Hyde Park, London
She may come wreathed in the glamour of Hollywood, but her patter is homegrown – and her vocal artistry has few peers
Adele’s first line, “Hello, it’s me, I was wondering if after all these years you’d like to meet,” carries extra weight tonight. It’s five years to the day since the singer cancelled two Wembley Stadium shows due to damaged vocal cords and retreated from the public eye. This is her first full public concert anywhere in the world since then, so she takes nothing for granted. When 65,000 people sing the chorus to Someone Like You, there is a distinct possibility that she will melt down to a puddle of tears. “You sounded bloody lovely,” she says.
Adele remains a unique proposition: a torch singer who specialises in ballads about shredded hearts (“I don’t have many uptempo bangers”) yet chats away between them like a beloved family friend who always brings wine. You might imagine that five more years in Los Angeles and a swerve towards old Hollywood glamour had changed her to some extent. At the start of the show everything looks gold, her hair and jewellery chiming with the stage décor and the evening sunlight. But as soon as she starts talking it’s as if she never left Tottenham. She natters about Billie Eilish, Stranger Things, sciatica and forgetting lyrics, offers to buy one 18-year-old fan a birthday drink and swears with jolly gusto. “My son’s here tonight,” she says, “so cover your ears, baby.”
