5 Things That Come To Mind When Watching Adele Kill It Live

Imagine getting an email offering you tickets to an Adele show at Radio City Music Hall. For free. Heck yeah! Where do I sign up? I’m used to getting the occasional goody in my inbox, but this was next level, especially since Adele’s “Hello” had dropped just a few weeks earlier and I’d already played it like 100 times. And so my colleague, Cori Murray, and I made our way uptown to catch the taping of the NBC special, “Adele Live in New York City” (airing tonight). Once there we were like the ultimate fan girls: ‘OMG, there’s Bradley Cooper!’ Girl, turn around, there’s Tina Fey.’ It was a star-studded affair indeed, but the true star of the evening was Adele.

The singer made a splashing return to the stage after her four-year hiatus. She performed songs from her history-making new album 25, and classics from 21 and 19. Here are five things I thought while watching Adele live in concert.

Her voice is so much richer
It’s hard not to notice the depths that Adele’s voice can reach now. Her rich velvety tone is amplified; maybe by life (she’s a mom now and I’ve heard this happens to some women), maybe by the vocal training she had to endure after her surgery from vocal hemorrhaging. New York Magazine calls hers an “athletic voice.” “Sports players have that continual training, drill after drill,” British vocal coach CeCe Sammy told the magazine. “It’s really important for singers with her huge range to see themselves as sports players, where they have to go through each section of the song.”

She’s way more comfortable after spending a few minutes on stage
The Adele you get five minutes into a show is not the same one midway. She opened up her set with the smash hit “Hello,” and I wished she hadn’t because she was clearly nervous, and her voice, a tad shaky. “I love you, but you scare me,” she says later. Thankfully, the nerves wore off by the third song and our girl was a hundred percent comfortable, sipping her tea and talking smack (more on that later).

She could have been a comedian in another life
Whether joking about her special guests (“It’s not Drake or anything; don’t get excited”) or her nerves (“I have gas ‘coz I’m nervous”), Adele’s self-deprecating commentary between songs will leave you in stitches. And the F-bombs! This is when the real Adele we know and love comes out.
 
She’s fabulous!
That figure, that hair, that dress (a golden Jenny Packham gown), and that makeup. Adele slays in the fabulosity department.

There are no gimmicks
Adele is not giving you flashing lights, dancers or multiple outfit changes, just a microphone and a voice. #RealMusicLives

“Adele Live in New York City” airs on NBC tonight at 10pm ET/PT.