The Slovakian breakout star pivots from maximalist pop to vulnerability ahead of her sold-out fall headline tour.
If there is one thing Adéla proved with her debut EP The Provocateur last year, it’s that she knows how to make an entrance. The 22-year-old Slovakian native has spent the last twelve months weaponizing high-drama pop, theatrical choreography, and razor-sharp defiance to build one of the fastest-growing fanbases in music. But today, the rising pop star is showing a completely different side of herself with the release of her intimate new single, “Red Bottoms.”
The track marks a stark sonic departure from April’s maximalist hyperpop banger “KGB”—which featured a heavy-hitting production trio in Blake Slatkin, 100 gecs’ Dylan Brady, and The Dare. Where “KGB” relied on a thumping beat and a cinematic, ballet-infused music video shot in the historic Los Angeles Theater, “Red Bottoms” strips away the armor.
This pivot from uncompromising bravado to raw, diary-honest lyricism is entirely intentional. Speaking recently about her creative evolution to PAPER, Adéla admitted she felt a sudden urgency to shed the hyper-confident shell that defined her early work. “I think everyone, including me, is trying to be cunty all the time,” she shared. “I’m kind of getting tired of that. I’m not cunty all the time… it feels urgent for me to feel like a girl and a human in every sense of the word.”
Coinciding with a fiery new music video directed by Emma Drew Berson, “Red Bottoms” is Adéla’s very first heartbreak ballad. The singer-songwriter deftly spins an analogy out of luxury fashion, using the worn-out, scuffed red soles of a Christian Louboutin heel to mirror the exhaustion of a toxic, emotionally unavailable relationship. Throughout the track, she untangles a web of mixed signals, inconsistency, and the paralyzing fear of abandonment.
“Red Bottoms” sees the 22-year-old artist trading her usual uncompromising bravado for raw, diary-honest clever lyricism, capturing the exact moment you realize your flaws are being used as an excuse for someone else’s inability to love you back.
The sudden vulnerability clearly isn’t scaring off listeners; the release comes right on the heels of the announcement of her first-ever headline North American tour, which remarkably sold out in a matter of minutes. The massive demand follows her highly praised opening stint on Demi Lovato’s recent stadium tour, where Adéla teased unreleased material that instantly went viral on TikTok and Instagram.
It has been a meteoric rise for an artist who, less than a year ago, was introducing herself to the world through a lens of survival, exploitation, and the heavy cost of chasing stardom out of Eastern Europe. Now, with critical acclaim pouring in from the media, the industry is realizing her arrival was no fluke.
Adéla is set to hit the festival circuit this summer at Lollapalooza in August, followed by a special UK showcase at London’s HERE at Outernet. Her 21-date headline tour officially kicks off this September in Detroit, making major stops at Brooklyn Steel, Nashville’s Basement East, and closing out with a two-night residency at Los Angeles’ Fonda Theatre before heading to Mexico City.”
Red Bottoms is out now, watch the official music video streaming below.
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