Look who’s back in town: Diva elegance with a dash of Butlin’s camp cheer…it could only be Adele, writes JAN MOIR from Hyde Park
Minutes before Adele appeared, the sun burst through the grey evening skies and bathed the Hyde Park stage in a golden light. If it was an omen, it was a good one. Of sorts.
‘Hello,’ she began to sing on the eponymous opening number . And then she almost broke down, overcome with… what? Emotion, nerves, stage fright?
No one knew for sure but our girl quickly rallied. ‘Help me,’ she pleaded and 60,000 fans provided an emotional boost with a hearty sing along.
With her honey blonde hair swept up in a chignon and wearing a black halter dress with gold and pearl earrings, Adele looked the very picture of diva elegance. But looks can be deceptive.
Minutes before Adele appeared, the sun burst through the grey evening skies and bathed the Hyde Park stage in a golden light. If it was an omen, it was a good one. Of sorts
‘Hello,’ she began to sing on the eponymous opening number . And then she almost broke down, overcome with… what? Emotion, nerves, stage fright?
‘I’m sh***in’ meself,’ she announced before launching into a note-perfect rendition of I Drink Wine, a slow burn torch from her latest album. ‘I hope I learn to get over myself and stop trying to be someone else,’ she sings. Afterwards she added that it was ‘so strange to be in front of an audience again’.
It was, for all of us.
Earlier this year Adele cancelled her run of Las Vegas shows the day before they were scheduled to start, blaming Covid and delivery delays. ‘I’m gutted but it just ain’t ready,’ she said, in a tearful social media post.
Here she was at last, turning a grey summer night in the city into an emotional homecoming, into something unforgettable. (Above, thousands of fans gather in Hyde Park)
Since then there have been two television specials, both a carefully controlled performance filmed in front of invited celebrity audiences in Los Angeles and London.
Apart from these showcases it has been five long years since Adele last played a gig in the UK, or anywhere else. And two of those shows – at Wembley stadium – were cancelled because of voice problems.
Yet here she was at last, turning a grey summer night in the city into an emotional homecoming, into something unforgettable.
She sang highlights from the four albums that have chronicled the journey of her life; each named after the age she was when they were recorded. First there was 19 in 2008, followed by 21 (2011), 25 (2015) and then last year’s divorce album, 30.
Adele (to the far left on the stage) is dwarfed by the stage set and big screen
On stage, she does not disappoint, with her dagger manicure and perfect maquillage, a woman who is forever lush of lash and rich of voice, with a repertoire that ranges from the conversational and raspy to the tonsil-rattling power ballads such as Skyfall.
She stopped singing that too – but this time only to direct responders to someone who had been taken ill in the crowd.
Why does she get so nervous? There is barely a moment when she is not in total control on stage.
To some she is the queen of mumrock but to her millions of fans she sings about matters of the heart and to her millions of fans, that is all that matters
The songs kept on coming, tracing Adele’s arc from teenage girlfriend to lover, wife and mother. It is all there – the men she ‘cried high tides’ over; the good loves gone bad; the working life where she has tried to find ‘balance in the sacrifice’.
To some she is the queen of mumrock but to her millions of fans she sings about matters of the heart and to her millions of fans, that is all that matters.
Hers is an empire of ballads built on heartbreak, pain and the aftermath but I have to say, sometimes it is a little too much. ‘Any mums in the crowd tonight,’ she says, with a Butlin’s camp cheer.
Once upon a time she was simple Adele Adkins from Tottenham, now she is one of the biggest selling singers in pop history. So successful that, like Bono, Madonna and Elvis, she has become a mononym, known to all by her first name only.
So much has changed for her! Marriage, baby, divorce. Then a mansion buying spree in the Hollywood Hills and a new gluten-free, gym-rich lifestyle in California which clearly suits her well. She must like it there, for she even has a tattoo of the LA skyline on her arm – yet at heart Adele is a London girl who has not changed and never will.
At the Brit Awards in February, she won best artist and best album to add to her groaning trophy cupboard. And in her acceptance speech she had some advice for new artists. ‘Never lose sight of why you are who you are. The reason people are into you is because there’s something you have in you,’ she said. ‘Don’t ever let go of that. Ever.’ Well it has certainly worked for her.
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