“Hello” Adele, it is you we've been looking for …

“Hello, is it me you're looking for?”  It was Lionel Ritchie who sort of trademarked that song title, with his 1984 single that became an all-time classic, but he is not alone on that pedestal anymore. “Hello from the Other Side”, Adele said in her comeback song after a three-year hiatus from music, and the whole world responded in an outburst. The British singer's latest release this week, from her upcoming album “25”, has already broken a number of Internet records, and is showing no signs of slowing down.

Anticipation has been building up to the song for a while, and for 48 straight hours after the song hit Youtube on October 23, it was streamed a staggering one million times per hour. The peak was recorded at 1.6 million in an hour, eclipsing the much-anticipated the 1.2 million mark set by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, and making it the biggest Youtube debut of the year. Adele also knocked off Taylor Swift from music video service Vevo's list of highest-streamed song in one day. On the first day of release, Vevo (and its partnering sites) notched a hit count of 27.7 million, surpassing “Bad Blood” (20.1 million) comfortably.

The song has been on the top of the iTunes chart since its release in 102 countries from Australia to Zimbabwe, and even pre-orders for “25” has also put the album on the top of the album sales list in the US.

But it's not just the fanboys (and girls) going crazy over the song. A small video mash-up of Lionel Ritchie's “Hello” and Adele's “Hello” has gone viral across social media platforms, to the extent that Lionel Ritchie himself posted a split screen photo from the songs' videos and captioned it “HELLO @adele is it me you're looking for …”. A long list of who's who of the entertainment world have also reacted exuberantly to the song on Twitter and Instagram -- from youngsters like Chloe Graze Moretz to veterans like Russell Crowe, and everyone in between: Katy Perry, Kate Hudson, Sam Smith, Lena Dunham and One Republic.

The video, shot on IMAX cameras in a farm in Quebec (Canada) in a sepia tone by director Xavier Dolan and starring Tristan Wilde, shows Adele doing what she does best: telling a story of heartbreak. With her big voice and a hauntingly beautiful musical arrangement, she apologises to a past lover for breaking his heart, and the world cannot get enough of it.

When “25” – which Adele adoringly called her “make-up record”, comes out November 20, it's safe to say some big numbers will be registered. But more than the numbers, it is the impact that she has on her listeners is what makes Adele the icon that she is.