Adele’s swan song: Superstar’s Vegas stint draws to an end

This was always going to be an emotional night for Adele.

As the singing superstar took to the stage on Saturday night for the 100th and final performance of her two-year Las Vegas residency, she couldn’t help but break down in tears.

With the 4100-strong audience at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace giving her a standing ovation, Adele reflected on how difficult the journey to get there had been.

In January 2022, the North London-born singer had cancelled her Las Vegas shows less than 24 hours before they were due to start, blaming her Covid-stricken production team and late- running set design.

“I am so sad that this residency is over but I’m so glad that it happened. I really, really am. It got off to such a rocky, rocky start. It was the worst year of my life,” she told fans on Saturday night, adding in characteristically ripe language.

“I was being punched around where it was f..... horrible . . . I was told it was career suicide and that Vegas would never forgive me for doing something so last-minute.”

But far from a failure, the residency — which finally opened in November 2022 — became one of the most financially successful and acclaimed in music history, estimated to have made £80million ($154m) for its leading lady.

Adele, who wore a custom-made rhinestone-encrusted dress in homage to Vegas’s most famous entertainer Elvis Presley, said: “If I did that show that I cancelled . . . I certainly wouldn’t be standing here tonight doing my 100th show.

“So if something doesn’t feel right to you, don’t f..... do it. I am bursting with pride. I am so proud of myself.”

Adele has become well known for her teary outbursts — after a difficult performance at the 2016 Grammy Awards, she told chat show host Ellen DeGeneres: “I cried pretty much all day yesterday. I kept like spontaneously bursting into tears. In fairness, I would have cried if it went really well as well. I always cry.”

But even by her standards it was a particularly weepy performance on Saturday, with her make-up artist Anthony Nguyen forced to come on stage to reapply her make-up on several occasions.

The 36-year-old also kissed her son Angelo, 12, whom she shares with ex-husband Simon Konecki, and embraced her fiance, American sports agent Rich Paul, 43, as she walked among the audience.

Addressing her “partner Rich”, as she flashed her eight-carat, pear-shaped diamond engagement ring, she said: ‘Thank you for always bigging me up and making me feel like I could do whatever I want to do.”

Adele also touched how her ex Konecki’s support was vital, too — and how she felt live music had been the solution to her sadness about becoming a single mother.

“When you’re going through a divorce, you have to do it lovingly,” she said.

“If you’re going through one, just be loving, especially if there’s kids involved, because at some point, you did love that person and they loved you.

“All I wanted to do was do some shows and just fall in love with performing again. And my last tour in stadiums [Adele Live 2016] f...... freaked me out. It took me a long time to kind of wrap my head around it.

“So this felt perfect and is the bookend to this story.”

The question now is what the UK’s most successful female singer will do next.

In the immediate future, Adele plans to relax with friends and family for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays . . . and indulge herself a little.

“I’m really looking forward to having a glass of red wine,” she confessed on Saturday.

“Red wine gives me the worst hangovers and I really do think it dries my vocal cords out. So I haven’t really had a glass of wine for two f....... years, which is crazy because I’m soon to be 37 and I’m a sophisticated woman.”

But it seems serious rest and recuperation is also on the cards for the singer, who admitted during her penultimate show on Friday that she had “run out of gas” and was “very ready for them (the shows) to be over. I am battered after these shows”.

She is looking forward to spending time surrounded by her pets at home in the £46million ($88m) Los Angeles mansion she bought from Sylvester Stallone last year.

While there is no official news concerning a date for her wedding to Mr Paul, Adele hinted at expanding her family, saying: “I’m looking forward to having loads of spare time to love on my kids, to love on my man and to love on another kid. I need to get back to my own life.”

What she certainly won’t be doing is planning more gigs any time soon.

In fact, music insiders fear Saturday’s performance was not just an emotional goodbye to her residency, but a final farewell to live performing — at least for the foreseeable future.

Adele has made no secret that she hates touring and suffers from severe stage fright, and has toyed with the idea of “retiring”.

“I don’t have any plans to be on stage indefinitely, really,” she told fans on Saturday.

“The only thing I am good at is singing. I just don’t know when I next wanna come on stage.”