Adele cleaned up at the Brit Awards ceremony last night, winning four awards. But the first of her four speeches, during which she swore repeatedly and cried so hard she was gasping for air, was by far the most impassioned and moving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u11s77u1JgE
Adele recently broke back onto the pop culture scene in a very big way with her smash hit single, “Hello,” and her subsequent album, both of which immediately hit #1 on every chart considered by Wikipedia.
Adele’s recent work has been applauded by fans and critics alike, and it is for that reason Adele went into this year’s Brit awards basically knowing she would win at least a couple of awards, comments BBC .
When you try and act surprised when you win all of the awards… #BRITs pic.twitter.com/Q46tzR7b8X
— BBC Radio 1 (@BBCR1) February 24, 2016
But although Adele knew she would probably win big, she was not emotionally prepared for how she would receive her awards.
Case in point: the special guest who announced Adele’s Global Success award was not just another music biz celebrity who came onstage and read Adele’s name from an envelope. Instead, the award was presented via live internet feed by British astronaut Tim Peake, who was broadcasting from space. Peake had even prepared a video to praise Adele that was played after the announcement and was retweeted later.
Delighted to join #BRITs2016 tonight from space and present award to the amazingly talented @Adele https://t.co/eAAbTBVQUe
— Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) February 24, 2016
Adele was completely overcome by emotion due to Peake’s presentation, a fact that she made abundantly clear in her gut-wrenching acceptance speech.
“Thank you!” Adele said as she stepped on stage and began crying immediately.
“I can’t work out if I’m crying because of the video or because Tim Peake did it. My kid is going to think I’m so cool! That was really amazing. You’re not f****** bored of me.”
Adele’s f-bomb, not surprisingly, was censored by being muted out of the audio track.
“I honestly can’t tell you, I said it earlier, to come back, I got really lost for a while and I didn’t know if I’d ever come back and for you all to be so kind to me.”
By this point, Adele was choking back sobs while being egged on by huge applause from the crowd.
She tearfully went through the obligatory thank yous to her manager, boyfriend, etc., and then Adele seemed to regain some composure as she closed with a jovial “Not bad for a girl from Tottenham that don’t like flying, getting global success.”
Adele’s crowd went wild, and many Twitter users say that they were deeply touched by Adele’s speech.
So that was this years #BRITs moment – I swallowed a tear @Adele . And the bleep machine got a work out! x
— Kate Thornton (@k8_thornton) February 24, 2016
Aww @Adele ? Best acceptance speech ever! So lovely to see how touched you were and very grateful. #congrats #muchdeserved #BRITs
— Erin Main (@ErinFMain) February 24, 2016
Although Adele’s swearing took place after the 9pm watershed and therefore was not technically against the rules , points out The Huffington Post , the hosts of the award show, British variety show stars Ant and Dec, apologized on Adele’s behalf later in the broadcast.
Adele would go on to win three more awards at the ceremony — best British female solo artist, best album, and best British single — in addition to her Global Success award. The total of four tied Adele with 90’s Brit-pop band Blur as the artist to win the most awards at a Brit awards ceremony.
Adele also closed out the night with a performance of her song “When We Were Young” that was, as Billboard puts it, “stunning.”
The amazing @Adele performs “When We Were Young” #BRITs https://t.co/0BYzyDM3Ao
— BRIT Awards (@BRITs) February 24, 2016
What a night for Adele. Hopefully this is enough to get her to forget about her decidedly less successful outing at the 2016 Grammys.
[Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images]
