Despite rumours that Adele's new album would drop at the end of last year, her manager has since confirmed that any hopes for her latest project to be released in September 2020 are no longer realistic.

Jonathan Dickins has said that there is no concrete date for the new album - her first in five years - with the COVID-19 pandemic presumably pushing it back even further.

"It isn’t coming in September, it’ll be ready when it’s ready," he recently told MusicWeek.

"We’re all in the same boat, you’re doing stuff and then all of a sudden, the world stops. It’ll come when it’s ready. I can’t put a date on that yet. We have music, but we’re still working."

Fans were convinced that new material would emerge this year after she left a cryptic comment on an Instagram live video.

Posting on a battle between music producers Babyface and Teddy Riley, Adele commented after the video suffered a technical hitch.

“Come on, it’s 2020 – we ain’t meant to get what we want!,” she wrote.

A steady stream of artists have pushed back the release of their new records as a result of the global health crisis.

Dickins appeared to confirm in January that the singer was set to release new music this year.

Speaking about the follow-up to her 2015 album 25, he said “the sooner it comes out the better.”

When the singer turned 31 last May, she said:

“This is 31...thank fucking god – 30 tried me so hard but I’m owning it and trying my hardest to lean in to it all.”

"For the first time in a decade I’m ready to feel the world around me and look up for once," she added.

"30 will be a drum 'n' bass record to spite you. Chin up, eh".