There is something deliciously audacious about PRIMA, the debut album from Slovakian pop provocateur ADÉLA. Released today, the 11-track, just-over-30-minute record feels less like an introduction than a declaration: I have studied pop history, I know exactly what I want, and now I’m coming for it.
And if PRIMA has a spiritual ancestor, it is unmistakably Britney Spears.
Not in the reductive sense of simply recreating early-2000s pop, but in the way ADÉLA understands that pop stardom is as much about attitude, choreography, sex, humour and character as it is about the songs themselves. Critics have already noted the album’s debt to Britney, Janet Jackson and the dance-pop canon, while ADÉLA herself has spoken about growing up absorbing the pop music of the 2000s and early 2010s.
That influence becomes impossible to ignore on “Boys”, arguably the album’s most immediately thrilling moment.
“Boys” is ADÉLA in full pop-star mode: flirtatious, mischievous, slightly dangerous and completely in control. Built around a club-ready beat and a knowingly exaggerated performance of male attention, the song turns the nightclub into a playground. ADÉLA and KATSEYE’s Lara Raj communicate through conversational interludes, giving the track the feeling of overhearing two friends dissecting the chaos of a night out in the bathroom.
But then there is that Britney energy.
The combination of sultry delivery, electro-pop production and deliberately provocative choreography recalls the era of “I’m a Slave 4 U” — a comparison that was already being made when ADÉLA performed “Boys” live, with Wonderland explicitly connecting the track to Britney’s iconic 2001 VMAs moment.
Crucially, though, ADÉLA isn’t attempting to become Britney. She’s taking the language of the pop princess and translating it into something distinctly 2026: more self-aware, more ironic and considerably more interested in exposing the machinery behind the fantasy.
Elsewhere, PRIMA moves between ambition (“KGB”), celebrity satire, vulnerability and unabashed hedonism. “Therapy” pulls apart the construction of the pop persona, while “Ain’t In LA” turns the traditional Hollywood dream on its head. (The Guardian)
What makes PRIMA work is that ADÉLA understands pop isn’t supposed to be sensible. It’s supposed to be larger than life.
With PRIMA, she isn’t asking permission to become the next big pop star. She’s already behaving like one.