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“Someone Like You”
Sly screencap
Music video by Adele
Released September 29, 2011
Length 4:45
Director(s) Jake Nava
Adele video chronology
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Video
Adele_-_Someone_Like_You

“Someone Like You” is a music video for Adele’s song of the same name. It was directed by Jake Nava and premiered September 29, 2011.

As of December 2017, the video has received 1 billion views on YouTube.[1]

Background[]

On September 27, 2011, it was reported that the music video for the song was already filmed in Paris, France and it was directed by English director Jake Nava. Several black-and-white pictures which showed Adele “gazing out over a river against a cloudy backdrop” were also posted. Later, the same day, MTV posted a 30-second preview of the video which showed Adele slowly walking on a road. Talking about the video, Nava said, “The location evokes style and romance. And shooting early in the morning allows you to focus on Adele in this lonely and emotional space.”[2][3] The video premiered on September 29 at 7:56 p.m. EST on MTV and VEVO.

Synopsis[]

The video begins with a shot of a road in Paris and Adele is seen walking on it alone. She continues to walk and starts singing the song with a sad look as the camera makes circles and shots more locations in Paris including the Eiffel Tower. During the second chorus, Adele stops singing and looks at the Seine, a river in Paris. She continues walking alone through the streets during the bridge and at the end, she goes in a building in which she sees her ex-lover. After seeing her, he starts to walk away and several shots of Adele looking at him follow.

Reception[]

“Someone Like You” received glowing reviews from music critics. James Montgomery of MTV News called the video “a somber, black-and-white affair, featuring Adele wandering the early morning streets and pining for her long-lost love. It's a perfect match for the song’s jaw-dropping emotional range—raw and unfiltered and incredibly sad, but also, in a lot of ways, beautiful and resolute.”[2]

A writer of the website HitFix concluded that the video is “in keeping with the singer’s subdued style” and added that its vibe fits with the “melancholy tune.”[4] Entertainment Weekly’s Tanner Stransky called the video “quiet” and said that “it’s just what you’d want to see for this breakup heart-wrencher.”[5] Krista Wick of Entertainment Tonight praised the video for being “more than enough to accompany Adele’s soulful vocals.”[6]

Amanda Dobbins of New York magazine concluded that “the secretly devastating video” for “Someone Like You” will remind Adele’s ex-lover what he has done by leaving her.[7] A writer for The Huffington Post praised the simplicity and the sadness in the video.[8] Sarah Dean of the same publication called it an “uncomplicated, moving film” and wrote, “the video is nothing more than Adele wandering around the deserted city of love alone, under its grey skies, singing her sorrowful notes, but because it’s her, we don’t need any more.”[9] That was echoed by Jason Lipshutz of Billboard magazine who said that the video was “simply constructed as the song’s vocal-and-piano arrangement.”[10] Marc Hogan of Spin said that the scene in which Adele looks in the camera, “speak[s] for itself” about the sadness in the video.[11]

Andrew Matson of The Seattle Times said, “The song of the year now has a simple, perfect video: Adele in Paris, singing and strolling, apparently processing the breakup detailed in the song’s lyrics. The look on her face during ‘I wish nothing but the best for you’ line is the best, just gutting, a real achievement how she plays it cold but not sarcastic. I think in times of emotional devastation, everyone wants to stand on a bridge over the Seine on a cold day, squinting into the wind, sorting it out.”[12]

A writer for Rolling Stone wrote, “This clip for the ballad ‘Someone Like You’ sticks to the singer’s simple but emotionally direct approach with black and white footage that lingers on her subtly expressive face as she lip-synchs to the tune while walking along sad, grey city streets.”[13]

Gallery[]

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