Since it’s release on January 24, 2011, Adele’s album, which contains the hits ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and ‘Someone Like You’ finally bowed out of the Top 40, slipping to number 42 last week.

Now, this may not sound like big news but it’s rare that an album manages to stay in the public consciousness for more than 2 years, let alone an album. Having ridden the charts for the last 22 months, ‘21’ has notched up some pretty impressive feats;

• It’s gone on to be certified 15-times Platinum by the British phonographic Industry for selling 4.5million units.
• It is the biggest selling album of the 21^st century in the UK.
• The fifth top selling album of all time in the UK.
• It stands as the most downloaded album in UK history.
• The album spent an unbelievable 71 consecutive weeks in the UK Top 10.
• ‘21’ has just made Adele the first British female artist to sell 10m copies of an album in the US.

Albums like this do not come along often. One of the biggest selling albums of all time is Alanis Morissette’s ‘Jagged Little Pill’, which stayed in the UK charts for a total of 145 weeks. Shania Twain’s ‘Come On Over’ went on to sell 40 million copies worldwide, staying in the Top Ten of the Billboard Top Country Albums for 151 weeks…  Twain’s effort joins the ranks of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’, Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ and Led Zeppelin’s ‘Led Zeppelin IV’.

Success like this was thought to have been reserved for artists that found their fame pre-21st century, having only seen a few by the likes of Britney, Outkast and Usher being recognised, but Adele has proved this wrong.

So, what next? Well, the superstar is taking time out to enjoy motherhood with her newborn, allowing herself time to enjoy the well earned success that ’21’ brought her way.