The Story of How Adele Became Famous Will Make You Love Her Even More

On June 9, the United Kingdom's Official Charts Company announced a major milestone for their resident soul singer, Adele: Her sophomore album, 21, is the best-selling U.K. record of the decade so far. That the record has earned such a distinct honor is not entirely surprising; after all, 21 spent an astonishing 23 weeks at No. 1 and to date has sold 4,751,000 copies in the U.K. That's especially amazing when you consider that the U.K. only has a population of 64 million — meaning that enough copies were sold that nearly 15% of the entire country could own the album.