As soon as Adele made her announcement, details started coming out from behind the scenes. The Daily Mail should be taken with a grain of salt, but it told a very different story about the delay. Caesars Palace wanted Adele to perform with a 60 person choir, but she felt performing “Skyfall” on her own would be more powerful. The standstill caused immense anxiety for the singer, so she halted the show altogether.
This story feels true in some ways, but bogus in others. For one thing, the vast majority of Adele’s concerts begin with “Hello,” not “Skyfall.” It’s totally possible that she wants to change her opening number for the sake of the residency, but this would go against years of precedent.
The anxiety part of this story is totally accurate. In a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone, Adele opened up about stage freight. “I’m scared of audiences…I’ve thrown up a couple of times. Once in Brussels, I projectile-vomited on someone. I just gotta bear it. But I don’t like touring. I have anxiety attacks a lot.” Mental health is a serious issue, and no one wants to punish Adele for her anxieties. It’s totally plausible that her admitted stage fright had something to do with it.
Extra provided yet another theory for the cancellation. It believes Adle had a huge falling out with her longtime set designer Esmerelda Delvin. She didn’t check in on the theater at Caesar’s until very recently and didn’t like what she saw. The singer had been rehearsing in another city until last week.
Who’s telling the truth here? Well, maybe everyone and maybe no one. A falling out with a stage designer would certainly cause anxiety, and firing someone like that would cause an insurmountable delay. Adele still vows to perform these shows once everything gets straightened out.
