‘PRIMA’, Adéla Jergová’s debut album, serves as a prime example that rejection and risks can produce victory, if willing to persist.
ADÉLA first entered the public sphere in 2023 as a contestant on the HYBE x Geffen Records survival show, Dream Academy. Subsequently, she was cut from the program, with judges noting her difficulty to fit within the vision for what would eventually become the global girl group, KATSEYE. In hindsight, however, her elimination was perhaps the best thing to happen for her career, and PRIMA speaks volumes on that by itself.
Opening the album with the electric “KGB”, ADÉLA tells us exactly who she is and where she comes from. The artist grew up in a post-communist Slovakia, with extensive ballet training and ambitions that surpassed her small hometown in the medieval streets of Bratislava (as she recounts: “Just a European girl, was plotting on my rise”). “KGB” captures her obsessive immersion in American pop culture, referencing how she primarily learned English through YouTube and Disney Channel.
Credit: Elizabeth Miranda
Following with the sultry, Ariana Grande-esque “Nicole Kidman”, “I’m the Man”, and “Marijuana”, is the reinforcement that ADÉLA knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to express it. “Boys” doesn’t take itself too seriously, and leans into a playfulness that’s curated for a girls’ night out (if you listen closely to the ad libs, you’ll hear KATSEYE’s Lara Raj giggling in backing). With “Red Bottoms”, comes confessions of insecurities, veiled by the imagery of designer shoes, and “Starving Artist” calls back to the sound of her first EP, The Provocateur, which was born in an era of self-sufficiency as an independent artist.
The album also has its mellower moments with “Hitachi” and “Therapy”. The latter takes the tracklist on a different turn with its murmuring, auto-tuned melody, but lyrically, it’s her most intimate song. ADÉLA—who left her home country at 14 to pursue professional ballet, and once again at 19 to participate in Dream Academy—uses the track to reflect on the isolation from leaving behind her family at such a young age and having to watch “old white men” pull the executive strings in the meeting rooms.
It goes without saying that “Ain’t in LA” remains her strongest hit yet. The song took off on charts across countries when it was released as a single over the summer and earned ADÉLA her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 (she is also the first Slovak artist to do so). Reminiscent of the 2010s synth-pop scene, she closes the album by shouting out all “the girls in them unknown cities”. In the midst of our current socio-political climate, it’s an anthem for all the immigrants, reiterating that you don’t have to be from the home of Hollywood to make it big.
Credit: Capitol Records (Universal Music Group)
As they say, rejection is redirection, and in ADÉLA’s case, not making the KATSEYE lineup might just be the ace in the hole for her future. Her brazen claim of autonomy and refusal to compromise is something that screams “ADÉLA” alone, and it isn’t really something one can easily achieve inside of an industry machine operating on a K-pop framework. With something as universally revered and accessible as pop music, artists are presented with the unique opportunity to invite the whole world into the cultural zeitgeist. And with PRIMA, that is exactly what ADÉLA succeeds in doing—through her own playbook.
PRIMA is now available on all streaming platforms, as is the official music video for “Nicole Kidman”.
