The singing may blow you away. The staging is sometimes spectacular. As Adele started her world tour, all the doubters who thought she would struggle had best look away now. Or, even better, go check her out. She has the voice and personality to fill the stadiums she has long dreaded.Not that it went according to formula as the Adele Live 2016 shows started in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Adele’s down-to-earth fireside chats, complete with mug of tea, show a charming down-to-earthiness, but may not translate so well to some of the 104 shows she has in front of her. America may need a translator to understand the reasons behind her endearing cackling laugh.Adele, 27, “Gawd bless ‘er” at the Cockneys would say, is determined to do things her way. The star tells the 11,000 capacity crowd at the SSE Arena that she was ordered to get three songs into the show before launching into her onstage banter, which she promptly does.She confessed the tour almost got off to a bad start. In various announcements over the next few songs she tells us: “I woke up sounding like Arnie... My voice was deep because I slept with the air con on in my hotel room. I thought the whole tour was doomed.” Add to that problems with her son Angelo, now a “cheeky three-year-old,” difficulties with her boyfriend flying to Belfast on time and “I’ve been f----g sh-tting myself all day…. Bad bowel movements. I’ve had to have an Imodium…. Me hair’s fallin’ out, I’m fallin’ apart... I’ve got to wipe this puddle off my face... I’m a workin’ mother... I keep forgetting to wipe my arse and shave me legs.” Adele throws in comments about Simon Cowell (while he helped her career, she did not make it with him alone, she says), Leonardo DiCaprio (she’s a huge fan), Sam Smith (Oscar congratulations too), and Jennifer Garner (she met the actress in the toilets at the Oscar ceremony).Because the tour started on February 29, Leap Day - the one day in which a woman can traditionally propose of course - Adele also encouraged any female member of the audience to join her onstage and pop the question to her intended. One did, saying her boyfriend had already said “maybe.” Adele got the crowd to chant “Come on Neil” until he said yes – and the singer promptly invited herself to the wedding.A lot of thought has gone into the staging, which begins with the main stage shrouded in a video of Adele’s closed eyelids. When the eyes pop open, as on the “25” album cover, the star appears on a smaller podium in the middle of the audience for the apt single “Hello.” “Hometown Glory” is fittingly matched with video images of Belfast – it will be interesting to see if this local trick is used in other locations: it got a huge round of applause. “Skyfall” has a moody gray sky projected over the musicians and a predictable James Bond blood-red spotlight. By “Set Fire to the Rain” Adele is back mid-audience with a rain effect around her. All very literal and yet impressive for all that.There is a five-minute break as she lets the crowd stomp up a fervor for an encore. “When We Were Young” has a video montage of Adele Adkins as a kid, while “Rolling in the Deep” concludes with the audience showered with thousands of tiny paper notes printed with handwritten fragments of Adele’s lyrics: “hello,” “we could have had it all,” “I like it in the city when two worlds collide.”Some in the audience, especially the girls it seems, know every word. Adele is aware she is preaching to the converted. This doesn’t stop her admitting that she knows some may have been “dragged along here tonight” but she aims to win them over. She is more likely to succeed with the powerful midpace numbers such as “Rumour Has It” rather than some of the gentler ballads, though Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love,” “Sweetest Devotion,” “Chasing Pavements” and “Someone Like You” are all handled well.Adele’s band is solid and professional enough - there is a string section and a small acoustic group too. She sways in time with the music, holding out her arms, not exactly dancing and certainly not attempting costume changes (she’s in her trademark black gown with sparkles), but as she jokes, this isn’t a Beyoncé concert. It’s a fair guess that you don’t come to an Adele concert for a guitar solos when her strongest card is her music and especially her voice - and there is plenty of that to fill any arena for a couple of hours.Setlist1. “Hello” (Adele mid-audience, moves to front)2. “Hometown Glory” (video images of Belfast to applause)3. “One and Only”Stage Speech4. “Rumour Has It”5. “Water Under the Bridge”6. “I Miss You”7. “Skyfall”8. “Million Years Ago”9. “Don’t You Remember”10. “Send My Love (to Your New Lover)”11. “Make You Feel My Love” (Bob Dylan cover) 12. “Sweetest Devotion”13. “Chasing Pavements”14. “Someone Like You”15. “Set Fire to the Rain” (Adele mid-audience with rain effect)16. “All I Ask”17. “When We Were Young” (family photo video)18. “Rolling in the Deep”The Adele 2016 tour has dates in Ireland and the UK before moving to mainland Europe and North America and then Mexico.
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