It was only Ad\u00e9la\u2019s second headlining show in Los Angeles \u2014 and she was only about 20 minutes into it \u2014 but the ascendant pop star already had an apology she needed to get off her chest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next song that I\u2019m gonna sing is a little bit awkward,\u201d she said Thursday night at the Fonda Theatre. \u201cSo I\u2019m gonna need y\u2019all to bear with me as I explain why I made a song called \u2018The Baddest Bitches Ain\u2019t in L.A.,\u2019 OK?\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Ad\u00e9la: \u201cPlease don\u2019t boo.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be precise, the song in question is titled \u201cAin\u2019t in L.A.\u201d \u2014 a woozy banger from the 22-year-old\u2019s buzzy debut album, \u201cPrima.\u201d But you took her point: Here she was in front of a hyped-up crowd that included Chappell Roan<\/a> and members of the girl group Katseye<\/a>, and what she was about to tell us is that true coolness lies elsewhere.<\/p>\n Based on her assertion that the Hollywood dream machine is \u201call a lie,\u201d \u201cAin\u2019t in L.A.\u201d looks back with scorn at Ad\u00e9la\u2019s experience as a first-round flameout on \u201cDream Academy,\u201d the build-a-band reality series that documented Katseye\u2019s creation under the watchful eye of the K-pop kingpin Bang Si-hyuk. At the Fonda, Ad\u00e9la recounted moving here from her native Slovakia and working alongside the show\u2019s other contestants to \u201ctry to become pop stars together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd guess what? That didn\u2019t work out for me. But it did for them.\u201d She peered up at the venue\u2019s balcony. \u201cShout out to y\u2019all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Except now it\u2019s working out for Ad\u00e9la too: Thursday\u2019s show was the first of two at the Fonda behind last month\u2019s release of \u201cPrima,\u201d whose title nods to the singer\u2019s background as a ballet dancer; in addition to \u201cAin\u2019t in L.A.,\u201d which has more than 190 million streams on Spotify, the album has spun off a second hit in \u201cNicole Kidman,\u201d which reached No. 1 on that platform\u2019s U.S. singles chart thanks in part to the enthusiastic embrace of the Hollywood meme queen herself.<\/p>\n This week, Kidman appeared in a viral TikTok video<\/a> showing her, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal and Dua Lipa lip syncing to \u201cNicole Kidman\u201d at a Chanel fashion show in Paris.<\/p>\n Ad\u00e9la\u2019s breakthrough comes amid a broader surge by a generation of young pop singers \u2014 think of Slayyyter<\/a> and think of Tinashe \u2014 finding success with music that plays up rather than sands down its rough edges; each is working in the wake of Charli XCX\u2019s influential \u201cBrat,\u201d which offered new ways to think about how pop balances polish and filth, swagger and confession.<\/p>\n Ad\u00e9la made \u201cPrima\u201d with the producers Dylan Brady (of the duo 100 gecs) and Blake Slatkin (who\u2019s scored hits with Lizzo<\/a> and Justin Bieber<\/a>); together the three get an appealingly scuzzy sound that puts chirpy vocal hooks over serrated club beats \u00e0 la \u201cBlackout\u201d-era Britney Spears. What I\u2019m saying, basically, is that the indie-sleaze revival is real.<\/p>\n At the Fonda, Ad\u00e9la brought her songs to life on a stage that was bare except for a ballet barre, which she and a small crew of dancers used to execute choreography that grew raunchier and more elaborate as the show progressed. Both she and a guy danced en pointe; Ad\u00e9la never went long without whipping her long pink hair, which was one style choice widely replicated throughout the room.<\/p>\n Before she closed with \u201cNicole Kidman,\u201d the singer sat down at the front of the stage with her journal and told the crowd she wanted to \u201ctake a second and manifest a little bit.\u201d She asked the universe to give her a long career, and she asked that her fans, after having gotten home safe, remember this night forever. She also asked \u2014 again \u2014 that L.A. not be mad at her for writing \u201cAin\u2019t in L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI really do feel bad,\u201d she said, and not a boo could be heard.<\/p>\n