear again, sadly.

She stops, breathless.

And with no one else to say it to,

she presses record on her phone.

Chasing pavements, just chasing pavements.

The next day, Adele heads back into the studio.

She can't pick up where she left off yesterday because everything has changed.

A boy's broken Adele's heart for the first time.

She gets out her phone and listens to the lines she recorded the night before.

Chasing pavements, just chasing pavements.

As she feels the pain of her boyfriend's betrayal, she starts writing.

As she's writing, it's like she goes to another place.

Channeling the hurt, the grief, she pours her feelings into the song.

It's the same quality Nick Huggett picked up on,

the emotion behind her songwriting and in her voice.

It's real, it's powerful.

Now she has a new song, good enough for her debut album,

but she's still heartbroken.

So yeah, it's brilliant, but it's a high price to pay for a great song.

But the song has given her what she needs.

She's beginning to think she can do it.

She will do it.

She's going to finish the album.

There's another song she's half written.

It's tucked away in the folder marked first album.

Very inventive.

She thinks there's something in it, but it's not quite right yet.

It's called Cold Shoulder.

She plays it for the label.

They call it Charming.

Not exactly what she's aiming for, I'm guessing.

Yeah, Adele wants to turn it into something people can dance to,

something upbeat.

She needs to work with someone who can help her give it more rhythm, more drive.

She asks for help and she's told,

you can work with anyone you like.

What?

And Adele's like, seriously, anyone.

In her mind, that anyone is a guy called Mark Ronson.

He's worked with Lily Allen and just produced most of Amy Winehouse's Back to Black,

which looks set to be the best-selling album of the year.

It is a great album.

One of the best?

Yeah, though I have to say I prefer Frank.

Anyway, Adele throws his name into the mix,

not sure if anything will come of it.

Her label starts making calls and then, shockingly, it's happening.

A date's gone into the diary for a meeting with Mark Ronson, the Mark Ronson.

Adele knows this is serious.

She preps like mad.

She jots down a load of ideas about how she wants cold shoulder to sound.

She arrives at the office, bang on time.

Nervously lights up a ciggy.

And then another.

And another.

She's sitting, smoking, waiting.

But the Mark Ronson is a no-show.

No, come on Mark.

Yeah, and Adele is all too familiar with the men in her life not turning up.

She's gutted and embarrassed.

But on the plus side,

she could write a heartfelt power ballad about being gutted and embarrassed.

She does something else.

Something I feel like you might do in these circumstances.

She goes back to her flat, pops open a bottle of wine and watches Cherry Springer.

More of a Maury girl, but yes, get the vibe over, do that.

Cherry.

Cherry.

Actually, it's more Ricky Lake for me.

She has no idea her label has been desperately ringing round,

trying to find Mark Ronson, who had totally forgotten the meeting.

They track him down and give him Adele's address.

The problem is, when Mark arrives at Adele's flat, she's already pissed.

Pissed off.

Pissed drunk.

Let's just say the room is spinning.

But in that moment, Adele decides she's not going to throw away this opportunity.

She grabs her notepad, which is full of brilliant ideas and basically

thrusts it in his face.

The gamble pays off.

Mark Ronson agrees to work with her on cold shoulder and the result is pretty damn good.

Another one in the bag for Adele's debut album.

That's two songs for sure.

And she's got a bunch more that are half ready, but she's still nowhere near releasing the album,

which everyone is waiting for, which is why she thinks it's bonkers.

We're not long after.

In June 2007, she's invited to perform on later with Jules Holland.

That's big.

It is big.

And it's a big deal for Adele.

When she was little, her mum...

Penny.

Yeah, well done.

She used to let Adele stay up late on Fridays to watch it.

And now, Adele's about to become the first unreleased artist ever to perform on the show.

That's amazing.

Or she will be if she actually manages to make it through her performance.

Right now, she's backstage in a pokey dressing room somewhere in the bowels of BBC Television Centre.

Penny's in there with her, trying to calm her down.

Adele is sheet white and shaking.

She's not 100% sure if she's going to throw up or faint.

Ever since that first panic attack, just after she was signed,

Adele's been struggling with stage fright.

But this is a whole new level.

On the bill tonight, are Buick and Sir Paul McCartney.

They're so famous.

They're so famous.

And she's just a teenager from South London with a handful of songs no one even knows

yet. She looks in the mirror and takes a wobbly breath.

She doesn't deserve to be here.

Her heart is beating fast.

She's going to let everyone down.

She can feel it.

She's about to lose it completely.

When Jules Holland, the presenter, comes in to introduce himself.

Adele puts on a brave face.

He seems lovely.

And so do the crew.

And then, everything happens very quickly.

An assistant director in a headset leads her down a narrow corridor

through a door and onto the glossy black stage.

A single stool is waiting for her.

Her acoustic guitar propped up against it.

She can feel herself getting hot.

Oh, she shouldn't have worn the black cardigan.

Don't worry about the cardigan.

Jules beams to the camera.

And now, making her TV debut, we welcome from Brixton Adele.

Adele's decided to sing Daydreamer,

a song she wrote at school about a crush she had in sixth form.

Her mum is sobbing in the front row.

But when Adele gets to the end, her heart sinks.

She knows she could have done it a hundred times better.

I have seen that clip on YouTube and it is literally breath-breaking.

If you haven't seen it and you're listening to this, just watch it.

Do yourself a favour and watch it.

It's gorgeous.

And just know that context behind it.

Beautiful.

The crowd know they've just seen something very special.

So does Jules.

But try telling Adele.

She's so deflated.

Afterwards, when she spots Sir Paul McCartney in the corridor,

she goes to jelly.

She can't work up the courage to talk to him.

Instead, he stops her and tells her she did a brilliant job.

But she doesn't, can't believe him.

What?

Yeah, well, it doesn't really matter what he thinks.

What really matters is what the audience at home thinks.

No one yet knows.

She doesn't know.

Whether her music will find an audience.

She loves her music.

But will anyone else?

Listen to Terribly Famous Now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.