The cover of Adele’s blockbuster ’21′ album.

If you don’t know by now then let me inform you: Adele is the girl who lived. In an era when music sales are lower than Ciara’s backbend, she has emerged as a shining light from the east to lead the industry to the first year of growth in more than a decade.

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has provided the annual global sales reports for the year 2012 and the figures depict a 0.3% increase compared to those of 2011.  Total trade value of global recorded music revenues in 2012 totalled $16.5 billion, up from $16.2 billion the previous frame and represented the first sign of improvement since 1999.

Of course, Adele had a huge part to play in the global industry sales spike. The latest icon of this generation’s 21 album sold 18.1 million copies in major music markets in 2011 and 8.3 million in 2012 (4.26 million in US alone), all without selling her soul to the gods of Pepsi.

Taylor Swift’s Red album was the second highest-selling album of 2012 with 5.2 million units sold while One Direction nabbed the third and fourth positions with Up All Night (4.5 million) and Take Me Home (4.4 million), respectively. Finally, Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” was the top-selling single of 2012 with 12.5 million copies sold worldwide.

Now, let’s watch Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” video again, just for fun:

Thoughts?