My family is huge Adele lovers. My daughter in particular, who is 18 and idolises her, while I’ve followed her progress ever since she released her first album, 19, in 2008.
She is irresistible because of her combination of power and vulnerability. It’s a quality she shares with all the greats, from Judy Garland to Dusty Springfield. Her lyrics are raw, honest, poetic – she is an expert wordsmith as well as a great singer.
Her singing voice is a joy and her Queen Vic accent is a delight when she speaks. And it’s a reminder of why we love her so much: She’s authentic, a real person who has got where she is today through hard work and talent, a peerless performer, a once-in-a-generation gem.
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It’s hardly surprising then that when she releases a new album, the excitement is off the scale. This album – 30 – has been no different.
The idea has been around for several weeks and Adele has heavily promoted it. She’s had it up in lights in Paris and Rome, she’s done Vogue and Oprah, she’s been all over social media.
And she’s talked a lot about herself: Her life, her divorce, her weight loss, her father, her son. All fascinating – she is a very interesting young woman in so many ways. But the net result is that the music itself has felt slightly second fiddle and the hype – dare I say it – has raised expectations sky high. Maybe it’s too high.
It’s because a lot fans felt that Friday’s big reveal, when the album was finally released, seemed a bit anticlimactic. It’s a good album, and by the standards of any other artist a great one, but there’s no Rolling In The Deep, no Set Fire To The Rain. Perhaps that’s just because songs like that have become old, familiar friends – maybe it will take a while to get to know these new ones.
SARAH VIENNA: The moment she walked up to the stage, wearing a long, shimmering, black dress that perfectly accented her new hourglass figure.
A quick swig from a very ordinary-looking mug of tea to remind everyone that, though she’s been living in LA for the past five years, she’s still just an English girl at heart
Since her Wembley Stadium concerts in June 2017, Adele hasn’t given a UK concert.
So it was with some trepidation that I tuned into last night’s ITV special, An Audience With Adele at the Palladium. She walked onto the stage wearing a long, black, shimmering gown that highlighted her hourglass shape, with her Saturn Return tattoo on her arm. I was immediately captivated.
She launched in with Hometown Glory – old-school Adele, sentimental, romantic, evocative. Next came Hello. This was another classic, timeless ballad that she executed flawlessly.
A quick swig from a very ordinary-looking mug of tea – perhaps a slightly affected touch, as if to remind everyone that, though she’s been living in LA for the past five years, she’s still just an English girl at heart – and then it was straight to the ‘audience’ bit of the show.
‘Haiii! ’Ello! I got really emotional when I come round the bend up there’, she began, pushing up the London accent perhaps just a little too much. Dawn French in her new, funky, blonde hairstyle, answering a somewhat uninteresting question about relationships.
Samuel L Jackson: ‘Have you ever used your “Adelity” to get out of trouble?’
Emma Watson cheered on the singer amid the star studded crowd
Emma Thompson was captured dancing next to husband Greg Wise and Michael McIntyre
Next Samuel L Jackson: ‘Have you ever used your “Adelity” to get out of trouble?’ An anecdote about a star-struck LA traffic cop, then back to the music: The up-tempo Send My Love, which had the audience of celebrities – Emma Watson, Dua Lipa, Jonathan Ross, Piers Morgan, a very uninhibited Emma Thompson – breaking out into a bit of collective dad dancing.
Next came the release of Easy On Me. She launched into it, then stopped, overcome –and started from scratch. A bit contrived, perhaps – but why not? You could hear the difference in live performance and on recording. It went on and on. More songs, more questions, more self-deprecating jokes. IdrisElba: What are you most proud of? Answer: Headlining Glastonbury. Alan Carr asked the mischievous question regarding her ex-boyfriends. After a rapid rendition of Rolling In the Deep, she transitioned effortlessly into the heartbreaking rendition of Hold on, which is one of the most reflective tracks from the new album.
Adele acknowledged that it was nerve-wracking to return on stage.
Emma Thompson, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Emma Watson were among her clients.
It culminated in a touching reunion with Miss McDonald, an English teacher.
The climax was a tearful reunion with an old English teacher Miss McDonald – once again, a reminder of her ordinary London roots – and the sight of Stormzy, some say an old flame, singing along to Someone Like You, still one of her strongest pieces of writing.
To finish, Love Is A Game, another track from the new album – all soaring, quivering Hollywood strings, echoes of Otis Redding and Etta James.
Let me just say that I love every second of it. It was all delicious, including the cheese. Yes, there was some showbiz glamour, but it was still delicious. But then that’s the nature of these things.
It is hard to deny the talent of this woman. That is the essence of this woman. Not the clothes, not the weight loss, not the exes – but her music, her voice, her artistry that she seems to inhabit so effortlessly.
Her LA excesses can be excused after her performance. Adele has proven, once again, that she is the real deal, a diva deserving of every success – and her undisputed status as Queen of everything.