Emeli Sande changed her name after people kept confusing her and Adele.
The 32-year-old singer’s real name is Adele Emeli Sandé but she decided to use her middle name for her music career because of Adele, who won the Brit Awards Critics’ Choice award in 2007 and went on to huge success.
Emeli told Sky News: "Everyone kept ringing me saying, ‘Hey, congratulations on your Brit award’. This was when I was studying in Scotland.
"I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, I just saw you won the Brit’. ‘I was like, no’.
"The one person I happen to meet called Adele my entire life, apart from one girl in school… She just blew up and I thought this would just be a double battle for me to fight… I think I’m happy I went with Emeli."
And Emeli is ultimately happy with the change of moniker as it was the name of her grandmother.
She said: "She’s Emeli Sande the first, I’m Emeli Sande the second. And it reminds me of living out her legacy, and a lot of things she wasn’t able to do in Zambia; I have so many more opportunities to do here.
"Now knowing that she was so musical, I feel like that kind of spirit of music’s come from Zambia now through me, and then Emeli Sande the second gets to sing to the world."
Emeli also spoke about her love of writing for other artists and her joy when Rihanna chose to record one of her songs.
She said: "The song that got on her album was called ‘Half Of It’, a song I wrote with Naughty Boy one night.
"She said she heard it randomly and it reminded of her situation in her life.
"It just reminds you of this magical music thing that’s connecting us all in ways that we could never even imagine."
Emeli Sande changed name due to Adele Brits confusion
