Chapter I: Petržalka
Adéla Jergová was born in Bratislava on 27 November 2003 and grew up in Petržalka, the sea of panel blocks on the right bank of the Danube, across the water from the old town. Nothing about it looked like the America she would spend her childhood studying.
Ballet came first. During a spell when the family lived in Moscow she started classes at three, and for years afterwards her mother sewed her pointe shoes and costumes and did her hair before every performance. Pop came by accident. At around eight she was dancing to Hannah Montana songs in the family flat — convinced, because the show was dubbed into Slovak, that it was filmed somewhere nearby. Her older brother broke the news that it was American.
I would even romanticize things like Target.
That was enough. She couldn’t become American, she reasoned, but she could sound American. She studied YouTubers, interviews, films and series, and was fluent in English by about nine. The flip side, she told The FADER, was feeling out of step with the Slovak kids around her.
Sources: Wikipedia: Adéla (singer) (opens in a new tab), Denník N: Zo speváčky Adély je globálna hviezda. V klipe z Petržalky spieva… (opens in a new tab), Odzadu.sk: Adéla Jergová boduje vo svete: Jej mama nečakala, kam sa dcéra so snom dostane (opens in a new tab), Bratislavák: Svetoznáma Bratislavčanka Adéla zažiarila u Jimmyho Fallona (opens in a new tab), W Magazine: Adéla Is Building Her Own American Dream (opens in a new tab), The FADER: ADÉLA on ‘The Provocateur,’ being a villain, and making ‘unapologetic’ pop music (opens in a new tab), Seznam Zprávy: Adéla vystoupí v pražském Foru Karlín (opens in a new tab)
Chapter II: Pointe
At twelve she was on the stage of the Slovak National Theatre as Mášenka in The Nutcracker, a role she danced for two seasons. At fourteen she moved to Vienna to train at the ballet academy of the Vienna State Opera; a year later came London and the English National Ballet School.
It was a serious path and, in her telling, a hard place to be a child. When the pandemic stopped the world in 2020, her ballet plans stopped with it and she went home. Music, which had never really gone away, moved to the centre.
The training never left her. She still performs on pointe, folds barre work into her choreography — and when it came to naming her debut album, she went back to ballet for the word.
Sources: Odzadu.sk: Adéla Jergová boduje vo svete: Jej mama nečakala, kam sa dcéra so snom dostane (opens in a new tab), Denník N: Zo speváčky Adély je globálna hviezda. V klipe z Petržalky spieva… (opens in a new tab), Pitchoviny.sk: Kto je ADÉLA? Adéla Jergová je prvá Slovenka v Billboard Hot 100 (opens in a new tab), Mediaklik: Z Bratislavy až na popové výslnie v USA (opens in a new tab), The FADER: ADÉLA on ‘The Provocateur,’ being a villain, and making ‘unapologetic’ pop music (opens in a new tab), W Magazine: Adéla Is Building Her Own American Dream (opens in a new tab)
Chapter III: The Academy
In 2021 she applied — on the final day, without telling anyone — to a worldwide search run by HYBE, the company behind BTS, and Geffen Records. The aim was a global girl group, built with K-pop training methods and launched from Los Angeles. She moved there in 2022, enrolled in music at Santa Monica College and spent the best part of two years in training.
Out of some 120,000 applicants she made the final twenty, and The Debut: Dream Academy went live on 1 September 2023. Two weeks later, after her team danced BLACKPINK’s “Pink Venom”, the fan vote sent her home in the first round of eliminations. The six who made it to the end became KATSEYE.
We see Adéla as a solo artist.
Netflix’s Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE followed in August 2024, and gave her what she calls a villain edit. She has described that year as the hardest of her life — and the most important, a blessing in disguise. It showed her she had what it takes.
Sources: The FADER: ADÉLA on ‘The Provocateur,’ being a villain, and making ‘unapologetic’ pop music (opens in a new tab), CzechCrunch: Spala v pokoji nad studiem a skládala hudbu pro neznámé (opens in a new tab), Wikipedia: Adéla (singer): Adéla (singer) (opens in a new tab), Wikipedia: The Debut: Dream Academy: The Debut: Dream Academy (opens in a new tab), W Magazine: Adéla Is Building Her Own American Dream (opens in a new tab), Mediaklik: Z Bratislavy až na popové výslnie v USA (opens in a new tab), IBTimes UK: ADÉLA surpasses KATSEYE in monthly Spotify listeners (opens in a new tab)
Chapter IV: The Provocateur
She stayed in Los Angeles. For a while she lived in a small room above the studio of her vocal coach, Jennifer Dustman — who has also taught Olivia Rodrigo — and earned a living writing songs for other artists. Within weeks of the Netflix premiere she put out her first single herself: “HOMEWRECKED”, on 13 September 2024. Grimes heard it on TikTok and messaged her about the harmonies.
If Grimes likes it, I’m not being delusional about this.
Grimes went on to co-produce “MACHINE GIRL” and turned up in its video, and became something of a mentor. “SUPERSCAR” turned a pun into a point: show business doesn’t always make you a superstar; sometimes it leaves a scar. In May 2025 she signed with Capitol Records, and on 22 August came The Provocateur: seven tracks of club-wired, deliberately confrontational pop with Dylan Brady, Zhone and Blake Slatkin among the producers — plus a “SexOnTheBeat” video with a surprise cameo from Christina Aguilera.
Pushing buttons was the point. “I don’t have anything to say sorry for,” she told The FADER. That October, her first headline shows in London, New York and Los Angeles sold out.
Sources: CzechCrunch: Spala v pokoji nad studiem a skládala hudbu pro neznámé (opens in a new tab), Out: Pop Star Academy’s Adéla interview (opens in a new tab), The FADER: ADÉLA on ‘The Provocateur,’ being a villain, and making ‘unapologetic’ pop music (opens in a new tab), Ones To Watch: ADÉLA Enters the Lion’s Den in the Grimes Co-Produced “MACHINE GIRL” (opens in a new tab), SITA: Slovenka Adéla Jergová boduje v Amerike, piesňou Superscar približuje odvrátenú stránku šoubiznisu (opens in a new tab), Wikipedia: The Provocateur (opens in a new tab), Pairs Project: ADÉLA: The Provocateur EP feature (opens in a new tab), Universal Music Canada: ADÉLA announces debut album PRIMA and releases “Ain’t In LA” (opens in a new tab)
Chapter V: Prima
2026 began at a Golden Globes party she says she was “somehow” invited to. Laced into a tight corset, her hair bouncing, newly obsessed with Nicole Kidman after a first viewing of Eyes Wide Shut, she caught herself thinking: I feel like Nicole Kidman right now. That became a song.
In the spring she opened for Demi Lovato in arenas across North America, Madison Square Garden included, and released “KGB”, a lead single that pits a ballerina against a villain inside the old Los Angeles Theatre. “Red Bottoms” followed in June — her first heartbreak ballad, built around the worn red sole of a Louboutin.
I’m trying to be the prima ballerina of pop, and this is my first step to achieve that.
PRIMA arrived on 4 September with Blake Slatkin and Dylan Brady as executive producers. The title works twice: it is Italian for “first”, and the prima ballerina is the principal dancer of a company. It entered the Billboard 200 at No. 4 with 56,000 units, the UK albums chart at No. 2, and went to No. 1 at home in Slovakia.
Sources: Songfacts: The event that led ADÉLA to record the starry homage “Nicole Kidman” (opens in a new tab), HollywoodLife: Who Is Adéla? Meet the Singer Behind Viral Hit ‘Nicole Kidman’ (opens in a new tab), Universal Music Canada, 17 Apr 2026: ADÉLA shares new single and music video, first taste of forthcoming debut album (opens in a new tab), Universal Music Canada, 12 Jun 2026: ADÉLA shares new single “Red Bottoms” alongside official music video (opens in a new tab), Clash: ADÉLA Announces Debut Album ‘PRIMA’ (opens in a new tab), Universal Music Canada, 4 Sep 2026: ADÉLA releases debut album PRIMA (opens in a new tab), 96.3 XKE: ADÉLA’s PRIMA scores No. 1 debut on two album charts (opens in a new tab), Official Charts Company: PRIMA — full Official Chart history (opens in a new tab), Wikipedia: Adéla discography (opens in a new tab)
Chapter VI: Ain’t In LA
The song that changed everything started with a photograph. On a trip home she found a picture of her mother at eighteen, posing in front of a wall of Western pop posters — posters her grandfather, who worked in the mines of West Germany, had smuggled across the border into communist Czechoslovakia.
There are so many beautiful girls with dreams who will never get their flowers like my mom
“Ain’t In LA”, released on 23 July, is the result: a homage to Bratislava and to everyone who never left their hometown, with a video shot there by Fred Gervais — her mother and little sister in the cast. On TikTok, people swapped LA for their own towns. In August it entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 85, making ADÉLA the first Slovak artist ever to chart there. It kept climbing, to No. 24 by late October, topped the Billboard Philippines Hot 100 and is certified Platinum in Slovakia.
Then “Nicole Kidman” went further: No. 4 in the UK by late September, into the Hot 100 top 10 on 13 October, No. 6 a week later. Kidman herself had already said “I absolutely know who she is”, made her first-ever TikTok to “Ain’t In LA”, lip-synced the song at Chanel and blushed through it at the Victoria’s Secret show. On 22 October ADÉLA made her US late-night debut on The Tonight Show. “This song changed my life,” she said.
Sources: Clash: ADÉLA Announces Debut Album ‘PRIMA’ (opens in a new tab), W Magazine: Adéla Is Building Her Own American Dream (opens in a new tab), The FADER: ADÉLA’s new album PRIMA: release date, album art and details (opens in a new tab), Pitchoviny.sk: Kto je ADÉLA? Adéla Jergová je prvá Slovenka v Billboard Hot 100 (opens in a new tab), Wikipedia: Ain’t in LA (opens in a new tab), Billboard: The Billboard Hot 100, chart dated 24 Oct 2026 (opens in a new tab), Official Charts Company: ADÉLA’s sittin’ right with first-ever Top 10 single Nicole Kidman (opens in a new tab), IOL: ADÉLA makes history as ‘Nicole Kidman’ breaks into Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 (opens in a new tab), Promiflash: Nicole Kidman feiert Adéla mit ihrem TikTok-Debüt (opens in a new tab), IBTimes UK: Dua Lipa, Pedro Pascal and Kristen Wiig get ultimate cameo in viral ‘Nicole Kidman’ TikTok (opens in a new tab), TMZ: Nicole Kidman blushes at song about her at Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show (opens in a new tab), Consequence: ADÉLA makes late night debut with “Nicole Kidman” and “Ain’t in LA” on Fallon (opens in a new tab)
Chapter VII: What comes next
The Red Bottoms Tour sold out across North America in minutes. Its European and UK leg, also sold out, opens on 11 January 2027 at Forum Karlín in Prague — her first concert in the Czech Republic and the nearest stop to Bratislava — then runs through Dublin, two nights at Brixton, Paris, Berlin and Warsaw. Before that come two Jingle Ball nights in December.
Next year she makes her Laneway debut in Australia and New Zealand, plays her first shows in South America at Lollapalooza Chile, Argentina and Brasil and Festival Estéreo Picnic in Bogotá, and heads to Primavera Sound in Barcelona.
I am a showgirl at heart.
She has said she wants arenas one day. From here, that looks less like a dream than a schedule.
Sources: Universal Music Canada: ADÉLA releases debut album PRIMA (opens in a new tab), Seznam Zprávy: Adéla vystoupí v pražském Foru Karlín (opens in a new tab), Pollstar: iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2026 tour lineups (opens in a new tab), Variety Australia: Laneway Festival reveals 2027 lineup (opens in a new tab), Grupo Animal: Lollapalooza 2027 anuncia su cartel para Argentina, Chile y Brasil (opens in a new tab), La República: Estéreo Picnic revela su cartel para 2027 (opens in a new tab), The FADER: Primavera 2027: lineup, ticket details (opens in a new tab), W Magazine: Adéla Is Building Her Own American Dream (opens in a new tab)