Adele FaceTimes With Forgiving Fans After Las Vegas Residency Postponement

Jem Aswad and Chris Willman
·3 min read
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While Adele and her reps have not commented publicly about the abrupt postponement of her Las Vegas residency beyond her initial announcement and a follow-up thank-you tweet to fans, the singer FaceTimed with multiple would-be concertgoers in the city on Friday, tearfully apologizing and offering free merchandise, drink tickets (which she recanted when she realized some fans were underage) and even a free meet-and-greet whenever the make-up dates takes place.

On the casino floor Friday night, some disappointed ticketholders were being handed a phone, apparently by someone from Adele’s management team, to have FaceTime chats with the singer, individually or in groups; the posts were reported by TMZ and the Daily Mail. One Instagram user, @Adriansm99, posted a video to his Instagram Story in which he was seen “forgiving” Adele for putting the shows off because of all the “healing” that the “30” album had helped him do in recent months. “I really don’t mind coming back from Mexico,” he told her.

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“I’m thankful for you being so graceful to me. I really appreciate that,” she responded. “That’s my manager right next to you… When you come back, whenever that is, we’ll do a meet-and-greet for free.”

Another group of fans chant “It’s okay!” to a weeping Adele; a pair from New York even offer her advice about waiting until she’s ready, and not succumbing to negativity.

Adele postponed the residency in a tearful Instagram post on Thursday, less than 24 hours before it was scheduled to launch, citing a large number of her crew testing positive for Covid-19. “All dates will be rescheduled, more info coming soon,” she wrote.

“I’m so sorry, but my show ain’t ready,” she said in the video posted to Instagram. “We’ve tried absolutely everything we can to put it together in time and for it to be good enough for you, but we’ve been absolutely destroyed by delivery delays and COVID. Half my crew and team are [ill] with COVID and still are, and it’s been impossible to finish the show. I’m gutted — I’m sorry it’s so last minute, we’ve been awake for over 30 hours trying to figure it out and we’ve run out of time. I’m so upset and I’m really embarrassed and so sorry to everyone that traveled to get [to the show]. I’m really, really sorry.”

The only public comment Adele or her reps have made since the announcement was a thank-you to fans for their understanding. Her rep did not immediately respond to Variety‘s requests for further details and comment on the postponement.

While day-before postponements are certainly not unprecedented during these Covid times — Dead & Co. were forced to cancel a New Year’s Eve show in Mexico hours before it was to begin when guitarist John Mayer and multiple crew members tested positive for the virus — by any measure, Adele’s decision was abrupt, and has led to unconfirmed rumors and tabloid reports about a dispute over production and/or stage fright being a cause of the postponement.

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