Simon Cowell has revealed his surprise at how successful vocal sensation Adele has become considering how "image-infatuated" the music industry is. 

The music mogul shared his opinions on the 'Someone Like You' singer's career and talents to The Sun newspaper and admitted that he couldn't believe how popular her records are because success in music is often wrapped up in the whole 'sex sells' concept:

"Adele is an incredible story. You wouldn't have predicted this years ago when we were such an image-infatuated business."

"Here is somebody who has done everything her own way, gone back to basics and achieved this incredible success. She's one of the most down-to-earth people you'll meet — and she hasn't changed a bit."

Her stunning sophomore album '21' was recently confirmed as the eighth best-selling full-length release in the UK ever and she also made her mark as the first artist to go double Platinum on U.S. iTunes. 

Check out her performance of 'Rolling In The Deep' from the 2012 GRAMMY Awards here: