Adele ‘needs to step back and return to her roots’ as fans turn on her after cancelled concerts
SHE is the biggest pop star on the planet, with a string of hit albums that remain the best-selling of the 21st Century.
So the news last week that Adele’s Las Vegas shows were being axed left millions of fans around the world heartbroken.
It marked a low in the fairytale story of a superstar who, since her third album 25 came out in 2015, has been married, divorced, moved to LA, changed her whole look, recorded a new album and lost more than 7st.
And she has done nearly all of it while shrouded in the closely guarded privacy for which she is known.
That’s why the 33-year-old singer’s tearful public video apology for axing her concerts, in which she said things “just ain’t ready”, left many fearing for her future wellbeing.
Leading behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings believes Adele’s radical transformation could be at the root of her problems and here, in an exclusive analysis, she urges the star to “step back” and return to her roots.
WHAT’S happened to Adele? Once she seemed one of us — vulnerabilities and all — and we loved her for her sassiness, humility and stunning voice.
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We thought she was confident with her former body image and it was refreshing to have a singer who looked more like many of her fans than the standard size 6 figure we have come to expect in our singing superstars. She was unconventional and quirky, and her belting voice suited her curves.
Now she is seemingly crushed by having to cancel her residency at Caesars Palace in Vegas, and much of her once-adoring fan base seems to have turned on her.
Rumours abound. They include claims she is a diva, that she is willing to jeopardise her obligations in order to achieve impossibly high expectations, that the stage water feature was not ready and that a couple of dancers had Covid.
Other reports speculate that the lighting wasn’t up to her standards, while there are also reports she had a huge row with her set designer over a swimming pool feature that was not going to plan.
Whatever the real reason, she left those who had booked expensive flights and tickets to see her perform both out of pocket and out of love.
So what is going on? It’s long been known that Adele has performance nerves. She has often admitted that — shocked by her fame — the nerves really kick in when she has to look out on a huge audience in ever-bigger venues. But she seemingly overcame her fears. The moment the first note of the first song left her lips, she was “our Adele”, singing with passion and confidence.
And then she lost a great deal of weight. Her hair became longer, bouncier, glossier. Her make-up looked more perfect and her clothes less boho and more Rodeo Drive. She looked every inch the Hollywood starlet.
And yet in contrast, her anxiety seems to have increased, culminating in her taking on her biggest commitment yet — a three-month residency in glitzy Las Vegas, only to pull out just hours before her opening performance.
To properly try to understand this we need to look at self-esteem — the value and worth we attach to ourselves as a whole.
It can be influenced by several things. One is how we feel about our appearance — our body image.
If we don’t like something about how we look, it is often difficult to feel good about other aspects of ourselves.
While we often connect increased self-esteem with losing weight — ie. if we’re slimmer, we’ll feel better about ourselves — the reverse can also be true.
While we may have thought we wanted to change our appearance, it has already become a key part of our self-identity, and radical changes of any sort can make us feel anxious and insecure.
While we loved Adele just as she was, maybe she felt we didn’t.
She may have felt internal — and possibly external — pressure to adopt a more conventional look. And so she undertook a huge appearance overhaul.
But instead of improving her self- esteem and self-confidence, could it have damaged it?
Simple songs
She is still singing, of course, but part of her charm and success was the fact she wrote and sang beautiful, simple songs that related to her life struggles and resonated with fans.
From her early days posting her music on Myspace to the heights of a three-month residency in Las Vegas is a long way to climb.
Like many of us, Adele thought that by changing her image to suit a glitzier world, her self-esteem and anxieties would evolve and accommodate these changes. But it seems they haven’t.
Maybe she didn’t have the coping mechanisms. Or maybe it’s taken this radical change to make her appreciate what she really enjoys in life — performing to true fans on a simple, uncluttered stage setting that lets her voice and personality do all the work.
Maybe she realised she didn’t need the additional stress, fear and high expectations that all the whistles and bells, sound effects and fancy fountains were bringing her.
What she really needs is to take a step back, to realise there is a point at which her fame needs to plateau, so she doesn’t lose sight of what really makes her happy and what her fans appreciate the most — hearing that pure voice, in a simple setting without embellishment.
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That simplicity, sassiness and a smoky voice are the only assets she needs, no matter what she looks like.
I think it’s time for Adele to afford 7 some serious reflection on that.
