British Star Adele Leads with Four American Music Award Nods

Adele (AP Photo/John Marshall JME)

Adele — who, even as she cancels tour dates, can apparently do very little wrong these days — has been nominated for four American Music Awards, more than any other artist this year. She’s up for Artist of the Year, Favorite Female Artist, Favorite Album, and Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist.

Between her two No. 1 hits and best-selling album (21), 2011 has been the year of Ms. Adele Adkins, almost indisputably. The backlash is nigh, however: Popjustice guru Peter Robinson, writing in The Guardian, says that Adele and her hit “Someone Like You” have brought on “the New Boring, a ballad-friendly tedial wave destroying everything in its path.” It will interesting to see if the music press that once exalted Adele will turn on her once she’s nominated for a gazillion Grammys later this year. (Hey, it happened to Mumford & Sons. And Coldplay. But they sorta deserved it.)