PROVING that she’s a game old bird with a sense of humour, Adele Adkins accepted Graham Norton’s challenge to enter an Adele looky-likey competition against some of the many tribute acts doing the rounds.

The look of disbelief that dawned upon her fellow contestants on realising that one of their number was one of the biggest-selling artists of their generation is the stuff of television legend.

The BBC One Special hosted by Norton was perhaps the jewel in an amazing marketing campaign, which has rewarded Ms Adkins with the first week’s best-selling album statistics ever both here and in the United States.

Unquestionably, the most anticipated album of the year, Adele’s third official studio set is an era-defining design classic. The musical influences of 25 borrow equally from the big soul ballads, early-Seventies singer songwriters and French chanson. The melancholy of Hello, When We Were Young, Remedy and Love In The Dark will instantly satisfy the most ardent of fans, and you suspect all four songs will become staples in The X Factor auditions in the coming months.

Slightly more adventurous are the electronic-hued Send My Love (To Your New Lover) and River Lea. Despite the completeness of the new Adele sound, Ms Adkins has joined forces with an impressive array of collaborators such as Greg Kurstin, Ryan Tedder, Dangermouse and Bruno Mars, but British fans may be miffed that four tracks featuring Linda Perry, Rick Nowles and Mark Ronson are missing from the UK CD. You can foresee a deluxe version on the horizon.

Regardless, whether a fan or not, there will be no escaping this album for the next year or so, and those Adele tribute acts have something to add to their repertoires.