Last month, rumors had it that although the official reason was Covid on the production staff, Adele postponed her hotly anticipated Las Vegas residency because the staging was too over-the-top — and at the otherwise over-the-top BRIT Awards in London on Tuesday, she kept things relatively straightforward, performing “I Drink Wine” while seated in front of a giant gold curtain, accompanied by an understated four-piece band and three singers.
The performance was pitch-perfect, intense where it needed to be, with finger-pointing emphasis and a defiant grimace on the line, “Why am I seeking approval from people I don’t even know?”
It was her second appearance of the night on the BRITS stage, the first coming when she accepted the Song of the Year award for “Easy on Me,” one of four for which she is nominated. Rising from her seat, where she was accompanied by boyfriend Rich Paul, she walked to the stage clad in a long black gown. Noting the large number of nominees for the category, she said, “I can’t believe a piano ballad won against all those bangers!”
She also wore a large, tear-shaped diamond ring on her left ring finger that seems likely to get social media buzzing.
She accepted a second award, for Artist of the Year (while wearing a different outfit) shortly after her performance. In her acceptance speech she gave a shout out to Best New Artist winner Little Simz, apparently using four-letter words that were silenced on the broadcast.
She also addressed the BRITs’ decision to eliminated the male/ female award categories, saying “I really love being a woman and being a female artist!”
She teared up as dedicated the show’s final award, Artist of the Year, to her son, and then to producer Inflo, who collaborated with her on several songs on the album, as well as those by Little Simz and his own group, Sault.
“Obviously i’d like to thank everyone that i work with like the labels and stuff,” she began. “But I’d like to dedicate this award to my son,” she paused, tearing up, to cheers. “And to Simon his hdad, this album was all of our journey not just mine and i’m very proud of myself for sticking to my guns and putting out an album that was about something so personal to me. There’s not many people who do stuff like that anymore. My son has been so gracious and patient and kind over the past couple of years and it’s for him.”
Adele dedicating album of the year to her son 🤍 pic.twitter.com/ft8MwbS0TS
— Steff (@helloitsteff) February 8, 2022
She then nodded to Inflo, “I’d also like to dedicate this to someone that was absolutely integral to this album, producer of the year, his name is Inflo and works with Little Simz a lot as well, but he really changed my life not just with music but he really helped me in so many ways. Flo I love you, this is for you as well.”
Adele is scheduled to be interviewed on BBC’s “The Graham Norton Show” in an appearance airing Friday.
Here’s @Adele’s acceptance speech after winning Song of the Year at the 2022 #BRITs 🏆#AdeleXBRITs pic.twitter.com/7BCXJ510Pa
— Adele Global (@AdeleGlobaI) February 8, 2022
A little bit of Adele performing ‘I Drink Wine’ at the #BRITS.
pic.twitter.com/6zPaAiw6aS— Adele Daily (@adeledailynet) February 8, 2022
Adele postponed the Las Vegas residency in a tearful Instagram post on Jan. 20, less than 24 hours before it was scheduled to launch, citing a large number of her crew testing positive for Covid-19. “All dates will be rescheduled, more info coming soon,” she wrote. However, other reports have said it was postponed due to differences with the venue over the production; no dates have yet been rescheduled, and a number of questions about the postponement remain.
“I’m so sorry, but my show ain’t ready,” she said in the video posted to Instagram. “We’ve tried absolutely everything we can to put it together in time and for it to be good enough for you, but we’ve been absolutely destroyed by delivery delays and COVID. Half my crew and team are [ill] with COVID and still are, and it’s been impossible to finish the show. I’m gutted — I’m sorry it’s so last minute, we’ve been awake for over 30 hours trying to figure it out and we’ve run out of time. I’m so upset and I’m really embarrassed and so sorry to everyone that traveled to get [to the show]. I’m really, really sorry.”