Adéla

Biography

Adéla Jergová was born on 27 November 2003 in Petržalka in Bratislava, Slovakia, and has an older brother and younger sister. Their parents are a landscape designer and an IVF clinic owner. Adéla began taking ballet lessons at the age of three while living in Moscow and later studied at Bratislava's Eva Jaczová Conservatory; she turned professional at the age of 11. After performing the main role in The Nutcracker at the Slovak National Theatre for two years from 12 and playing a firefly in the Slovak film Spievankovo a kráľovná Harmónia in 2017, Adéla moved to Vienna on her own to join the Vienna State Ballet at 14, to London to join the English National Ballet School at 15, and then back home due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, where she pursued music at a friend's suggestion. She then enrolled in a college marketing course and spent the COVID-19 pandemic taking vocal lessons via Zoom.

In 2021, after reading an Elle piece about Olivia Rodrigo and her long-term vocal coach Jennifer Dustman, she contacted the latter and began working with her remotely. At her suggestion, she applied for Dream Academy, a program by the joint venture Hybe x Geffen that received over 120,000 applications. After clearing three rounds via self-tapes and Zoom, she reached the final round, for which the label flew her to Los Angeles to spend two years training. An immediate standout, internal evaluations frequently featured Adéla in the top four for both dance and overall performance.

More than a year in, Hybe x Geffen put the final twenty contestants against each other as part of a televised competition for spots in a band that later became Katseye. Adéla came in joint last following a fan vote after a group performance of Blackpink's "Pink Venom" during the show's first elimination mission, following which Hybe x Geffen president Mitra Darab said that she had come across more as a solo artist during training and development. Dream Academy featured in Netflix's 2024 behind-the-scenes docuseries Pop Star Academy: Katseye, in which Adéla was depicted comforting a contestant who had been eliminated during the final ten, tearfully instructing the other hopefuls that they did not need the competition and were "great" on their own, and criticizing one contestant for their work ethic; the lattermost led her to be labeled as a "mean girl" by many fans. She briefly returned to Slovakia for visa reasons after being eliminated, but returned to Los Angeles to work with vocal coach Dave Stroud and to take music classes at Santa Monica College, the latter at the insistence of her parents.

Adéla went through an indie rock phase after filming Dream Academy but had returned to making pop in time for her debut release, which coincided with that of Pop Star Academy. Her first two singles, "Homewrecked" and "Superscar", were released in September and October 2024 and respectively brought Adéla to the attention of Grimes and Capitol Records; the former co-produced Adéla's February 2025 single "Machine Girl" and appeared in its video with Sofia Wylie. Capitol signed Adéla in May. After releasing "DeathByDevotion" in July, she included it and her previous singles on her August EP The Provocateur, which was shortlisted for an Anděl Award and featured as its cover Adéla pulling up her dress to urinate against an underpass wall. The EP was promoted with a music video for "SexOnTheBeat" featuring a nude Adéla and a cameo appearance from Christina Aguilera.

In April 2026, she started a month of shows as the support act for Demi Lovato's It's Not That Deep Tour and released the single "KGB"; the latter was named after the Soviet Union watchdog of the same name. She followed the pair with "Red Bottoms" in June and "Ain't in LA" in July; the latter featured uncredited vocals from Theron Thomas and made the UK Top 20 and the Billboard Hot 100. Her September 2026 album Prima, which included her three previous singles and "Nicole Kidman", topped the charts in the Netherlands and Belgium, peaked at numbers 2 and 4 in the UK and US, and entered the top ten of several other countries' charts. "Nicole Kidman" was named after the actress of the same name and peaked at numbers 4 and 6 in the UK and US. Named after "prima ballerina", the highest rank a woman can attain in ballet, Prima was promoted with Red Bottoms Tour, an appearance on Elton John's Rocket Hour, and with performances of "Ain't in LA" and "Nicole Kidman" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. In October 2026, after a poster advertizing "Ain't in LA" was covered by a poster for Rachel Chinouriri's I Think I Spoke Too Soon, both Adéla and Chinouriri criticized a social media user who had torn down Chinouriri's poster so they could pose in front of Adéla's.

Artistry and personal life

Adéla taught herself English when she was eight by watching American television series and interviews with American singers. She typically cites inspiration from successful female artists such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Chappell Roan, and especially Beyoncé and Ariana Grande. She said in August 2026 that she was not interested in male pop stars beyond Michael Jackson and Prince and that her music videos were inspired by Janet Jackson's "Rock with U", Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance", and Beyoncé's Lemonade. Upon the release of The Provocateur, several outlets suggested that its cover was a homage to Sophy Rickett's Women Pissing. Adéla has also said that she was inspired to become a singer after watching the American teen sitcom Hannah Montana, that "Red Bottoms" was inspired by a worn-out pair of Louboutins, that "Ain't in LA" was inspired by photos of her then-18-year-old mother posing in front of a wall of smuggled pop culture posters, and that "Nicole Kidman" was inspired by the effect of a corset on her breasts.

Adéla's works normally comprise pop music, although her earlier works incorporated elements of dark electronica and diaristic lyrics. An October 2026 Vogue piece described The Provocateur as electroclash. Her music frequently addresses sex; "SexOnTheBeat" contains orgasms, while Prima's "Starving Artist" and "Hitachi" respectively spoke of sex with an ex-boyfriend and a potential threesome. "Hitachi" was named after the brand of her vibrator. She has said that sexual expression came naturally to her and that Dream Academy had asked her to tone it down. Her signature is her pink hair; born honey blonde, she experimented with lighter pinks around the time of "Homewrecked" before going neon pink in March 2026 and hot pink in August. In 2025, she began dating Jackson Shanks, who had co-produced Anotr's "Talk to You" and Le Sserafim's "Hot".

Discography

Prima (2026)

Filmography

Tours

The ProvocaTour (2025)

It's Not That Deep Tour (2026, supporting Demi Lovato)

The Red Bottoms Tour (2026–2027)