Adele finally shared more details about her delayed Las Vegas residency, admitting she was “embarrassed” by the original production. The “Easy On Me” singer was scheduled to begin a string of 24 concerts at the Colosseum at Caesars Palance on Jan. 21, but Adele pulled the plug on the whole thing the day before it was set to start. In July, Adele finally rescheduled the residency, which will now run from Nov. 18, 2022, to March 25, 2023.
The last-moment residency delay was the “worst moment in my career, by far,” Adele, 34, told Elle. “By far. I was so excited about those shows. It was devastating.”
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On Jan. 20, Adele posted a video of herself nearly in tears as she explained that the shows wouldn’t go off as planned. She said the show was not ready and many members of her team were struggling with COVID. Adele was up for over 30 hours straight before publishing the video, she told Elle. Adele was terrified to disappoint everyone, but she knew the show wasn’t right.
“There was just no soul in it,” she said. “The stage setup wasn’t right. It was very disconnected from me and my band, and it lacked intimacy. And maybe I tried too hard to give it those things in such a controlled environment.”
During a dress rehearsal, Adele began singing a cappella in the 4,300-seat Colosseum, and everyone there could hear her. It was a simple and intimate moment that Adele knew could not be replicated by the show as it was. “This would be the best part of the show,” she recalled thinking. “For me, and for you. This is what I want.”
Although she knew in her heart the decision was the right one for her, the first few months were “really, really hard,” she said. “I was embarrassed. But it actually made my confidence in myself grow because it was a very brave thing to do,” she said. “And I don’t think many people would have done what I did. I’m very proud of myself for standing by my artistic needs.”
The residency was planned in place of a traditional tour to support her latest album, 30, which was released in November 2021. A few days before the album was released, CBS aired the concert special Adele One Night Only, which included an interview with Oprah Winfrey and a performance before celebrity guests at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. She did a similar show for the U.K. called An Audience with Adele, which aired on ITV and was filmed at the London Palladium. Adele finally gave two concerts for the general public during the British Summertime Hyde Park festival in London on July 1 and 2.
The Las Vegas shows will finally give Adele a chance to see how audiences respond to songs from 30, even though the album will already be a year old by the time the shows begin. “I haven’t really witnessed [30] out in the world yet,” Adele told Elle. “It’s gonna be so emotional. I don’t know what I’m gonna do with meself.”
