Fame is fleeting and 2021 is a lot different than 2015.

Adele is learning this the hard way. Just a few weeks after her single, “Easy On Me,” stormed the charts and took hold at number 1, the party is over. “Easy on Me” has been replaced by a song from another one name singer. And a total unknown.

Now number 1 has gone to a record by a singer named Gayle. The single is called “abcdefu” and just from the title sounds like a song Adele should have sung. But she chose to make a whole album with the same songwriters she used six years ago.

So far Gayle is number 1 on iTunes, which is in real time. On Billboard, Adele is still number 1 but having a tough time on the Billboard Hot 100. While “Easy on Me” remains at the top of Billboard’s chart, all the other tracks from Adele’s new “30” album are collapsing. “Oh My God” is the highest, at 37, with an arrow pointing down. It’s the same for two others. This means there’s no follow up single for “Easy On Me” as it’s replaced by Gayle and whoever comes next.

“abcdefu” was co-written by Gayle, for whom there is little info currently, with Sara Davis and David Pittenger, and produced by Pete Nappi. (Thanks Wikipedia.) PS UPDATE: She’s 17, from Nashville, and a discovery of the great Pete Ganbarg of Atlantic Records and Kara DioGuardi. Congrats!

Adele isn’t suffering from the chart loss. Tickets to her Las Vegas sit down go on sale today and will be gutted in short order. Then the secondary market will take over and we’ll be hearing stories of $1000 tickets. Hello!

Alicia Keys– it’s hard to think of her as emeritus now. But her hitmaking years are over, along with top 40 radio play. She had her hits 20 years ago– “Fallin’,” “You Don’t Know My Name,” “Empire State of Mind.” and “If I Ain’t Got You” were the big ones.

But decades pass, audiences grew up and out of the record buying mode. Still, even though Keys’s last few albums were low sellers, they at least sold on CD. Her last album, “Alicia,” had first week sales of just 62,000. And 51,000 of those were on discs.

Her new album, “Keys,” is coming on Friday. But there will be no CDs. It’s just digital. If you’re looking for it on Amazon, you won’t find it. Presumably you’ll be able to download it on iTunes. And stream it on Spotify or Apple Music. But no CDs, no LPs– even though they’re hot right now.

This is unusual. But it’s been many years since Keys, who became an international brand in 2000 thanks to Clive Davis, has sold much of anything. Her last actual hit album, “Girl on Fire,” was released in November 2012 and sold 755,000 copies in the US, about 1.3 million worldwide. Before that, starting in 2000, Keys had had 4 multi-platinum albums.

But Keys’s 2016 album, “Here,” with excellent tracks, had no single. There was no ear-wig for the radio. And it’s been like that for the last few years. In 2020, she had a potential hit in “Underdog,” which was used for commercials and so on, but it never really took off. Recent releases, even a new single called “Best of Me,” has failed to get attention.

Maybe it was just decided to it was too expensive to make CDs or LPs this time around. But not having any physical product for someone who should be a legacy artist seems a shame.

Big scoop this afternoon from Variety:

Drake has withdrawn his two Grammy nominations. He doesn’t want them. They were for Rap Album of the Year and Rap Song of the Year.

The album is called “Certified Lover Boy.” I think now Drake is kind of a certified nut job.

The withdrawal is not a big deal. I don’t think many care whether he keeps the nominations or gives them back. He wasn’t going to come to the Grammys anyway.

Drake is probably pissed that “Certified Lover Boy” was nominated for Album of the Year in the General category. Hey– at least he was nominated. Kacey Musgraves won the Album of the Year in 2019 was totally snubbed this year in the General category, and in country!

I think Drake is taking all of this too seriously. He needs a sense of humor. It’s not like he doesn’t have millions of fans, millions of dollars, and millions of homes.

Another Grammy twist this week: the Recording Academy removed the names of Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent from a song called “deja vu” on the album, “Sour” by Olivia Rodrigo. Rodrigo sampled their songs in her song, so when her album was nominated for Album of the Year, the actual writers were included. But the Academy decided that since those three didn’t write for “Sour” directly, they shouldn’t get a Grammy nod.

Hey– I think that if you sample other peoples’ work, you shouldn’t be nominated at all. It’s not your work.  But I’m an old coot who watched Paul McCartney write “Get Back” on video last week, himself, without sampling anyone and the song has lasted 50 years. These sampled constructions do not stand the test of time. PS Two songs called “Deja Vu” — one by Dionne Warwick, the other by Crosby Stills & Nash-– are infinitely better.

The Recording Academy said: “During the submission process, the Academy received credits from the label for the track ‘deja vu.’ Last week, we received the correct credits from the label, which recognize Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift as songwriters of an interpolation on the track. In keeping with current Grammy guidelines, as songwriters of an interpolated track, Clark, Antonoff and Swift are not nominees in the Album of the Tear category for SOUR. Antonoff and Swift are nominated in the category for Swift’s album evermore.”

It doesn’t matter anyway. The Tony Bennett-Lady Gaga album, “Love for Sale,” is going to win Album of the Year. So move around the chairs on that Titanic.

As for Drake, lighten up, my friend.  To paraphrase Seinfeld, “Everyone loves the Drake!”