WHO IS ADÉLA? MEET THE SINGER BEHIND “NICOLE KIDMAN” AND THE STORY THAT CAUGHT NICOLE KIDMAN’S ATTENTION

If a song called “Nicole Kidman” has been showing up repeatedly on your feed lately, it is not a coincidence. Behind the track taking social media by storm is Adéla Jergová, a 22-year-old singer from Bratislava, Slovakia, who is quickly emerging as one of the most talked-about new faces in international pop. “Nicole Kidman” is more than a song named after a Hollywood star. It is a playful response from a young artist to an actress she admires, while also showing how Adéla turns pop culture, fashion and deeply personal experiences into material for her music. More notably, Nicole Kidman herself has heard the song and has publicly shown her support for the young singer.

According to published chart data, “Nicole Kidman” climbed from No. 11 to No. 3 on the Billboard Global 200 dated October 3, 2026, generating 32.5 million streams worldwide in a single week. The achievement is even more striking because Adéla simultaneously has “Ain’t in LA” sitting at No. 5, making her one of the few emerging artists to have two songs inside the chart’s top five at the same time. “Ain’t in LA” had already marked an important milestone for the singer by making Adéla the first Slovak artist to appear on the Billboard Hot 100. The song debuted at No. 85 in August before quickly expanding its reach through strong momentum on TikTok.

Before her name became associated with Billboard, however, Adéla was known to audiences in a very different way. She was one of the contestants on Dream Academy, the competition created with the goal of forming an international girl group that would eventually become KATSEYE. Adéla did not make it to the final lineup and was not selected as a member of the group. For a young artist trying to break into the American music industry, being eliminated from a competition designed to launch a global girl group could easily have felt like a setback. For Adéla, it became the starting point for another path. In the years that followed, she moved toward a solo career and gradually built an identity that did not depend on the group she had once hoped to join.

Born on November 27, 2003, in Bratislava, Adéla grew up with an artistic background and a strong foundation in performance. She trained in ballet from a young age before turning her attention toward pop music. That dance background would later become an important part of her performance style. Adéla is not simply a singer standing behind a microphone; her performances rely heavily on movement, physicality and visual presentation. The combination of early performance training and a contemporary pop sensibility has helped her create an image that stands apart among a new generation of artists. Profiles of Adéla have also repeatedly touched on her decision to leave Slovakia, pursue the American dream and find her own place in an industry that is already crowded with ambitious young performers.

After Dream Academy, Adéla did not allow the experience of being eliminated to define her as a failure. Instead, she began developing an identity of her own. She released her first material as a solo artist, later signed with Capitol Records and released the EP The Provocateur. Her journey also took her to larger stages, including an opening slot on Demi Lovato’s U.S. tour. She also appeared at Lollapalooza, a significant milestone for a young artist attempting to expand beyond her home market. As Adéla stepped onto stages with her signature pink hair, energetic choreography and provocative performance style, the image of the “Dream Academy contestant who did not make it” increasingly gave way to that of an artist actively defining herself.

The real breakthrough came with “Ain’t in LA.” Even its title placed Adéla in an interesting position as an artist pursuing the American dream. Rather than treating Los Angeles as the only center of success, the song is about finding value in the place where you come from. The lyric “Maybe tonight, we don’t gotta run away / It’s all a lie, the baddest bitches ain’t in L.A.” quickly became part of social media videos. Users began turning the song’s message into a trend, replacing Los Angeles with their own hometowns. For Adéla, that carried particular meaning because she was trying to break into the American market without erasing her Slovak identity from her story.

That successful single paved the way for Prima, her debut studio album, released on September 4, 2026. The 11-track album quickly moved Adéla from a rising social media name to an artist with a significant presence on the charts. Prima reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200, while “Nicole Kidman” became one of the album’s most talked-about tracks. The title itself carries a meaning that fits Adéla’s background: “prima” evokes the phrase “prima ballerina,” referring to the leading female ballet dancer. For someone who trained in ballet before moving into pop, the title functions almost like a statement of ambition. Adéla does not simply want to appear in the industry; she wants to place herself at the center of her own story.

So what is “Nicole Kidman” actually about? The story began with a relatively simple moment. Adéla was invited to an event connected to the Golden Globes, dressed up and had just watched Eyes Wide Shut for the first time. Looking at herself in the mirror, she began to feel like a movie star. Adéla recalled: “My hair was super bouncy, and my corset was so tight that I thought, ‘I feel like Nicole Kidman right now,'” she told Rolling Stone. That fleeting feeling became the idea for a song in which Nicole Kidman is not the traditional protagonist, but rather a symbol of a glamorous, mature and confident version of herself that Adéla was trying on.

The music video for “Nicole Kidman” then expanded that idea into a much larger visual performance. Directed by Hannah Lux Davis, the video draws inspiration from several of Nicole Kidman’s most recognizable roles and screen images, including Moulin Rouge!, Birth and Babygirl. It also incorporates a reference to Kidman’s famous AMC Theatres advertisement, which has become a pop-culture meme in its own right. Adéla’s use of these images is not intended to retell Nicole Kidman’s life. Instead, it plays with the Hollywood icon itself: she takes a face audiences already know intimately, places it inside her own pop universe and turns the feeling of “I feel like Nicole Kidman” into a statement of confidence.

The most interesting part of the story, however, is Nicole Kidman’s own reaction. At the London premiere of Practical Magic 2 in August 2026, the actress was asked about Adéla and the song named after her. Nicole immediately made it clear that she knew exactly who was being discussed. “I absolutely know who she is, and she’s coming to Nashville and I’m going to go and see her,” Nicole said. The very next day, the actress created another memorable moment when she posted her first TikTok video, using Adéla’s “Ain’t in LA” as the soundtrack. For a new artist, having the celebrity who inspired a song publicly endorse her is the kind of promotional boost that would be almost impossible to replicate through a conventional marketing campaign.

Nicole’s support makes the “Nicole Kidman” story even more intriguing because Adéla is hardly the only person who sees the Australian actress as a modern pop-culture icon. Throughout 2026, Nicole’s image has continued to appear across music and social media, reflecting the lasting influence of the characters she has played. What sets Adéla apart, however, is that she does not simply insert Nicole Kidman’s name into a song for attention. She builds an entire visual world around the actress’s familiar roles, turning personal admiration into a pop product capable of standing on its own.

Behind that confident pop-star image, Adéla’s private life has also begun to attract public attention. The singer is currently dating music producer Jackson Shanks, who has worked with a number of high-profile artists, including Selena Gomez and LE SSERAFIM. The two are believed to have been together for around a year and first drew attention when they were seen together at a Sabrina Carpenter concert in late 2025. Their relationship has not been heavily used by Adéla as a publicity tool, but the fact that both are active in the music industry has naturally made them a couple of interest within entertainment circles.

Adéla has also spoken about Jackson during interviews touching on her personal life. In a conversation with Nylon, she explained that her boyfriend has no problem with her admiration for other male actors on screen and even knows that she has a particular soft spot for Jacob Elordi. It is a small detail, but it offers another side of Adéla beyond the sharp, provocative pop-star persona she presents onstage. She remains a young artist navigating relationships, attraction and public attention while trying to keep her private life from becoming entirely another form of entertainment.

If there has been any notable controversy surrounding Adéla so far, it has largely been connected to her Dream Academy era and the way audiences perceived her after the competition, rather than to a major personal scandal. Being eliminated from the KATSEYE lineup left her remembered for a time as the contestant who did not make it to the finish line. Some comments surrounding her remarks about Slovakia and her desire to represent her home country also generated mixed reactions online. Those discussions, however, did not develop into a major scandal that defined her career. Instead, Adéla appears to have chosen to respond through music, particularly through songs dealing directly with ambition, fame, identity, roots and the feeling of being an outsider within the entertainment industry.

That helps explain why Prima feels like more than a debut album built around easy-listening pop songs. The record touches on subjects including money, sexuality, relationships, ambition, identity and Adéla’s own roots. “Nicole Kidman” therefore sits within a larger thematic world: the attraction of fame and the sensation of entering a world that once existed only from a distance. If “Ain’t in LA” argues that success does not necessarily have to begin in Los Angeles, “Nicole Kidman” demonstrates that Adéla can use Hollywood’s biggest icons as raw material for a story that ultimately belongs to her.

Adéla’s journey therefore carries a clear contradiction. She left Slovakia to pursue an international dream and was eliminated from a program designed to create a global girl group, yet she ultimately began making her mark by bringing her Slovak roots directly into her music. “Ain’t in LA” turned Bratislava into part of a global pop narrative, while “Nicole Kidman” showed that she could enter the world of Hollywood through imagination rather than waiting for Hollywood to hand her a role. From a contestant who did not make the final lineup, Adéla is gradually becoming an artist capable of rewriting the story of her own rejection.

At 22, Adéla is still at the beginning of her career, and there is no reason yet to know whether she will become a lasting pop star or remain one of the defining viral acts of the 2026 music season. What has happened in such a short period, however, suggests that she possesses something more valuable than a viral song: the ability to turn attention into a story. “Ain’t in LA” put her on Billboard, Prima established her position as a solo artist, and “Nicole Kidman” created a direct connection with one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actresses. When Nicole Kidman herself publicly says she wants to see Adéla perform, the story almost seems to complete itself.

Perhaps the most striking thing about Adéla is not that she wrote a song about Nicole Kidman, but the way she uses such a major icon to talk about herself. She does not need to become Nicole Kidman, nor does she need a Hollywood role to prove that she has entered that world. All it took was a corset, styled hair, one night at an event and a moment in front of the mirror for Adéla to turn the feeling of “I feel like Nicole Kidman right now” into a song sitting near the top of the global charts. For a 22-year-old artist, it is an unusually distinctive way to begin writing her name onto the international pop map.