"I'm not going to just do a show because I have to or because people are going to be let down or because we're going to lose loads of money."
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:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/IMG_5099-57c87a729d8746c893c91050b555332e.jpg "Adele was 'devastated' to cancel her Vegas residency but stands by decision (1)")
Lester Fabian Brathwaite is a staff writer at Entertainment Weekly, where he covers breaking news, all things Real Housewives, and a rich cornucopia of popular culture. Formerly a senior editor at Out magazine, his work has appeared on NewNowNext, Queerty, Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker. He was also the first author signed to Phoebe Robinson's Tiny Reparations imprint. He met Oprah once.
Published on July 4, 2022
Adele fans were in tears for another reason besides her gorgeous melancholic music when the singer abruptly canceled her Las Vegas residency just a day before it was set to go live. But no one might have taken it quite as hard as Adele Laurie Blue Adkins.
In a recent interview with the BBC's Lauren Laverne, Adele describes the backlash to the cancellation, how it left her feeling like a "shell of a person," and why she still stands by her decision to not go on with the show.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Adele-4f5c498b492648fda1a1e912514539bd.jpg "Adele was 'devastated' to cancel her Vegas residency but stands by decision (2)")
"I was a shell of a person for a couple of months," Adele said of canceling her residency and the backlash to it. "I just had to wait it out and just grieve it, I guess, just grieve the shows and get over the guilt, but it was brutal."
While it was a difficult decision, one that she tearfully announced in an Instagram Live video just 24 hours before her residency began on Jan. 21, it's one by which the "Rolling in the Deep" singer still stands.
"I definitely felt everyone's disappointment and I was devastated, and I was frightened about letting them down. I'd thought I could pull it together and make it work and I couldn't. I stand by that decision," the Oscar- and Grammy-winner explained. "I'm not going to just do a show because I have to or because people are going to be let down or because we're going to lose loads of money."
Adele admitted that "the show was not good enough" and that maybe her silence in the aftermath contributed to the backlash. But she's not the kind of artist to post up on Tik Tok offering daily updates.
"I'm not gonna update you if I ain't got nothing to update you with," she added, "because that just leads to more disappointment."
Adele promised in February that the Vegas shows are "absolutely happening this year" and she reiterated that sentiment in her first comeback performance since shelving Sin City. During her sold-out show in London's Hyde Park over the weekend, Adele said she would be announcing the new U.S. dates "very, very soon."
"I had my shows that I was supposed to be doing but they didn't happen," she told the crowd on Friday. "I'm just waiting on one piece of equipment."
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