For ADÉLA, Prima is the culmination of a journey that began long before she ever stepped into a recording studio. The 22-year-old Slovak singer spent years training as a ballerina, and now she’s applying that same discipline, ambition and sense of performance to her debut album.

Growing up in Bratislava, ADÉLA trained seriously in ballet before turning her attention toward pop music. After competing on Dream Academy, the reality competition that ultimately created KATSEYE, she struck out on her own, releasing her debut EP, The Provocateur, in 2025 and quickly building an audience around a bold mix of pop, electronic production, dance and the theatricality of her ballet background.

Prima brings those pieces together across 11 tracks, with executive producers Dylan Brady of 100 gecs and Blake Slatkin helping ADÉLA create music that can hit hard one moment and turn surprisingly vulnerable the next. Singles “KGB,” “Red Bottoms” and “Ain’t In LA” were some of the album’s early calling cards, while songs including “Nicole Kidman,” “I’m The Man,” “Boys,” “Starving Artist” and “Therapy” fill out a record concerned with ambition, relationships, insecurity, identity, friendship and figuring out exactly who you want to be.

“Ain’t In LA” brings ADÉLA’s story particularly close to home. Written after returning to Bratislava and seeing old photographs of her mother as a teenager surrounded by pop-culture posters, the song looks back at ADÉLA’s own decision to leave Slovakia in pursuit of a music career and the countless people with similar dreams who never get the same opportunity.

The album title carries a similarly personal connection. Prima means “first,” fitting for a debut, but it also points directly to ADÉLA’s years in ballet. A prima ballerina occupies the highest rank in a company, and ADÉLA has said her goal now is to become the “prima ballerina of pop.”