Arrive AdeleHer decision to postpone her Las Vegas residency is now just water under the bridge.
The British singer, who is leading two festival shows at the Hyde Park Collection this weekend, said: BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs will continue with her planned Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace earlier this year being impossible, saying the show simply isn’t up to her standards.
The concerts were originally scheduled to begin on Friday, January 21 and run until mid-April. The postponement without any extra time remains a sore point for many of Adele’s fans and critics.
“I definitely feel everyone’s disappointment and I’ve been devastated and I’m scared about letting them down, and I thought I could regroup and make it work but I couldn’t, and I stand by that decision,” she told the BBC interview.
She admitted the backlash was “brutal” from angry fans spending money on travel and hotels, not to mention taking time off work. That anger left her with a “person’s shell for several months.”
She added, “You can’t buy me, you can’t buy me for nothing. I’m not just going to do a show because I have to or because people will be disappointed or because we’re going to lose a lot of money. I said, ‘The show isn’t good enough.’
There is still no planned date for what is said to be “postponed”. Theatrical sets for the scheduled show have been cleaned up, according to reports, and the venue has been moved forward with other artists.
“I won’t update you if I have nothing to update you, because that will only lead to more frustration.”
Why the shows were canceled remains unclear. At first, Adele blamed the pandemic, saying, “Half of my team, half of my team were affected by COVID – they still are – and couldn’t finish the show.” Later, it was reported that there were professional skirmishes between Adele and the production team in a 60-member choir and a pond where the singer would rise from the stage.
Performances in London, at London’s Hyde Park, feature an all-female lineup of artists, notably Kacey Musgraves.