“I might never see you again at a live show, but I’ll remember this for the rest of my life.”
This is what Adele shared with us on Instagram last night (and told the concert crowd) after the first of her four sold out shows in London's Wembley Stadium and do you know what? Fair enough. With just three albums to her name, Adele works the music industry in a way that no other artist – not even Beyoncé – can. 19, 21 and 25 are blockbuster albums and in an age where no one buys CDs any more, she sold five millions physical copies of 25 on compact disc. Adele could bring the floppy disk back if she had half the chance.
Selling millions of albums and selling out stadium tours isn’t enough if you want to make cold, hard cash as a musician these days. You need sock lines, Adidas collaborations, your own limited edition mineral water and a squad chockablock with models clogging up Instagram feeds if you want to remain relevant.
But not Adele. She barely has to wobble a tonsil to get people riled up.
The 29-year-old wears her heart on her sleeve just as much as she cuts it up and dissects it in her songs about break ups and “dickheads”, and onstage, she isn’t afraid to get a bit wobbly. “Touring isn’t something I’m good at – applause makes me feel a bit vulnerable. I don’t know if I will ever tour again,” she said to New Zealand fans in March. “With my stage fright, I just don’t want to let people down. I get so nervous on stage that I don’t have the guts to improvise or anything like that.”
Part of her appeal is that she actually seems human. Her favourite band is the Spice Girls, she watches Neighbours and she gets stage fright.
“I only ever did this tour for you and to hopefully have an impact on you the way that some of my favourite artist have had on me live,” she continues in her note, “And I wanted my final shows to be in London because I don’t know if I’ll ever tour again and so I want my last time to be at home.”
Adele’s note is full of mights and maybes. There’s nothing definite here but it doesn’t mean goodbye.
Besides, someday, our phone might ring and all it will take is one word on the other side to cause the winds to rise and our hearts to beat again: Hello.
