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Back on the boards that mean the world: Adele in London's Hyde Park
Photo: Gareth Cattermole / Gareth Cattermole / Getty Images for Adele
"Hello It's Me!
I thought maybe you'd like to meet up after all these years.« With these words Adele opened her concert in London's Hyde Park in front of 65,000 spectators.
It was her first live performance in five years, and another concert will follow on Saturday evening at the same place.
Exactly five years ago, Adele had to cancel two planned concerts in Wembley because of ailing vocal cords.
"I'm sorry, I'm devastated," she wrote to her fans at the time.
She was all the more excited to announce her return to the big stage in a series of tweets and Instagram posts.
Her concert will be accompanied by performances by artist friends such as Gabrielle and Kacey Musgrave.
The British "Guardian" reports enthusiastically about the evening.
The show relies less on show effects, the focus is more on Adele's face and, above all, vocal skills, "which hit like an attack: the rousing drone of 'Rolling in the Deep', the Bond melodrama of 'Skyfall', the perfectly controlled tenderness in ›Make You Feel My Love‹.«
Adele has lived in Los Angeles for years and looks quite glamorous, according to the Guardian critic, but she speaks as if she had never left Tottenham: "She chats about Billie Eilish, Stranger Things, her sciatica and that she often does forget their texts.
For an 18-year-old fan, she offers to buy him a drink and in between she happily swears.«
Adele has not made any tour plans public beyond Saturday night's performance.
She has repeatedly expressed an aversion to travel stress.
In addition, despite the apparent ease on stage, the 34-year-old suffers from stage fright.
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