Adele triumphs on Munich residency debut

Adele has launched her long-anticipated German residency to stellar reviews, with critics asking: “Is this the future of the big concert experience?”

The London singer is performing 10 nights at an 80,000-cap pop-up stadium at Munich Messe exhibition centre this month, with further dates to follow on 9-10, 14, 16, 23-24 and 30-31 August.

In a four-star review of Friday’s (2 August) opening show, Will Hodgkinson of The Times wrote: “Adele was met with hysterical cheers from fans who had come from all over Europe,” and suggested the model would serve as a template for other A-listers in the future.

“Rather than coming to the people in stadiums everywhere, will the world’s biggest artists expect us to catch a flight to see them in a specially built venue, dedicated to themselves, where they will remain as long as stamina, vocal issues and ticket sales allow?” he pondered. “The residency approach is common in the United States but rare in Europe. It suits a relative homebody like Adele, who has spoken in the past of her dislike of touring.”

The “bespoke” outdoor venue boasts a 220m x 30m LED screen – thought to be the largest screen ever assembled for an outdoor concert. Alongside the temporary stadium, a themed outdoor environment named Adele World includes an authentic English pub, a fairground wheel, karaoke, Farmers Markets, merchandise and a typical Bavarian beer garden with live entertainment.

The exclusive European concerts, which mark the first time Adele has played mainland Europe since 2016, are being co-promoted by Live Nation GSA’s Marek Lieberberg and Austrian promoter Klaus Leutgeb. Adele’s team, including manager Jonathan Dickins and agent Lucy Dickins, have been instrumental in shaping the project.

“Even the people in the cheap seats could feel up close and personal with Britain’s most relatable superstar”

“Yesterday marked the first of 10 nights in Adele World, a pop-up stadium-cum-festival in Munich complete with a pub modelled on one she went to in Kilburn before becoming a household name, a food court with the I Drink Wine bar, a 93-metre catwalk and a 220-metre-wide screen so huge, even the people in the cheap seats could feel up close and personal with Britain’s most relatable superstar,” added Hodgkinson.

Billboard, meanwhile, compiled a list of the 10 best moments from night one.

“Even in an era of over-the-top concert production, this was overwhelming,” wrote Robert Levine. “Rather than lean into that, though, Adele just remained her charming self. ‘What do you think of my screen?’ she asked the crowd at one point, as though she had just picked it up at a sale at Best Buy.

“After thanking the audience, as well as the promoters behind the show — ‘I’d only trust the Germans with this,”’ she said of the formidable logistics issues — Adele tore into a soaring cover of her most upbeat song. It was punctuated with more confetti, plus fireworks — not a quick burst of them, but a serious display. Most acts would have been buried under the sturm und drang, but Adele’s musicians and her voice seemed to go with it fine.

“By then, she had been moving, nervous, funny, touching and funny again. She was entitled to triumph and this was it.”

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