Adele, Mary J. Blige, Questlove, & More Named to Time's 2022 100 Most Influential People List

Time has released their 2022 100 Most Influential People list, and quite a few musicians made the cut. Notable names this year include Adele, Mary J. Blige, Jon Batiste, Zendaya, Miranda Lambert, Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast), Jazmine Sullivan, Ariana DeBose, and Questlove.

The list is sorted into sections of artists, innovators, titans, leaders, icons, and pioneers, with entertainment, politics, sports, business, and other fields all represented. In the list, each honoree is described by an equally influential celebrity.

Adele’s blurb was written by talk show host/carpool karaoke companion James Corden. “She puts emotions into words, describing them in a way we never could ourselves,” he wrote. “She is raw, honest, and elegant all at the same time. It never feels like she sings to us. She sings for us.”

Nas penned Blige’s blurb, pointing out what originally set her apart from other R&B artists. “She became a household name early because she was a hip-hop artist who also sang. The industry needed someone like that. The streets wanted that. Pop culture wanted that. And she was the one for it because she wasn’t made up. She was the girl around the way with the big earrings. She was like a spokesperson for a particular type of girl coming out of New York and coming out of the streets,” he wrote.

As for Questlove, Jimmy Fallon contributed a blurb for him, emphasizing all that Questlove has accomplished while also working as The Roots drummer on The Tonight Show. "We’ve been working together ever since [2008], and we’ve made almost 3,000 shows together. In that time, he’s also written six books while releasing incredible albums—and this past year made an amazing documentary called Summer of Soul that won every award you can think of."

Other pairs of honorees and writers include Denis Villenueve for Zendaya, Amber Riley for Jazmine Sullivan, Elle King for Miranda Lambert, Bowen Yang for Michelle Zauner, and Kristen Chenoweth for Ariana DeBose. Additionally, rapper Jack Harlow made a write-up for honoree Pete Davidson.

This year’s honorees will be celebrated at the TIME100 Gala on Thursday, June 9. Blige and Lambert are both set to perform at the gala, which will air live on ABC. You can view the full list of honorees here.

See how some Time 100 musician honorees reacted to their inclusion in the list below.

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Article Image: Adele on a red carpet posing for a photo, Mary J. Blige smiling during the "Think Like a Man Too" premiere in 2014. (Wirestock and s_bukley via DepositPhotos.)