The Death and Rebirth Motifs at the Core of Adele’s Bond Theme “Skyfall”

Could Adele’s confessional songwriting translate into the world’s most popular spy film franchise?

Though she was reluctant to record the theme song for a James Bond film, Skyfall’s born-again theme moved Adele. Life and death are the natural order, but the dark jazz of “Skyfall” foreshadows a second act or rebirth.

In the film, Bond is presumed to be dead. But he eventually returns to work as an agent—his rebirth. Adele often writes about broken relationships, lost love, and heartache. However, in “Skyfall,” the crumbling pieces of the world might be her heart, her world, the lost security of a relationship, or the desperation of drowning in sorrow.

Still, when Adele sings, We will stand tall / Face it all together, the “we” in her Bond song is the hope that together, they survive. “We” will make it through the darkness. It’s the plot armor protecting James Bond.

Death and Rebirth

Using a 77-piece orchestra, Adele created a classic Bond song by channeling the film’s history of themes and merging them with her broken-hearted anthems.

“Skyfall” elicits the melodrama of Adele’s music, but Bond’s preceding minor key compositions resonate in her variation on an old theme. The lyrics are desperate, and though the music sounds like a dirge, the sadness clears the way to be born again. It follows Skyfall’s themes of death and rebirth.

This is the end

Hold your breath and count to ten

Feel the earth move and then

Hear my heart burst again

For this is the end

I’ve drowned and dreamt this moment

So overdue, I owe them

Swept away, I’m stolen

“I was a little hesitant at first to be involved with the theme song for Skyfall. There’s a lot of instant spotlight and pressure when it comes to a Bond song,” Adele said in a press statement. But she fell in love with the script and said her decision to write and record the theme was a “no-brainer.”

Following the orchestral session at Abbey Road, Adele said, “When we recorded the strings, it was one of the proudest moments of my life.” She said when she’s 60 she’ll tell the story of how she was once a Bond girl.

Skyfall is where we start

A thousand miles and poles apart

Where worlds collide and days are dark

You may have my number, you can take my name

But you’ll never have my heart

Shirley Bassey

Producer Paul Epworth said Adele recorded most of her vocals for “Skyfall” in only 10 minutes. Initially, Epworth thought the music he’d written for the film was too dark for Adele. Yet she loved the track and they immediately booked a studio.

“Skyfall” echoes Shirley Bassey’s iconic Bond songs. Epworth explained to NME how Adele forms her vocal arrangements. “She’s actually a very controlled vocalist. She has a lot of finesse and skill. She’s not just a powerhouse—it’s a lot of careful technique. That’s why she’s an amazing vocalist. It’s all control,” he said.

Bassey recorded the Bond themes for Goldfinger, Diamond Are Forever, and Moonraker.

Best Original Song (A Trend)

“Skyfall” won the Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song. It also won a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media.

It was the first Bond theme to receive an Academy Award nomination since Sheena Easton’s “For Your Eyes Only” in 1981.

In 2020, Billie Eilish won an Academy Award for her Bond theme “No Time to Die.” Eilish’s song became the third straight to win the Academy Award, following Adele and Sam Smith’s Bond themes.

Adele Even Made James Bond Cry

Daniel Craig, who portrayed James Bond in Skyfall, said he cried when he first heard Adele’s song. Her fans know the feeling.

The death and rebirth motifs of “Skyfall” parallel the hope for love in Adele’s brokenhearted hits. The hope that someday she’ll find love. That all of this heartache is for a reason—after darkness, light.

Adele’s Bond theme arrived one year after her record-breaking album 21. Then she translated her deeply personal songwriting to fit a blockbuster spy film. But Adele’s gift for turning the personal into the universal was already known by 21.

There’s no time to die if you’re James Bond. And Adele, even beneath a crumbling sky, finds security in a partner. She wrote for James Bond, but still, she zoomed out. On “Set Fire to the Rain,” Adele let it burn. Life’s too short to save what’s obviously collapsing. Tomorrow, rebuild. “Skyfall” is another way to let go.

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Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images