And now Adele, starring as … Adele.
The singer, who released her album “25” on Friday, took part in a prank with the BBC’s Graham Norton in which she masqueraded as an Adele impersonator named Jenny. She then joined a group of other Adele impersonators trying out for a fake talent show.
Though she looked something like herself, she was made up with a fake chin and fake nose, kept her working-class accent trimmed and her voice low. After all, Jenny is a nanny, and “nannies talk very slow and very calm to try and make the world make sense,” she told Norton.
She then went backstage with her fellow Adeles, watching each of them perform the Bob Dylan song “Make You Feel My Love,” a hit for her in 2008. At one point she feigned nervousness, telling the others she was going to be sick.
“Bless her,” whispered one of the other impersonators in concern.
But once “Jenny” took the stage, there was no doubting who she really was. Recognition dawned on the others with gasps and smiles.
“As soon as she opened her mouth … you can’t mimic like that,” said one of “Jenny’s” rivals.
The sequence was shot for a BBC special, “Adele at the BBC,” which aired in the UK Friday night.
Adele’s new album, “25,” is expected to be one of the biggest — if not the biggest — records of the year.
According to the UK site OfficialCharts.com, it sold more than 300,000 copies in Britain in its first 24 hours. In the United States, Columbia Records planned to ship 3.6 million physical copies, making “25” the album with the most new-release CDs shipped in the past decade, according to Billboard.
The first single, “Hello,” was released October 23 and has been No. 1 on iTunes ever since.