Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, known professionally as Adele, is an English soul and jazz singer. She is the first recipient of the Brit Awards Critics' Choice, which was given to artists who at the time had yet to release an album. Adele has also been hailed by the British press as "the new Amy Winehouse" and, hence, together with Duffy and various other rising stars of 2007-8, as one of the so-called "New Amys".