*****

Dear America. You can keep your musical trash bags like Ke$ha. You can hold dear your atonal warblers like Rihanna (yeah, yeah, I know she’s from Barbados, but made her mark here in the US as a teen). You want your sterile Country music automatons like Carrie Underwood or your tone-deaf milquetoast Country queens like Taylor Swift? My pleasure – take them, please. Enjoy dodging the melisma of caterwaulers like Christina Aguilera – and, good luck; they’re your ears, not mine.  Want everyday to be a tuneless Thanksgiving day? Revel in your discordant SciFi megatron turkey gobblers like Katy Perry.

That’s right, clueless masses. Continue to misprise breathtaking beauty – seamless, pure vocal talent – an unaffected gift as natural and as ethereal as any we’ve heard in many moons. That’s fine. Let the rest of us have Adele.

After surprisingly – yet elatedly (for those in the know) – being nominated for 4 Grammy Awards in 2009 (and winning Best Female Pop Performance for “Chasing Pavements” and Best New Artist) and another nod in 2010 (for “Hometown Glory”), Adele will release her second album, 21, on February 22. I’ve been absorbed in it since its UK release last month – it’s gorgeous.

Last night, she performed the track “Someone Like You” from 21 at the Brit Awards. Magnificent.