Adele Adkins beats Madonna's record

You cannot escape the sound of Adele right now. The young British singer has been number one in the UK album charts for 10 weeks running, the longest ever stay at the top by a female solo artist.

Her album, 21, has beaten the record previously held by Madonna's 1990 set, Immaculate Collection, a greatest hits compilation. The last original studio album to spend 10 weeks at number one was Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms in 1986.

These are rarefied heights for an artist, when their music enters the realms of cultural ubiquity, crossing all borders, satisfying all tastes, to exist everywhere at the same time.

Adele is a bona fide pop sensation, and the really sensational thing is it is all about the music.

For those having trouble keeping up at the back, here is a bluffer's guide to the UK's newest superstar.

1. It says "Adele Laurie Blue Adkins" on her birth certificate. She came into the world on May 21, 1988, in London, and was raised mainly by her mother in a "large household" in working-class neighbourhoods. She still lives with her mum in south London.

2. She recorded her debut album, 19, when she was 19 years old, and the follow-up, 21, when she was 21. She is currently 22.

3. She is a graduate of the Brit School, in Croydon, which is part-funded by the music industry and focuses on the performing arts. It has produced Katie Melua, Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis, Kate Nash, The Kooks, The Feeling and new stars Katie B and Jessie J.

"I hate to think where I'd be if I didn't go to the Brit School," Adele has admitted, reminiscing about the somewhat less progressive establishments she attended until she was 14. "It's quite inspiring to be around 700 kids who want to be something, rather than 700 kids who just want to get pregnant so they get their own flat."

4. She's had only one singing lesson. "It made me think about my voice too much. You can teach yourself. I listen to Etta James to get a bit of soul, Ella Fitzgerald for my chromatic scales, Roberta Flack for control."

5. Top producer Eg White (who co-wrote her breakthrough hit Chasing Pavements) said she was the best singer he had ever worked with. Her one-take recording in his tiny basement studio made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

She has rich tone and timbre, deep resonance and easy flexibility, allied with a jazzily understated style and casual delivery that subtly bring out every emotional nuance of her melodic, lyrically deft songs of romance and heartache.

"I feel relieved when I'm singing, whether I'm in the shower, or cooking, or on stage. I could sing forever. It's pure pleasure," White adds.

6. "I can play guitar, bass and piano, but not very well," she claims. She writes her own songs and records her own demos. She even knows how to line-check microphones, amplifiers and PA — skills she picked up at the Brit School. "It's handy," she said breezily, "'cause you don't have to pay people to do it for you."

7. She was discovered while she was still at school. The first song Adele ever wrote was a stirring, acoustic folk anthem, Hometown Glory, when she was 16. She posted her demo on MySpace, where it was spotted by independent record label XL. Adele was signed in 2006, although she first had to book a gig at a Brixton pub to prove it really was her singing.

8. After signing to XL, she didn't write a song for 10 months. Then her boyfriend cheated on her and she dumped him by text message. "I was miserable, but I'm pleased about it now — I got a whole album out of it."

Following the release of 19, she suffered again from writer's block. "I was panicking, thinking what was I going to write my second album about: hotel rooms and air miles? No one can relate to that." But then she fell in love. "I'm very lucky that I met him. And I'm lucky that we broke up as well!"

9. She swears like a particularly foul-mouthed trooper. Transcribing her quotes, one generally has to cut a word from every other sentence.

10. She's not bovvered. This is something of a default position for Adele, who puts herself across with all the cheerful disregard of one of Catherine Tate's comedy teenagers, albeit with more charm.

"I'm like the opposite of one of those comedians who's funny on stage and depressed behind closed doors. On record, I can get pretty dark, but in real life I'm very carefree. But when I'm happy, I ain't writing songs, I'm out having a laugh, being in love. If I ever get married, it'll be: ‘Darling, I need a divorce, it's been three years, I've got a record to write!'"