Song of the Week: 'Someone Like You,' Adele

Topping the American charts, but far from American shores: Adele.

Adele, the 23-year-old British pop singer, named her latest album "21." Her first, released two years earlier, was called "19." These titles suggest that her sets are deeply personal statements; diary-like documents of two years in the life of an artist with a voice big enough to top charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

She also wants to make sure we all know she is young. No matter how classic her soul ballads sounded on the radio, she is a kid straight out of performance high school. Unlike Amy Winehouse, the self-destructive singer to whom she has most frequently been compared, she promised to have a long and sustainable career.

This should have been a year of pure triumph for Adele, who has sold more albums stateside in 2011 than any other artist, and whose singles "Rolling in the Deep" and current No. 1 "Someone Like You" have become colossal pop hits. But she has had to cancel or postpone shows three times in the past six months. A 10-date American swing that was supposed to begin in Atlantic City tonight was scrapped.

This is not Adele being temperamental: She made it clear on her website that she wanted nothing more than to cross the ocean and sing, and her disappointment and frustration were manifest. The spirit is willing, but the body is not: the stars health has been betraying her. Last month, a chest infection kept her offstage. This spring, she had to put off more than half of her Adele Live tour dates after she contracted laryngitis. Now shes been stopped in her tracks by a vocal cord hemorrhage.

That probably sounds worse than it is. Chances are, your average heavy metal shouter gets a! hemorrh age in his vocal cords every month. Given time, it heals up or scars over. But Adele isnt an average singer. She requires tremendous force and precision to make the music were accustomed to hearing her make. Understandably protective of her voice, she wrote on her site that she had "absolutely no choice but to recuperate properly and fully."

Her doctors have warned her away from the stage for awhile, which means the next time we see Adele if were lucky will be 2012. Its likely that the laryngitis and the hemorrhage are related, and its more than possible that both are linked to the near-berserk passion with which Adele sings. "Someone Like You" is a hit, in part, because of how hard she goes: When she gets to the part of the chorus where shes telling her ex-boyfriend not to forget her, her voice breaks like shes choking back tears. Thats exactly how she performed it on the Brit Awards and at MTVs Video Music Awards, and its a safe bet that thats how shes been performing it every night on tour. Do that over and over, and you put yourself in the way of a repetitive stress injury.

When other pop stars lose their voices or have off nights, they can hide behind processing, or support vocalists, or stage frippery. But Adele doesnt dance. She doesnt tote a big set with her Adele Live features few props besides lamps. And while she makes great videos, shes no movie star. Her voice is all she has. Should she lose that, she loses everything.

Early in the spring, Adele seemed indestructible. Early in the fall, shes another reminder of how ephemeral pop careers can be. Lets say a prayer for her, and enjoy her while we can.