Why Adele wishes she hadn't seen that Amy Winehouse doco

Adele was inspired to carve out a career in music after listening to Amy Winehouse - but the British singer wishes she hadn't seen her documentary.

The Hello hitmaker went through her own "massive grieving process" after Winehouse died in 2011 even though they "didn't really know each other".

Listening to the track Frank was catalyst for starting her own creative journey, the 27-year-old star said.

"If it wasn't for Amy and Frank, one hundred per cent I wouldn't have picked up a guitar, I wouldn't have written Daydreamer or Hometown and I wrote Someone Like You on the guitar too.

"Contrary to reports, me and Amy didn't really know each other, we weren't friends or anything like that. I went to Brit School and she went for a little while. But a million per cent if I hadn't heard Frank this wouldn't have happened. I adored her."

Adele admits she "felt a little bit uncomfortable" watching the recent controversial documentary Amy about the Back to Black hitmaker.

Asked if she had seen it, she told i-D magazine: "I did see it, yeah. I wasn't going to. I loved her and I went through my own massive grieving process as her fan.

"I'd finally got to a place where I felt really great about the impact she'd had on my life, in every way. I felt really, really fond of it all. But then I read this review of it and that made me go and see it.

"I got super emotional with the funeral footage. But I wasn't really that into the saved voicemails and stuff like that. I felt like I was intruding so I actually felt a little bit uncomfortable and that ruined it for me. I love watching her, but I kind of wish I hadn't seen it. But you know, I love Amy. I always have, I always will. Do you know what makes me super sad? That I'm never going to hear her voice again, other than how I've heard it."

It's a good thing Adele did pick up that guitar because the British pop singer's long awaited single Hello made the biggest debut of any video this year on YouTube.

The ballad averaged one million views per hour in the first two days after its release on Friday, with more than 92 million views as of Tuesday afternoon.

In a blog post the website said that the debut surpassed the Star Wars: Episode XII - The Force Awakens trailer release.

Vevo, avideo-hosting platform backed by major music labels and YouTube owner Google, said that Hello also broke its own record with more than 27 million views in its first 24 hours.

Music industry journal Billboard said the single was on track to beat the record for first-week digital sales of a single in the United States.

Hello is the first hit off 25, Adele's first album in four years, which is set for release on November 20.

Her last album 21 - which featured the heartache song Someone Like You - was the top-seller in the United States for two years in a row and the biggest album by far in Britain in the 21st century.

Adele still has a way to go to break the all-time YouTube record. South Korean Psy's Gangnam Style, went viral around the world and holds the record at more than 2.4 billion views.

- Bang! Showbiz and AP