Adele’s ‘Love Is a Game’ Lyrics Are About How She Fell in ‘Love Again’ With Rich Paul After Her Divorce
Second time around. Adele’s “Love Is a Game” lyrics are about how she fell in “love again” with her boyfriend, Rich Paul, after her divorce from her ex-husband, Simon Konecki.
“Love Is a Game” is the 12th and final song from Adele’s fourth studio album, 30, which debuted on November 19, 2021, and features the single, “Easy on Me.” The song, which was co-written with Inflo, was performed for the first time on Adele’s “One Night Only” concert on November 14, 2021. The concert, which aired on CBS and included an interview with Oprah Winfrey, saw Adele open up about her relationship from ex-husband, Simon Konecki, whom she separated from in 2019. (The two finalized their divorce in March 2021.) Despite their divorce, Adele told Oprah that she credits Konecki for saving her “life.”
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“I think Simon probably saved my life, to be honest with you,” Adele said. “He came at such a moment, where the stability that him and Angelo have given me, no one else would ever have been able to give me.” She continued, “Especially at that time, I was so young and I just, I think I would have got a bit lost in all of it,” she continued, referring to her meteoric rise to fame. I could have easily gone down some dodgy paths, you know? And sort of self-destructed from being overwhelmed by all of it.”
Adele went on to call Konecki and their 9-year-old son, Angelo Adkins, “angels sent to me.” She continued, “He came in and was stable. The most stable person I’ve ever had in my life up until that point. Even now, I trust him with my life.” Though Adele and Konecki have an amicable relationship, the Grammy winner still found it difficult to tell her son about their split.
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“Trying to explain to a 6-year-old, ‘I do love [your dad], I’m not in love with him,’ it makes absolutely no sense to a 6-year-old,” she said. “So there were so many answers I just couldn’t give him ’cause there aren’t any really. Like, you know, that he would understand.” So who are Adele’s “Love Is a Game” lyrics about? Read on for what we know.
30 by Adele
Who are Adele’s “Love Is a Game” lyrics about?
Who are Adele’s “Love Is a Game” lyrics about? During her interview with Oprah, Adele explained that 30 was her way of telling her son who she is and what she’s experienced, including her divorce from his father. “The whole album is not about him, it’s about me and I just wanted him to hear me talking madly, deeply about who I am and how I feel,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to have that conversation with him in real life, so he can go and listen to it.”
In the interview, Adele also explained how she’s become better at the “game of love.” (Since her divorce from Konecki, Adele has been dating sports agent, Rich Paul.) “I think so, because I don’t treat it like a game anymore,” Adele said. “That thing where, ‘You’re going to hurt me so I’m gonna hurt you first,’ I’m not like that anymore.”
When asked what she wants in life, Adele responded, “Peace of mind. And stability.” She continued, “But I don’t have to expect someone else to give me stability; I can also be stable for myself. Be a solid house that doesn’t blow over in a storm.”
In “Love Is a Game,” Adele sings about how she’s ready to “love again” after the “pain” she’s experienced in the past. “I can love, I can love again / I love me now, like I love him / I’m a fool for that / You know I, you know I’m gonna do it / I’d do it all again like I did it,” she sings. The lyrics hint at Adele’s relationship with Paul, whom she was first linked to in May 2021. During her interview with Oprah, Adele revealed that she and Paul several years ago at a birthday party but he didn’t make a move until early 2021 when he asked her to a “business meeting.” “A business meeting about what?” Adele said. “We wouldn’t be having a meeting about business. It was just the first time we’d hung out only on our own, and not with other friends and stuff like that.”
Adele described Paul as “hilarious,” “so funny” and “very, very smart.” “It’s quite incredible watching him do what he does,” she said of Paul’s job as an agent for athletes like LeBron James. Adele also explained that her relationship with Paul is the first time she’s “loved” herself “and been open to loving and being loved by someone else.” “It’s just timing,” she said. “But it’d be interesting to see what my reaction is like in general to anything that hurts me now that I feel so secure in myself, and I’m talking outside of romance as well.”
Read the full lyrics to Adele’s “Love Is a Game” via Genius below. 30 by Adele is available on Amazon.
Adele “Love Is a Game” lyrics
[Verse 1]
All your expectations of my love are impossible
Surely you know, that I’m not easy to hold
It’s so sad how incapable of learning to grow I am
My heart speaks in puzzle and codes
I’ve been trying my whole life to solve
God only knows how I’ve cried
I can’t take another defeat
A next time would be the ending of me
Now that I see, ee-ee, ee-ee
[Chorus]
That love (Ooh-ooh) is a game (Ooh-ooh) for fools to play (Ooh, ooh, ooh)
And I ain’t fooling (Fooling), what a cruel thing (Cruel thing)
To self-inflict that pain, yeah, yeah-yeah, yeah
Love (Ooh-ooh) is a game (Ooh-ooh) for fools to play (Ooh, ooh, ooh)
And I ain’t fooling (Fooling), what a cruel thing (Cruel thing)
To self-inflict that pain
[Verse 2]
How unbelievable (Unbelievable)
Of me to fall, for the lies that I tell? (Lies I tell)
The dream that I sell? (Dream I sell)
When heartache, it’s inevitable (It’s inevitable)
But I’m no good at doing it well
Not that I care (I don’t care)
Why should anything about it be fair?
[Chorus]
When love (Ooh-ooh) is a game (Ooh-ooh) for fools to play (Ooh, ooh, ooh)
And I ain’t fooling (Fooling), what a cruel thing (Cruel thing)
To self-inflict that pain, yeah, yeah-yeah, yeah
Love (Ooh-ooh) is a game (Ooh-ooh) for fools to play (Ooh, ooh, ooh)
And I ain’t fooling again (Fooling), what a cruel thing (Cruel thing)
To self-inflict that pain
[Bridge]
No amount of love, can keep me satisfied (Satisfied, satisfied)
I can’t keep up (Can’t keep up, can’t keep up)
When I keep changing my mind (Change my mind, change my mind)
The feelings flood me to the heights of no compromise
[Chorus]
Love (Ooh-ooh) is a game (Ooh-ooh) for fools to play (Ooh, ooh, ooh)
And I ain’t fooling (Fooling), what a cruel thing (Cruel thing)
To self-inflict that pain, yeah, yeah-yeah, yeah
Love (Ooh-ooh) is a game (Ooh-ooh) for fools to play (Ooh, ooh, ooh)
And I ain’t fooling again (Fooling), what a cruel thing (Cruel thing)
To self-inflict that pain (Ah, ah, ah-ah-ah, ah-ah, ah, ah, ah)
[Instrumental Break]
[Outro]
I can love, I can love again
I love me now, like I love him
I’m a fool for that
You know I, you know I’m gonna do it
Oh-oh, oh-oh
I’d do it all again like I did it
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