By Ganna Mahmoud
English singer-songwriter Adele is nearing the end of her residency in Las Vegas.
The “Hello” singer was originally supposed to start her residency almost a year ago, but COVID-19 and equipment shipping delays impacted the stage design, which led to postponing the residency for almost a year from the original starting date.
Her residency is held at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, a classic place for a residency, as a plethora of singers and bands like Celine Dion and The Backstreet Boys.
Adele’s performance is rooted in crowdwork, sharing emotional, intimate moments with her fans and walking through the crowd as she’s singing.
She enjoys speaking with the crowd candidly, and has told them about how nervous she is about the show, but also excited for Walking Dead Finale this upcoming Sunday. That show ended with a crowd who were amazed with her experience in Las Vegas, but felt like they knew her on a bit of a personal level as well.
Last November, she started her rescheduled “Weekends with Adele Residency”. Currently, there are 24 rescheduled shows and eight new ones coming through March 25.
Of course, Adele sings many of her hits like “Hello” and “Someone Like You,” but she also makes room in her set list for lesser-known songs on her older albums like 19.
One of the amazing highlights of Adele’s performance last couple of months is the Set Fire To The Rain performance. While she was singing the song, some raindrops on the stage started to fall. Before the flames grew throughout the whole stage, fire was set to burn under a white piano.
In one specific performance, she left the stage and walked through her audience to interact with them and ask them about their favorite memory while she was performing “When We Were Young,” integrating their experiences with the song to establish a beautifully reminiscent tone.
Small pieces of colored papers were thrown at the audience three times, during “Rolling In The Deep,” “Love Is A Game” and at the end of “When We Were Young.”
The singer knows her audience, and knows they love her for her gut-wrenching, heartbreaking ballads like “Turning Tables” and “Easy On Me.” But she does a phenomenal job at balancing her performance, and includes some of her upbeat tunes like “Rumor Has It,” all while keeping the crowd engaged with her fiery personality.
On to the dynamics of accessing this performance:
Some have been criticizing the ticket pricing for this event.
@_AndyPerrry tweeted, “I’m looking at resale prices for Adele tickets at her Vegas residency and it’s 1500$ minimum ???? Each ??? For the very back of the room ???? HELLOOO ???????”
But Vegas Residency ticket prices have been on the rise, according to 8 News Now. Compared to a typical concert, fans will have to pay more to see an artist at their Vegas Residency due to the intimate theaters having less seats than arenas, and limited tour dates available.
If you’re a die-hard Adele fan, maybe saving up and splurging on the $3,000 front-row seats are worth it to have the interactions with her and truly soak in her performance.