We are a mere five days away from the impending emotional destruction of Adele’s new album. In order to get us ready for such utter devastation, Adele aired a little concert this past weekend, followed by an exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey, for the CBS special “Adele One Night Only.”
While the Oprah interview, which was filmed in the very same garden as Meghan and Harry’s explosive sit-down from earlier this year, was full of revelations about Adele’s divorce, the public’s reaction to her weight loss, and her decision to stop drinking, the most memorable footage of the evening might have been Oprah passionately attempting to remember the words to “Hello.”
On Sunday, Oprah posted a clip of herself belting out … some of the words to Adele’s “Hello” performance. She is standing next to Lizzo, who, of course, has each millisecond of vibrato nailed to a tee. Oprah, a woman of the people, is not so strong on the song’s specifics. It came out a long time ago, and, like the rest of us, she has probably been distracted by the paper flying into Adele’s face during the bloopers for “Easy on Me.”
Nevertheless, Oprah gracefully swishes her feather-encircled arm back and forth to the beat, ooh-ing along confidently. She belts out the lyrics she does know and clutches her chest, moved by the spirit of Adele’s heartbreak. The commitment! The passion! No one does it like Oprah, even when she doesn’t know the words.
