Music Adele says her closest friends weren't impressed with their first listen of 'Easy on Me' The singer shared her inner circle's reactions to the first snippets of her new hit single. By Andrea Towers Andrea Towers Andrea is a Digital News Writer who loves all things superheroes. She also has a deep and intense appreciation for Linda Cardellini's entire career. EW's editorial guidelines Published on October 17, 2021 12:25PM EDT Sometimes, our harshest critics are the people who know us best. The world had high expectations for Adele's first new single in five years and judging by Spotify records ("Easy on Me" debuted with 24 million streams in 24 hours, easily surpassing the previous record-holder of BTS' "Butter"), it's safe to say the Grammy Award-winning singer delivered. But according to Adele, the song wasn't such an easy sell among her inner circle — at least, not at first. "I sent a snippet of me singing it as I was writing it to three of my closest friends here," Adele told BCC 1 Radio Breakfast Show with Greg James in a recent interview. "And one didn't like it, the other one was like, 'Well, yeah, maybe, keep trying though,' and the other one was, 'I'm busy working.' So that was the perfect response for me." The singer went on to admit that despite the lukewarm reviews, "they loved my patience in it," and elaborated on how she channeled her personal feelings into songwriting. "I'm such a knee-jerk person. I'll be like, 'I don't like it, forget it!' I'm like that with my music," Adele told BBC 1. "I'm like that with just things I want to do. I'm like that with my feelings and stuff and I think it was clear to them in the lyrics that I've bided my time and I wasn't reacting to a reaction or anything like that. It was just a feeling that I had stirred on for a while." "Easy on Me" is the first single off of Adele's forthcoming album 30, which is scheduled to drop on Nov. 19. The soulful tune — every bit the gut-wrenching ballad Adele always manages to perform so well — largely focuses on the singer's feelings relating to her divorce from ex-husband Simon Konecki. "I don't do any music in my time off," she revealed. "It's not a muscle that I use, writing or singing. So most of the time, my best friends and even my manager, most of the time their first response is 'it's just nice to hear you sing again.'" Related content: The best new songs we heard this week: Adele returns, Young Thug pops the bubbly, Shamir brings the heat Adele releases 'Easy on Me' from 30, her first album in 6 years Adele's next album is all 'divorce, baby, divorce'