by John Downey '23 on February 18, 2022
A&E Co-Editor
Arts & Entertainment
Grace O’Connor ’22
Adele’s fans were shocked when, 30 hours before her first show in Las Vegas was scheduled to take place, the beloved British singer announced that she was postponing her residency. After their initial shock subsided, fans felt a wide range of emotions from irritation to confusion. Caesar’s Palace, the location set to play host to the residency, was also caught off guard and confused why Adele waited until the last minute to cancel her shows.
Knowing that she owed her supporters an explanation, Adele took to social media to express the reasoning behind her last-minute decision to cancel her Vegas performances for the time being. According to Cosmopolitan, she explained in a set of Instagram stories that “the show was not ready for the stage and that her team has been absolutely destroyed by delivery delays and Covid.” This message offered the singer’s fans the answers they were looking for and demonstrated how distraught she is over the unfortunate situation. At one point in the post, she was visibly upset as she explained to viewers that “half my team, half my crew are down with Covid, they still are, and it’s been impossible to finish the show.” The singer added that she is “gutted” about canceling her shows and apologized profusely for disappointing her fans last-minute.
While Adele’s social media speech demonstrates her distress and suggests that the artist has a valid reason for wanting to postpone her Las Vegas residency, many are speculating that there is more to the story.
TMZ, for instance, has claimed that Adele was “unhappy with various set pieces, a choir, the sound system, and other items associated with the show,” and felt that multiple elements of the show “were not good enough” despite it costing millions of dollars in total. Similarly, according to The Sun, “there was no real clarity around what Adele wanted for the show because of the endless changes being made to the production. It seemed that while she has always preferred a stripped-back performance, she was under some pressure to come up with a huge extravaganza.” If these accusations are true, they paint Adele’s heartfelt speech in a superficial light, and the possibility that Adele actually postponed her residency for those reasons has angered some fans, especially those initially upset by her decision to do so.
These fans feel that Adele’s desire to create an ideal, perfect show is a selfish reason for canceling, as it has left many scrambling for refunds. For many, their loyalty to and respect for the artist has diminished, given that she did not seem to take into account the inconvenience and financial burden that her canceling would cause them, let alone how much it would disappoint them.
Hopefully, Adele will find a way to make it up to her fans, lest she risk further alienating them.