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Parenting & Family Quote by Adele

"My voice went recently, never happened before, off like a tap. I had to sit in silence for nine days, chalkboard around my neck. Like an old-school mime. Like a kid in the naughty corner. Like a Victorian mute"

About this Quote

Adele turns a potentially scary vocational crisis into a comic little morality play, and that’s the tell. “My voice went recently… off like a tap” lands because it’s brutally domestic: not a diva metaphor, a plumbing problem. The point is control (you think you have it) versus the humiliating reality of a body that can shut down without notice. For a singer whose brand is emotional excess delivered with surgical power, the sudden on/off switch is both nightmare and punchline.

Then she stacks images that get funnier and more revealing as they go: “chalkboard around my neck” isn’t just a gag, it’s public signage. The subtext is how fame works now: even rest becomes a performance, even recovery needs a caption. She casts herself as “old-school mime,” “kid in the naughty corner,” “Victorian mute” - figures defined by enforced silence and social discipline. That escalation drags the situation out of the clinic and into culture: silence isn’t neutral, it’s something you’re sentenced to, something people project onto.

Context matters: Adele’s voice is not an accessory, it’s the whole architecture of her credibility. A vocal outage threatens the myth of effortlessness, so she preemptively reframes it as self-aware slapstick. The humor also softens the power dynamics: instead of the untouchable star canceling dates, she’s the chastened child doing time. It’s an intimacy tactic, but it’s also a boundary: she tells you just enough to keep the narrative hers.

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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Adele. (2026, January 18). My voice went recently, never happened before, off like a tap. I had to sit in silence for nine days, chalkboard around my neck. Like an old-school mime. Like a kid in the naughty corner. Like a Victorian mute. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-voice-went-recently-never-happened-before-off-22210/

Chicago Style
Adele. "My voice went recently, never happened before, off like a tap. I had to sit in silence for nine days, chalkboard around my neck. Like an old-school mime. Like a kid in the naughty corner. Like a Victorian mute." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-voice-went-recently-never-happened-before-off-22210/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My voice went recently, never happened before, off like a tap. I had to sit in silence for nine days, chalkboard around my neck. Like an old-school mime. Like a kid in the naughty corner. Like a Victorian mute." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-voice-went-recently-never-happened-before-off-22210/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.

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Adele

Adele (born May 5, 1988) is a Musician from England.

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