--- title: Adele Gave Harry Styles a Stress-Inducing 21st Birthday Gift description: The Grammy-winning singer gave the One Direction star an appropriately music-related gift: her own album, produced when she was 21, too. canonical: https://time.com/4729212/adele-harry-styles-birthday-21/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-06T20:11:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:37.032Z og:title: Adele Gave Harry Styles a Stress-Inducing 21st Birthday Gift og:description: From one musician to another. og:url: https://time.com/4729212/adele-harry-styles-birthday-21/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b91d618d5fb0831/6988c1b9cd1bba18157049f4/adele.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4200 og:image:height: 2363 og:image:alt: 59th GRAMMY Awards og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Adele Gave Harry Styles a Stress-Inducing 21st Birthday Gift twitter:description: From one musician to another. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b91d618d5fb0831/6988c1b9cd1bba18157049f4/adele.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Adele Trolled Harry Styles With This Stress-Inducing 21st Birthday Present > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=388ac104-1174-4f1c-b016-05a1bb24741e&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Apr 6, 2017 8:11 PM UTC  Adele attends the 59th GRAMMY Awards at STAPLES Center on February 12, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Adele attends the 59th GRAMMY Awards at STAPLES Center on February 12, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Axelle/Bauer-Griffin—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Apr 6, 2017 8:11 PM UTC Twenty-first birthdays are a time of celebration and recognition that you’ve reached the hallowed halls of official, government-approved adulthood. For global pop star Harry Styles (who’s now 23), his 21st year was also marked with dramatic change: One Direction [began to break off](http://time.com/4368542/zayn-malik-one-direction-taylor-swift/), clearing the way for his subsequent solo career [as an actor](http://time.com/4602148/harry-styles-oscar-memes/) and musician. As it turns out, he also received a stress-inducing gift on his big day, from none other than fellow world-famous, record-breaking British [recording artist Adele.](http://time.com/4713949/adele-tour-25-never-again/) “For my 21st she gave me one of her albums _21_ and said, ‘I did some pretty cool stuff when I was 21, good luck’ and I was like, ‘geez’,” Styles shared in an interview with [BBC Radio One’s Nick Grimshaw](http://www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a825282/one-directions-harry-styles-adele-guidance-on-debut-album-solo-single-sign-of-the-times/). _21_, which the Grammy-winning songstress [recorded during](http://time.com/4113493/adele-21-album-billboard/) her own 21st year, went on become one of the [best-selling albums](http://www.billboard.com/articles/events/greatest-of-all-time/6760797/adele-the-beatles-billboard-200-albums-artists-all-time) of all time. No small act for Styles to follow—although he’ll be throwing his hat in the ring [starting Friday](http://time.com/4726630/harry-styles-flying-meme/), when he releases his first solo single, “Sign of the Times,” with more music to come. (Of course, he’s no longer 21.) “I think she leads by example,” Styles [added of Adele.](http://time.com/4710712/adele-concert-bag-of-air/) “She’s the best so she should be the biggest.” Only time will tell if Styles can live up to the [high bar](http://time.com/4596550/5-songs-you-need-to-listen-to-this-week-2/item/i-dont-wanna-live-forever-zayn-taylor-swift/) already set for him. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4729212/adele-harry-styles-birthday-21/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4729212/adele-harry-styles-birthday-21/"},"headline":"Adele Trolled Harry Styles With This Stress-Inducing 21st Birthday Present","datePublished":"2017-04-06T20:11:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:37.032Z","description":"From one musician to another.","url":"https://time.com/4729212/adele-harry-styles-birthday-21/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b91d618d5fb0831/6988c1b9cd1bba18157049f4/adele.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b91d618d5fb0831/6988c1b9cd1bba18157049f4/adele.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"59th GRAMMY Awards","caption":"59th GRAMMY Awards","creditText":"Axelle/Bauer-Griffin—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4729212/adele-harry-styles-birthday-21/","name":"Adele Trolled Harry Styles With This Stress-Inducing 21st Birthday Present"}}]}] ```