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Adele · S7 E4
Oh My God
The upbeat single. The moment on the album where she decides she is allowed to feel joy again after the grief.
Track six on album 30. After five songs of grief, guilt, and voice memos to her son, the beat changes, the strings start bouncing, and Adele does something nobody expected on a divorce album: she starts having fun.
Adele, "Oh My God" (official music video, 2022). Directed by Sam Brown, the video is the most visually bold of her career: dancers, fire, chairs stacked to the ceiling, and choreography she'd never attempted before. The confidence on screen is the Adele that emerges on the other side of 30's grief.
Oh My God
"Oh My God" opens with a clap pattern and staccato strings that announce a different Adele: loose, rhythmic, unbothered. The production buries the piano beneath layers of percussion and plucked strings, and her vocal rides on top of the beat rather than carrying the whole song. She's almost whispering in the verses, conspiratorial, before the chorus breaks wide open. This is post-divorce Adele giving herself permission to feel something other than sad.
The Permission
"Oh My God" is the turning point on album 30. Everything before it is heavy: divorce guilt, voice memos to Angelo, the weight of ending a family. Then track six arrives and the energy shifts completely. Adele has said the song is about the first time she felt attracted to someone new after the marriage ended, and the shock of realizing that feeling was still available to her.
“"I thought I'd never feel that way again, that giddy, excited thing. And then I did, and I thought: oh my God."”
TAP TO REVEAL: What is unusual about the "Oh My God" music video compared to every other Adele video?
What emotional shift does "Oh My God" represent on album 30?
Juice, Lizzo
From Lizzo's Cuz I Love You (2019). Pure, uncut confidence over a funk bassline. "Oh My God" and "Juice" share the same energy: a woman who has been through something heavy deciding that she's allowed to feel good about herself again. Lizzo makes it sound effortless. Adele makes it sound like a revelation. Both are right.
Juice, Lizzo (2019)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Lizzo's brand of self-love is louder and more immediate than Adele's, but the underlying message is identical: you don't need anyone else's permission to enjoy being alive. After five tracks of divorce grief, "Oh My God" is Adele's version of this feeling.
Oh My God
The joy is real, but so is the attention. A new relationship begins with Rich Paul, and ten million people watch Adele tell Oprah about it. Next episode: the CBS special, the Griffith Observatory, and the night Adele opens up about everything.
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