We’ll never know what Adele’s Las Vegas residency looked like back in January when she tearfully canceled the shows on the eve of opening night. But after Friday’s (Nov. 18) first performance of Weekends With Adele at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace, we know exactly what it looks like now: utterly and breathlessly spectacular.
The beloved British singer/songwriter addressed the cancellation toward the end of the two-hour-plus concert, calling it “the worst feeling I’ve ever had but the best decision I’ve ever made.” It’s hard to argue with her after seeing all the massive technical flourishes and tiny thoughtful touches that color the 20-song set. It’s clear that Adele lovingly dedicated the past 10 months to creating the intimate show of her dreams, and the lucky 4,000-plus fans who got to be in the room returned the love tenfold, reducing the singer to tears more than once throughout the poignant night.
“I’m truly sorry for any inconvenience or any disappointment that I caused,” she told the crowd. “But we’re here tonight, together.”
Of course, the show wasn’t all waterworks – this is Vegas, after all, and this is Adele, whose concerts frequently double as a stand-up comedy routine, with her trademark cockney one-liners and between-song banter. She also wielded a T-shirt gun to launch merch, a handwritten note and a $50 bill for cocktails to four fans, seamlessly working in a Rambo reference between her heart-achingly personal breakup ballads. And the audience got out of their seats on more than one occasion too, with Adele reminding the crowd ahead of “Water Under the Bridge”: “I don’t have many uptempos, so if you want to dance, now’s the time.”
But the true centerpiece of any Adele performance is her inimitable voice, and on Friday, her powerful and nimble vocals sounded up to the challenge of carrying two shows a weekend into the new year and beyond — and when she needs a break, her fans are always more than happy to sing every word.
As she kicks off five months of shows in Sin City, come inside the room with Billboard for the seven best moments of Weekends With Adele’s opening night.
As Adele told Oprah in their One Night Only sit-down late last year, she’ll likely “always” have to start a concert with “Hello” from now on (“it would be a bit weird if it was halfway through a set”). She doesn’t change course here, but what is surprising is when the audience’s eyes go from the stage’s simple initial setup of just a piano and Adele framed by an A-shaped opening to realizing that half the perimeter of the Colosseum – basically from one balcony to the other above the stage – are actually floor-to-ceiling video screens. The reveal comes just as the 10-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit’s bombastic chorus kicks in. Hello, indeed.
The dynamic screens are used to striking effect throughout the set, from seemingly immersing a wall of string players in the watery opening-credit sequence of Skyfall as Adele belts the Oscar-winning theme song to the 2012 James Bond film, to putting you right in the bustling, neon-lit streets of London for “Hometown Glory,” to projecting a live shot of the opening-night concertgoers themselves across the screen for “Someone Like You.”
The concert at Caesars Palace marked the first of 32 Adele shows at the venue, coming nearly a year after she postponed the Las Vegas residency in late January. At the time, she told fans that she "tried my hardest" to pull the show together in time, but fell short. But now, the show is seemingly right where she wants it to be.
"Thank you so much for coming back to me," Adele, 34, told the crowd, per The Guardian. "It looks just like I imagined it would, it's just perfect, thank you."
The packed venue of 4,100 fans watched, on walls of video screens at times, as the singer opened with No. 1 single "Hello," and played through other hits like "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)," "Rumor Has It," "When We Were Young," "Someone Like You," and "Rolling in the Deep." She also made sure to include some of her latest tracks off her November 2021 release 30, such as "I Drink Wine," "Love Is a Game," and "Hold On."
"I'm truly sorry for any inconvenience or any disappointment that I caused," Adele told the crowd, per Billboard. "But we're here tonight, together."
While the night included some apologies from the superstar, the theatrics of the show likely made up for the lost time. During "Set Fire to the Rain," fans watched a burning piano as raindrops fell on the stage, whereas during "When We Were Young," confetti featuring Polaroid photos of Adele during different life moments fell on the crowd, per Billboard. Also during the song, she walked around and asked fans what their favorite childhood memories were.
As for the sounds that fans were treated to on Friday night, Adele played her songs along with a six-piece band and, notably during "Skyfall," a 24-piece string section, USA Today reported. And she wasn't afraid to get funny, either, as she shot merchandise, as well as a handwritten note and $50, out of a T-shirt gun at one point.
Even under pressure, Adele pulled off a special show for her fans, before she disappeared on stage in what USA Today called "fairy dust." Just a day before the residency, which is set to run through March 2023, Adele revealed she was "incredibly nervous" in a candid Instagram post. As she wrote at the time, she was "highly emotional, incredibly nervous but can't sit still because I'm so excited."
"I always get scared before shows, and I take it as a good sign because it means I care and means I just want to do a good job," she said. "Maybe it's because I didn't start when I was supposed to. Maybe it's because it's opening night, maybe it's because Hyde Park went so great, maybe it's because I love the show. I don't know. But it's safe to say I've never been more nervous before a show in my career, but at the same time, I wish today was tomorrow!"
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