The most anticipated new residency in Las Vegas in years won’t be happening, at least for now.
In a tearful message on Twitter and her other social media channels, Adele canceled her entire run of 24 shows on the eve of its debut, citing COVID issues and production problems.
“I’m so sorry, but my show ain’t ready,” she said in a video. “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.”
Adele said half of her crew is currently down with the coronavirus.
Weekends With Adele was set to begin Friday at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. She was set to play shows every weekend — minus one — through mid-April, a total of 24 shows.
Tickets for the shows were snapped up in a matter of minutes through a special system set up by Ticketmaster that required people to register ahead of time for the opportunity to purchase seats.
Once sold out, many of the tickets showed up on secondary sale sites with asking prices in the thousands of dollars for a single seat.
An obviously exhausted and emotional Adele said on several occasions that she was “gutted” by the decision to postpone.
“It’s been impossible to finish the show,” she said. “I can’t give you what I have right now and I’m gutted. We’ve been awake for 30 hours trying to figure it out. We’ve run out of time.”
Rather than postpone the opening dates, Adele and Caesars Entertainment chose to delay the entire run. Both sides are working on rescheduling the dates.
But new dates won’t help those already booked on flights and in hotels for these shows, or for those who paid extreme prices on secondary sites for tickets.
Those situations played a major part in Adele’s apologies.
“I’m so upset, and I’m really embarrassed and I’m so sorry to everyone who has traveled,” she said.
Caesars offered support to the superstar in a statement posted to its social media channels.
“We understand the disappointment surrounding the postponement of Weekends With Adele,” Caesars said. “Adele is an incredible artist, supremely dedicated to her music and her fans. Creating a show of this magnitude is incredibly complex. We fully support Adele and are confident the show she unveils at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace will be extraordinary.”
Adele’s announcement put a damper on what had been an extremely positive week for Las Vegas entertainment.
On Tuesday, officials announced the move of this year’s Grammy Awards from Los Angeles to the MGM Grand on April 3, marking the first time music’s premiere award show would be in Las Vegas.
On Wednesday, MGM Resorts announced a new residency at Park MGM for Silk Sonic — the R&B duo created by Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak. Silk Sonic will play 14 shows in late February, March, and early April.
Silk Sonic’s final show — although future dates are expected — will be April 2, the day before the Grammys in which they are nominated for song of the year and several other honors.
In the meantime, Adele and Caesars officials will work on finding dates for her residency, which could force juggling of the entertainment roster already packed with other residencies throughout the spring and summer.
Weekends With Adele was the only touring plans the singer had made in support of her recent album, 30, which was released late last year.
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