Hometown Glory by Adele

Album: 19 (2007)

Charted: 19

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This song, which captures the bittersweet beauty of London life, was written by the 18-year-old Adele in 10 minutes after her mother tried to persuade her to leave London for university. She explained to the Observer Music Monthly October 2007: "I played it to her as a protest song and said this is why I'm staying."
Despite Adele being signed to XL, this was originally released in 2007 as a limited edition 7-inch single on her friend, the singer songwriter Jamie T's, Pacemaker Recordings label. She explained in the same OMM interview: "He was like, 'But you promised I could put out 'Hometown' back in the day."'
Adele's debut album 19, according to Q magazine January 2008, was titled because it "fully represents" the 19-year-old's final 12 months as a still-at-home teenager. She added in the same OMM interview that "most of my album is about splitting up with my ex. So it's a sad, bitter, record, I suppose, but optimistic and all."
The singer told Q magazine May 2008 that the song's lyrics were partly inspired by a drunken stagger home after a night out in Central London. She confessed: "I was really pissed, wobbling all over the place. This French woman comes up to me and goes, You need help, dar-leeeng? And I went, Nah, it's me hometown, luv."
This was featured on the 2008 season finale of the TV show Grey's Anatomy. It helped bring Adele's sound to the US audience. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Bertrand - Paris, France
"Hometown Glory" returned to the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart in March 2025 thanks to a surge in popularity on TikTok when users deployed it as a backdrop for vintage photos of their parents, sparking a new trend on the platform.

Comments: 4

Jcob from London, United KingdomCat- the sample Adele has used is from 'Comptine d'un autre été' by Yann Tiersen. It's from the Amelie soundtrack 2002.
Tim from Diest, BelgiumAgree :)
Cat from Hull, United KingdomAdele, in fact, DIDN'T "steal" OR sample the piano from Sia's "Breathe me" for this song at all. The source? My EARS. Admittedly, the two songs are rhythmically similar, there is the same interval between the first few notes and the repeated phrase lasts for the same amount of bars but they're actually in completely different keys, are played completely differently (Hometown Glory - quite hard and percussive, Breathe me - very soft as though the pianist is only tickling the keys) and the notes played towards the end of the phrase are completely different! Hometown Glory is very definite and it works its way down the scale, wheras in Breathe me, the notes go up the scale and split off from each other with much more ambiguity. This "fact" is being perpetuated all over sites about both of these songs and it's simply not true.
M from Toronto, OnAdele "stole" (either purposely or by accident) the piano of this song from Sia's song, "Breathe Me." Listen to it!

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