Now trending, Adele is returning to the music world after three year pause

The first words of Adele’s new single seem to have been everything fans have been waiting for.

As if she took a familiar footnote from the songbook of Lionel Richie, Adele’s new song is re-introducing us all to her musical majesty and her gripping prowess on the music game.

Her very first memo to her fans came in the form of an open letter to her fans on Facebook.

“My last record was a break-up record and if I had to label this one I would call it a make-up record,” Adele wrote. “I’m making up with myself. Making up for lost time. Making up for everything I ever did and never did. But I haven’t got time to hold on to the crumbs of my past like I used to. What’s done is done.” Adele ended her letter by apologizing for the long wait. “And I’m sorry it took so long, but you know, life happened,” she wrote.

Since dropping her single online for streaming, along with a crafty concept video shot with IMAX cameras, Adele has been trending heavily throughout social media. According to YouTube trends manager Kevin Allocca, “Hello” became one of the most-watched video debuts of all time.” Her YouTube channel also netted an additional 400,000 subscribers. As of November 27, over 98 million views have been racked up for the music video. Meanwhile at Vevo, the video was watched 27.7 million times on its first day. Analysts are predicting that the video will reach close to 100 million on its first week.

And that’s pretty freaking huge considering that we’re no longer in the MTV age, when internet and streaming services have replaced traditional and conventional outlets for music consumption.

As for the single, Adele is also expected to come out as a champion. The track sold close to 450,000 in its first two days on sale. The debut week sales of “Hello” (ending Oct. 29) is scheduled to be announced on Monday, Nov. 2.

So what’s behind all the mind-blowing momentum?

Much of it has to deal with the fact that Adele has been a recluse for quite awhile. When the Brit singer decided to bow out to focus on family life, she was at the top of the list. Her last official hit, the James Bond theme song “Skyfall,” was released in 2012. That single shot to number eight pop in the US and number two in the UK, but landed at number one in a host of countries including Switzerland, Netherlands, Israel, Italy, Greece and Hungary. It also became the first James Bond single to chart within the top ten in the US in over a decade. Her live performance of the song at the 85th annual Academy Awards, prior to learning she won the award, solidified record sales for the single during the next number of weeks, becoming the first Bond single to sell over a million digital copies. “Skyfall” also won Best Original Song at the 70th annual Golden Globe awards. And before all of that, Adele had triumphed with 21, the best-selling album of 2011 and 2012. It was also certified diamond by the RIAA, becoming the most recent album to do so. The last album to be certified platinum more than ten times in the US is Outkast’s 2003 double-album, Speakerboxx/The Love Below. That certification came in 2006.

So now you know that people aren’t buying albums anymore.

But Adele is holding her own. And now the countdown begins on Adele’s forthcoming LP, an album that’s rumored to fall more in the vein of Americana since falling in love with country. But that might not be the case after hearing “Hello.” She seems realigned with the orchestral pop that cemented the successes of “Turning Tables” and “Someone Like You.” A return to form may be part of the album’s resolution after word broke that Adele suffered from a period of writer’s block with other producers, forcing her to return to Greg Kurstin.

Staying true to her series of numerical order in terms of age, 25 will drop on November 25 and will be released on XL Recordings/Columbia Records. It’s available for pre-sales in the forms of digital and physical (CD, LP) on a number of music platforms such as iTunes, Amazon and others.

The expected track list for the regular version is listed below:

1. Hello
2. Send My Love (To Your New Lover)
3. I Miss You
4. When We Were Young
5. Remedy
6. Water Under The Bridge
7. River Lea
8. Love In The Dark
9. Million Years Ago
10. All I Ask
11. Sweetest Devotion