Adele opens up about “brutal” postponement of Las Vegas residency
"I was a shell of a person for a couple of months"
By Tom Skinner
Adele has spoken out about having to postpone her planned residency in Las Vegas earlier this year.
The ’30’ singer had been scheduled to begin a 12-week run of shows, billed Weekends With Adele, at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace on January 21. However, she posted a video the day before to announce that the concerts would no longer take place due to “delivery delays and COVID”.
“Listen, I’m so sorry, but my show ain’t ready,” Adele explained at the time. “Half my crew, half my team are down with COVID — they still are, and it’s been impossible to finish the show, and I can’t give you what I have right now and I’m gutted.”
She continued: “I’m gutted and I’m sorry it’s so last minute. We’ve been awake for over 30 hours now trying to figure out and we’ve run out of time. And I’m so upset and I’m really embarrassed and I’m so sorry to everyone that’s travelled again. I’m really, really sorry. I’m really sorry. We’re on it. We’re going to reschedule all of the dates. We’re on it right now. And I’m going to finish my show and I’m going to get it to where it’s supposed to be.”
During an interview on The Graham Norton Show, Adele later said that the Vegas performances “would have been a really half-arsed show” should they have gone ahead when initially planned, “and I can’t do that.”
Adele returned for her first ticketed shows since 2017 with a two-night billing at BST Hyde Park 2022 on Friday and Saturday (July 1/2), but is yet to confirm new dates for the Weekends With Adele residency.
Speaking to Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio Four’s Desert Island Discs yesterday (July 3), the star further discussed the last-minute setback. “I definitely felt everyone’s disappointment and I was devastated and I was frightened about letting [fans] down,” she explained.
“I thought I could pull it together and make it work and I couldn’t. I don’t think any other artist would have done what I did, and I think that is why it was such a massive, massive story.”
Adele also said that she “was a shell of a person for a couple of months” after she decided to pull the concerts: “I just had to wait it out and just grieve it, I guess, just grieve the shows and get over the guilt, but it was brutal.”
She added: “You can’t buy me for nothing. I’m not going to just do a show because I have to or because people are going to be let down or because we’re going to lose loads of money.”
Reviewing her first BST Hyde Park 2022 concert, Rolling Stone UK described Adele as “a dazzling force to be reckoned with and, truly, the best to ever do it”.
Both shows boasted an all-female bill of support acts, including Self Esteem, Kacey Musgraves and Mahalia.