Adela: The story behind this trend in Social Media today
08-10-2026
Adéla (full name Adéla Jergová) is a 22-year-old Slovak singer from Bratislava whose songs have driven two related social-media trends this year.In 2023 she competed on the Netflix series Pop Star Academy (Dream Academy), the show that formed the group Katseye. She finished last and was cut. She kept releasing music on her own, signed with Capitol Records in 2025, and put out an EP, The Provocateur, before her debut album PRIMA in September 2026.The first big trend came from “Ain’t in LA,” released 23 July 2026. The hook invites people to finish the line “Can’t always be LA, someone’s gotta hold it down in…” with their own city, neighborhood, or school, usually while walking in slow motion and lip-syncing. She posted an early version of the format herself days before the single dropped, naming Bratislava. The sound spread worldwide, became the first track by a Slovak artist to enter the US Billboard Hot 100 (peaking in the upper 20s), hit number 1 in the Philippines and the top 10 of the Billboard Global 200, and was used hundreds of thousands of times on TikTok. Nicole Kidman later used the audio on her own first TikTok. The song is framed as a pushback against the idea that only big cities and already-famous people set the standard.The larger current trend is built on “Nicole Kidman,” released with the album on 4 September 2026. The most repeated lyric is “Every single night, I pray that my tits are sitting right… I feel like Nicole.” Clips of people lip-syncing, dancing, or matching the energy have been used in well over a million TikToks; the song has tens of millions of Spotify streams and has reached the top of daily global charts and the upper ranks of the Hot 100. The music video nods to Kidman’s roles and the AMC Theatres ads. Adéla has also joined the dance versions with her own dancers. The track’s rise followed the “Ain’t in LA” wave, a Lollapalooza set, and PRIMA debuting at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.The story people are sharing is the underdog arc: last place on a reality show, then independent releases, then two simultaneous global hits and a sold-out headline tour, with the songs themselves about wanting to feel powerful and about ordinary places mattering as much as Los Angeles.