What news triggered Adele’s emotive take on “Someone Like You”?

Set to record “Someone Like You,” Adele couldn’t find the emotional pitch, so producer Dan Wilson suggested a break. She received a text from her ex announcing his engagement; she returned to the piano still crying. The first 30 seconds of that take survived every vocal comp, complete with audible sniff before the second verse. Engineers removed the click track and let the tempo breathe, a decision mastering engineers feared would kill radio play. Instead, DJs called the rubato “the pause that breaks you.”