Adele opted for a discreet look as she stepped out of Il Bolognese in Rome on Saturday, wrapping a Burberry scarf around her head while heading to her waiting car.
The 37-year-old singer braved the chilly weather in a black trench coat, which she layered over flared blue jeans, a white sweater and white trainers. Keeping things low-key in the Italian capital, she finished off the outfit with a black baseball cap and a black leather crossbody bag as she waited curbside for her limousine.
Her low-profile outing comes amid major news for the chart-topping star. Adele’s 2011 album 21 has officially edged past Whitney Houston’s 1992 soundtrack The Bodyguard in total global sales.
According to The Sun, 21 has now sold 56.375 million copies worldwide, narrowly surpassing the 56.372 million attributed to the late Whitney Houston’s iconic record.
Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, who co-wrote and produced “Rumour Has It” and co-wrote “Turning Tables” on 21, celebrated the milestone on Instagram. Reflecting on the album’s creation, he shared that no one involved — Adele included — truly grasped the magnitude of what they were making at the time.
He explained that the team was simply trying to keep pace with Adele’s energy in the studio, unsure whether the songs would even produce major hits because the sound felt so different from mainstream music at the time. Still, he said they knew they were working with one of the greatest vocalists to ever record music.
Calling the record-breaking moment “madness,” Tedder also paid tribute to The Bodyguard, describing it as one of his favorite albums and expressing deep admiration for Whitney. While acknowledging that records are meant to be broken, he added his gratitude — signing off with, “Viva la música.”
The sales totals were calculated using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept, a method that combines album sales, singles, streams and downloads into equivalent album figures. The system is designed to allow fair comparisons between artists from different eras, from vinyl to streaming.
