2024-09-04 02:36:30
Ten times this August, the British singer Adele stood on stage in a custom-built amphitheater near Munich, Germany, to start the show with her “Hello, it’s me” each time for 75 thousand people. Last Saturday, this spectacle took place for the last time. And just as she promised: it was really emotional.
Munich (from our reporter) – In the spirit of the opening slogan, the winner of 16 Grammy awards exchanged feelings throughout the evening. From the position of “Let me be a diva one more time” in the song Skyfall from the Bond movie of the same name, to the girl who shoots T-shirts with a print on the audience from a special gun and has childish joy when she hits the sound booth. Until the friend who explains to the listeners that for the spectacle of the Munich cut, the best grandmother’s compression stockings are the best under the luxurious dress and only barefoot shoes for the feet, because who would bother with stiletto heels.
When he also sips tea from a ceramic beer mug, not only Bavarian hearts will open with joy. Sure, it can be a cold calculation, a star of her stature knows what pays people and what sells best. Still, Adele is perfectly believable in each of those roles. Like when he stops singing at one point because someone has collapsed in the standing room, so he chases the medics after him.
The 36-year-old London native last completed a world tour in 2016 and 2017. Since the coronavirus pandemic, she has been concentrating almost exclusively on a concert residency in Las Vegas, where she has been singing twice a week for the third year as part of the Weekends with Adele program. This year she added ten evenings in Munich. Every time she offers a cross-section of her entire discography, on Saturday the songs from the albums named 21, 25 and 30 predominate, depending on how old she was at the time.
Adele does not rely on bombastic dance choreography or countless accompanying musicians. Yes, in addition to the nine-member band including a pianist, two guitarists or a choir member, she is sometimes assisted by a string section on stage. Most of the time, however, she is mainly seen alone. “I’m not the most comfortable performing in front of people, but over the years I’ve been doing it pretty damn well,” he tries to tone down his art.
But in her performance, it seems as if it is enough to put on a gorgeous ball gown and simply sing it. Of course, we are talking about two and a half hours of singing not entirely simple songs – sometimes optimistic soul compositions, other times dramatic ballads.
Singer and songwriter Adele has released four albums to date. | Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
The sound system is perfect, even if you sit in the upper stands of the amphitheater, where you would expect sound compromises.
The only downsides are the view: from here it’s really hard to identify the singer on stage at all, and if you can, then really only as a dot in the distance. The viewer is completely dependent on the large-area LED wall. But really generous, wavy in shape like an old movie strip. With dimensions of 220 by 30 meters, according to the organizers, it should even be the largest in the world, and its advantages are fully heard when the song Water Under The Bridge evokes a falling stream of water.
Billboard magazine wrote that the Munich amphitheater, including the LED wall, cost over 100 million dollars to build, which translates to more than 2.2 billion crowns.
Because of this, experiencing Adele is completely different from watching a recording of a concert on TV. Only on the spot can one appreciate the feeling when 75,000 people sing hits like Someone Like You or Send My Love in unison.
Only in Munich, the Englishwoman also sticks an envelope with a handwritten letter and 50 euros under one seat in the amphitheater every evening, the location of which she then reveals during the concert. These experiences alone made the trip worth it.
Hello, as Adele sang it in Munich. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images | Video: Live Nation
But there is another factor. Adele last released an album three years ago. Already last month, she hinted on German TV ZDF that she is not planning another album because she intends to take a break. He confirms this again at the end of the last concert. After completing the remaining ten postponed shows in Las Vegas at the turn of October and November, “you won’t see me for an incredibly long time,” he announces. “I’ve been building a new life for myself for the past seven years, and now it’s time to live it,” she adds. Tears glisten in her eyes, as do many in the audience.
Adele has a divorce from her previous partner, a successful weight loss program where she lost 45 kilograms in two years, and an engagement to sports agent Rich Paul, with whom she has been living since 2021. After all, she also announced this happy news in Munich at the end of August one of the fans waved a sign asking if he would marry him. “I can’t, I’m getting married,” she replied, showing her engagement ring.
When Adele returns to Europe again, there is no reason to hesitate to go again.
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