This past weekend, Adele held her first pair of public and live shows in five years with a pair of performances at BST Hyde Park in London. It was an epic weekend that featured an all-female lineup of performers that included Kacey Musgraves, Gabrielle, Mahalia, Self Esteem, Nilüfer Yanya, Tiana Major9, Chrissi, Bonnie Kemplay, Ruti, and Tamzene. Adele herself made sure to dazzle the crowd as she delivered a pair of two-hour sets that included her recent favorites and older classics. However, if Adele had it her way, her performances at BST Hyde Park shouldn’t have been her first live shows in a half-decade.
That’s because Adele was supposed to kick off 2022 with her Weekends With Adele Las Vegas residency, which she was forced to postpone due to COVID delays. In a recent interview with Lauren Laverne from BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Adele explained how the residency’s postponement affected her. “I definitely felt everyone’s disappointment and I was devastated and I was frightened about letting them down,” she said. “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 later added that she “was a shell of a person for a couple of months” after postponing the residency. “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.” Despite her feelings, Adele completely stands by her decision to push back the residency. “You can’t buy me for nothing,” she said. “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.”
The world is still awaiting new dates for Weekends With Adele, but the singer previously said that it is still “100% happening,” so the new dates should arrive sooner than later.
You can listen to Adele’s full BBC Radio 4 interview here.