VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: False Adele Residency Flags

Posted on: November 18, 2024, 08:02h. 

Last updated on: November 18, 2024, 09:52h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

With “Weekends With Adele” wrapping on Saturday after 100 performances, we bring you a special edition dedicated to correcting some of the less-than-accurate stories that have circulated about the pop superstar’s Caesars Palace residency.

We hope you didn’t believe everything you read about Adele’s Caesars Palace residency. (Image: geo.tv)

Palestinian Flag

Adele carried the flag of the Palestinian people during a performance of “When We Were Young,” making clear her stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

This tweet claimed that the flag in Adele’s arms is Palestinian. (Image: Twitter/X)

That’s a claim made by this video — shared on Nov. 16, 2023, by X user @slionshekh with the message: “Respect to Adele! She’s holding the Palestinian flag and singing her heart out.” That tweet was viewed nearly 54K times.

However, a longer video posted to TikTok clearly shows the flag bearing the coat of arms of Mexico. (Both flags share the colors white, red, and green.)

Should this not be enough busting for you, Adele’s attire in the video perfectly matches images the singer tweeted of herself from her Sept. 30, 2023, concert, which predated the current Israel-Hamas conflict by seven days.

Pride Didn’t Suck

Adele made international headlines in June by going off on a man in her audience who yelled, “Pride sucks!” during the first day of Pride Month.

What was that? Did you just say, ‘Pride sucks?!’” Adele snapped back. “Did you come to my fucking show and just say that Pride sucks? Are you fucking stupid? Don’t be so fucking ridiculous!”

More than 10.5 million people viewed this video posted by the pop culture news account Pop Base.

Unfortunately, another video, recorded closer to the heckler, captures, quite clearly, the man yelling “Work sucks!”

It was in response to the superstar discussing her busy work schedule.

Oops.

Seat-Fillers

In January 2023, Britain’s The Sun reported that Adele secretly employed seat-fillers to mask empty Colosseum seats because her performances were no longer selling out. Quoting unnamed “insiders at the Colosseum,” the tabloid claimed the seat-fillers were necessary because “the early demand to see her sing has waned — and that is reflected in the price of tickets.”

The problem with this theory was that all “Weekend With Adele” tickets, for every show, sold out almost immediately after going on sale. The tickets that The Sun observed as still available were resale (already sold) tickets. And while the highest-priced among them did fall by a factor of 10 from their August 2022 on-sale date to January 2023, that’s only because front-row seats were originally offered on Stubhub for $41,280 each, and, by January, had leveled off to around $4,000 each.

This still from a different video from the same night clearly shows the Mexican coat of arms on the same flag. (Image: X/Twitter)

That didn’t indicate a waning of interest in Adele as much as it did greedy individuals coming to grips with the reality of market forces.

Adele does use seat-fillers, by the way, but only to occupy seats whenever ticket-holders can’t make a show. Most either work for Caesars or partner companies.

Planet-Hopping

In April 2022, three months after Adele delayed her Caesars Palace residency until November, TMZ reported that she was “close to finalizing a deal” to open it at Planet Hollywood instead.

The news site stated that Planet Hollywood executives offered the superstar increased creative control and a larger cut of ticket sales — at an even bigger venue. Zappos seats 7,000 to the Colosseum’s 4,100.

Adele canceled her original Caesars dates due to a combination of COVID-forced production delays and creative differences. She believed the stage setup wasn’t right and was lacking intimacy.

The problem with this story was that Caesars Palace and Planet Hollywood both happen to be operated by Caesars Entertainment. So it made zero sense for execs from one Caesars venue to be bidding for Adele against their co-workers.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. Visit VegasMythsBusted.com to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.