OLETA ADAMS : ‘Thirtysomething’ Singer Isn’t Too Old for Top 10

“If you’re too old or too good a singer, it can be a deadly combination in this business,” suggests Oleta Adams, who is speaking from experience.

Adams--whose pop-soul ballad “Get Here” is one of the year’s most satisfying hit singles--is blessed with a deep, powerful voice, and she acknowledges that she’s “thirtysomething,” which is old for a beginner in the record business.

“I probably could have had a contract years ago if I had been some cute young thing who sings dance music with a voice this thin,” she said pointing to a piece of a paper on the coffee table in her West Hollywood hotel room. “Quality singing just isn’t a premium in the record business.”

Adams’ primary showcase through most of the ‘80s was hotel piano bars, including one in a Kansas City hotel often frequented by touring pop artists. “A lot of stars came through and said they liked me and tried to help me get a deal, but nothing ever happened,” she recalled.

Playing these rooms was like slumming for Adams, the daughter of a Baptist minister, who studied to be an opera singer in her hometown of Seattle. But her passion for pop plus the odds against a lucrative opera career led her to reject a classical music scholarship and plunge into pop, where that Kansas City piano bar eventually paid off.

The British rock duo Tears for Fears spotted her there in 1985 and invited her to sing on its 1989 album, “The Seeds of Love,” and to accompany the group on a world tour. That connection led to a solo contract with the British wing of PolyGram Records. The debut album, titled “Circle of One” and recorded last year in London, was picked up by PolyGram in this country and has brought her widespread acclaim.

Even after a Top 10 single, Adams doesn’t assume she’s got it made. “The way I sing and the kind of music I (do) is mainly appreciated by older fans,” she said. “The record business is a young people’s business. Who knows when my little brush with fame will end? What I’d like is to at least build a following of fans who would come to see me perform, whether I had a record deal or not.’