the times | Thursday February 3 2022 9arts
I
t is, for all those people who
spent a fortune on flights, hotels
and tickets to go and see her in
Las Vegas, a bit of a kick in the
teeth. When Adele announced
tearfully that she’d had to cancel
her run of Las Vegas shows at
Caesar’s Palace because, in her
own words, “it ain’t ready”, the
love for and esteem with which
the 33-year-old singer is held
meant fans were for the most part
remarkably understanding.
There was less than 24 hours’
notice, meaning refunds for
accommodation would be
hard to come by.
Then on Tuesday came a
message on Twitter. “I am really
happy to say I am performing at
the Brits next week!! Andddddd
I’ll also be popping in to see
Graham on the couch while I’m
in town too!” Unsurprisingly, it didn’t
go down so well.
As far as the Brit awards is
concerned, this is a big coup. Adele
went from being a popular,
heart-on-sleeve-style singer into
a phenomenon when she sang
Someone Like You at the 2011 Brits,
accompanied by solo piano as a
solitary tear ran down her cheek in a
moment of pure emotional
authenticity. For her to return a
decade later to the closest thing the CBS VIA GETTY IMAGESWill Adele only get out of
bed for a celebrity audience?
The singer postponed
her Vegas shows but will
sing at the Brit awards,
says Will Hodgkinson
British music industry has to an AGM
makes perfect sense. But for her fans,
coming so soon after the Las Vegas
cancellation, Adele flying in for a
glitzy televised awards show seems
just another sign that the working-
class girl from Tottenham has become
so encased in a bubble of wealth and
fame that she is no longer connecting
with the people who put her there.
In November, Adele performed a
one-off concert at the London
Palladium. Yet she sang not for a few
lucky fans but for Idris Elba, Alan
Carr, Naomi Campbell and other
A-listers. Lesser mortals could witness
the sight of Emma Thompson doing
a bit of mum-dancing to Rolling in the
Deep when the show was on ITV, but
that’s as close as they got. Mentioning
Graham Norton on first-name terms
in her Brits message only
emphasises the feeling that Adele
is having a lovely time hanging
out with her celebrity mates
while ignoring the golden
rule when you charge
ordinary people a lot of
money to see you in Vegas:
the show must go on.
Despite the
cancellations — and
now that the stage sets
have been loaded out
of Caesar’s Palace, the
concerts certainly won’t be
happening any time soon
— Adele is the biggest
British singer in the world
and her appearance at the
Brits confirms it as the awards
ceremony that reflects the mood of
mainstream popular music.
The biggest change this year, coming
at a time when the very concept of
gender itself is an ethical hot potato, is
the removal of male and female
categories. It means Dua Lipa will go
down in history as the last winner ofthe best British female category, while
non-binary artists such as the former
Brit breakthrough act Sam Smith no
longer find themselves excluded.
“Why shouldn’t the likes of Adele
and Ed Sheeran be able to go head to
head and be judged as artists?” asked
Gennaro Castaldo, a spokesman for
the BPI, the industry body that runs
the event. Now they can, because both
have been nominated in the pop/R&B
category under a revived system that
has not been in place since 2006:
awards by genre.
You may think that genres no longer
mean much in our multifaceted
streaming age. If you consider that the
none-more-pop Coldplay are up
against indie rockers Wolf Alice in thebest rock/alternative artist category,
you would be right. But the new system
also means Little Simz, a female rapper
whose album Sometimes I Might Be
Introvert was one of last year’s standout
releases, can stand up against the
much more famous male rapper Dave
in the best hip-hop/grime/rap act
category. And with 18 female nominees
across all categories, the most in over a
decade, this year’s Brit awards is
unquestionably reflecting today’s
inclusive, non-male-dominated mood
in popular music.
The question now is whether Adele’s
Brits performance can help to win back
her position as a woman of the people.
The Brit awards are on Tuesday at
8pm on ITVShe no longer
connects with the
people who put
her where she is
Adele is flying in to play the Brit
awards and appear on Graham
Norton’s celebrity-packed show