ADELE IS UK 'S MOST INFLUENTIAL IN MUSIC

Singer Adele has topped a list of the UK's 100 most influential people in the music industry.

The Guardian, which compiled the poll, said it was an "astonishing achievement" for the 23-year-old Rolling In The Deep star.

Her latest album 21 has topped the US chart and spent 15 of the last 17 weeks at number one in the UK.

Richard Russell from her record label XL said the secret to her success was the lack of "gimmicks" in her music.

At number two in the list was Lucian Grainge and David Joseph, who run Universal Music Group and Universal Music UK.

Simon Cowell, who runs record label Syco, was at number three with Radio 1's music policy executive Nigel Harding fourth.

At number five was iTunes UK, followed by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, the founders of YouTube.

Radio 1's head of music George Ergatoudis was seventh, with the co-founders of Google - Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt - at number eight.

In ninth was SJM Concerts boss Simon Moran with the president of Amazon Jeff Bezos rounding off the top ten.

Adele found fame after being receiving the first critics choice Brit award in 2008.

She also topped the BBC's Sound of 2008 breakthrough list.

Her first album debuted at number one in the UK and she went on to win two Grammy Awards.

"The whole message with her is, it's just music. There's no gimmicks, there's no selling of sexuality," Mr Russell told the newspaper.

The list was compiled by a panel of music experts, which was lead by music manager Cerne Canning.

"Adele is the most powerful force in music at the moment. It is very refreshing to see something so successful done in such a sensitive way," he said.