Adele performs during the BRIT Music Awards at the O2 Arena in London.
The new James Bond theme song, “Skyfall,” is classic Bond, and with Adele’s distinctive voice it’s the most anticipated song in Bond movie history.
After months of rumors that Adele would be the first British artist to belt out a Bond theme song since Duran Duran in 1985, she confirmed the suspicions on Monday by tweeting a picture of the lyric sheet to the title track. To keep some suspense alive, it was announced that same day that her single would drop at 0:07 London time on Oct. 5 (Oct. 4 at 7:07 p.m. E.T.). But a French radio station played more than three minutes of the song early.
Adele is accompanied by a 77-piece orchestra on the track as she sings the lyrics: “Hear my heart burst again, for this is the end/ At the skyfall and it crumbles, we will stand tall and face it all together.”
(MORE: 50 Things You Didn’t Know About James Bond)
We haven’t always talked so much about Bond theme songs, especially before the release of the actual movie. (The film debuts in the U.K. on Oct. 26 and in the U.S. on Nov. 9 — or Nov. 8, if you count the special Imax release.) But with so much of Adele’s work in the public eye, including three No. 1 hits to her name already, you can practically pencil in “Skyfall” for the top Billboard slot. If that happens, it will be only the second Bond theme to top the charts; Duran Duran’s “A View to a Kill” was the first.
According to the 007 Facebook page, Adele says she was “hesitant at first to be involved with the theme song” but quickly fell in love with the script and worked with longtime collaborator Paul Epworth, recording the song at Abbey Road Studios in London.
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