19

19 is the debut studio album by Adele, released in January 2008 on XL Recordings in the UK and produced primarily by Jim Abbiss and Mark Ronson. Named after the age at which Adele Laurie Blue Adkins recorded it, and the album that introduced the most commercially successful British singer of the following decade to a jazz, soul, and folk-influenced pop audience. Adele wrote or co-wrote most of the tracks, including 'Chasing Pavements' and 'Hometown Glory' (which she had written at 16 and was the first song she released as a single), establishing herself from the debut as a songwriter-performer in the tradition of Carole King rather than a performer of outside material. The album reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, where it spent 18 weeks in the top ten, and its commercial performance in the United States (where it reached number 56 on the Billboard 200 on initial release before charting much higher after 21's success) demonstrated the gradual rather than immediate nature of Adele's US commercial breakthrough. '19' won the 2008 BRIT Award for Best British Album and Adele received the BRIT Critics' Choice Award in January 2008, an annual award for breakthrough artists that has correctly identified commercial breakthroughs including Amy Winehouse (2007), Florence and the Machine (2009), and Ellie Goulding (2010). The album has been certified seven-times platinum in the UK and double platinum in the United States, figures that grew substantially as subsequent albums directed new listeners back through the catalog.