Before emerging as a new pop girl with her fearless songwriting and magnetic stage presence, ADÉLA was first introduced to the world as a contestant on the Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE documentary series. But the Slovakia-born, Los Angeles-based singer has been putting in the work her entire life, performing professionally in ballet until she was a teen while, on the side, nurturing her dreams of music stardom—“I was, like, eight working the nightshift to learn English,” she flexes on celebratory single “KGB.” So, it’s fitting that ADÉLA named her debut album PRIMA. “It stands for ‘first,’ but also because I’m a ballerina,” she tells Elton John on Apple Music’s Rocket Hour. “You know, the prima ballerina is kind of the best soloist in the company. So, hopefully, one day I’ll get to be a prima ballerina of pop music. This is my first step to do that.” Just as its name stems from ADÉLA’s youth, PRIMA is her interpretation of the music she loved as a preteen, filtered through the lens of a 22-year-old navigating today’s world in sky-high stilettos. “Every single day/I wake up, the world is my buffet,” she purrs atop the chipmunk-soul hip-hop of “Nicole Kidman,” while the clubby “Boys” channels Britney Spears’ sultry swagger, leaving a trail of aspiring suitors in its wake. ADÉLA also sings about love for the first time, from baring insecurities (“Red Bottoms”) and withheld affection (“Hitachi”) to getting high on a new guy (“Marijuana”). “Therapy” is her most experimental song, a bare-bones stream-of-consciousness venting about what she left behind. But it’s immediately uplifted by “Ain’t in LA”—the spiritual younger sibling of Miley’s 2013 anthem “We Can’t Stop”—a reminder that talent, like her, can come from anyone, anywhere, with enough determination and a dream.