In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Thursday (Dec. 7), Adele was brutally honest about what she really thinks when other artists attempt to sing her hits.
“With my music, and for whoever listens to it, I think I’m not the best singer in the world at all, but no one else can sing my songs like me because they didn’t write them,” she said. “No one can sing my songs like me, period.”
“The lyrics are not their own,” she added, laughing. “And I don’t think anyone else should sing my songs.”
OK, the Queen of Soul might be the one exception. “Apart from Aretha Franklin,” Adele amended when asked about the late legend’s cover of “Rolling in the Deep.”
“No, I don’t mind it when they do, but I’m just saying, they’re never going to be able to emote it,” she continued. “Same way that I can’t sing other people’s songs. I didn’t write the lyrics, and I can’t sing as well as them. But it’s just like, I would choose this any day.”
As for new music, Adele says she hasn’t “even thought about it.” The same pretty much goes for collaborations with other artists, with the “Easy On Me” singer revealing that she’s turned down “a lot” of duet requests. “Some of them are just an obvious no, that I would never do,” she shared.
“Some people ask and I’m like, In what world do you actually think I would say yes to that?’ And it doesn’t make any sense either. A couple that I’ve been like, Oh, I want to do that,’ and the timing hasn’t worked out.”
“I’m not anti-it,” she added. “I’m not anti-it at all. I’m open to it. But also, if I do it, it has to be f–king great.”
