Later, I got hold of 21 and was suitably impressed. As a caveat, I have to say that I think Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was the best album of the last year, by far, but 21 was the first pop album I listened to from start to finish with enjoyment in a very, very long time. When I found out that the album stemmed from the dissolution of her real relationship, I thought I had an idea of where the power of it came from. There is something magical that happens when musicians use their own experiences, no-holds-barred, in their art. 21 struck me as more than just a pop album, but a portrait of the beautiful evolution of a young woman who happens to have a hell of a voice.
There was a moment in her performance last night, as she reached the bridge of the song, when she sang, "Turn my sorrow/into treasured gold" and gestured above her, as if to indicate that this is exactly what she had done. Behind her the backup singers intoned softly, "You're gonna wish you/never had met me..." before she bellowed, "You could have had this aaaaaalllll" and indicated herself, and I had a sudden sense of the song as prophecy. She wrote "Rolling in the Deep" mere hours after her breakup (I believe), and from it built her monumental success, the best revenge for a broken heart.
I thought of the man who had so devastated her. Surely he does, now, wish that he had never had met her.
Most songs are just that: songs. We enjoy singing them, listening to them, dancing to them. But rarely do we hear a song, and see a performance, that testifies to its own success in the way "Rolling in the Deep" did last night. The ovation that followed, from luminaries like Paul McCartney, must have been so validating for that young woman. Watch the performance below:
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