The singer’s new Caesars Palace concerts are motivated by the search for fulfilment that plays out in her latest album – and will challenge audiences there for a good time to do the same
![Adele’s divorce album is a slyly subversive fit for a Vegas residency](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/02706760abb9e4c77843020cc9fd6f652ec3092f/0_348_2333_1399/master/2333.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctb3BpbmlvbnMucG5n&enable=upscale&s=c1f5c8a512eb93e7c9db0457b766b426)
Las Vegas is a comfortable place to land for pop stars. It’s where you go to bask in the validation of a
Job well done, to rest on a solid legacy at a point where the future may have become less certain and any tentative steps into it may harm that legacy. It seemed, for a while, a safe harbour for Britney Spears after her troubles (until she said she was made to perform against her will);
Lady Gaga and
Katy Perry also set up shop in the desert after their imperial phases faded.
Adele, whose three-month Caesars Palace residency begins this weekend, has no need for this lucrative safety net – her latest, 30, was the biggest album of 2021 with just six weeks on sale. She’s playing there for practical reasons: she hates touring and wants to be close to her son at home in
Los Angeles. But there is also something quietly subversive about her presence, right now, in a place synonymous with light entertainment and celebrating adult milestones. Once known for supplying comfort and artistic consistency (even complacency, perhaps), Adele made one of last year’s most confrontational albums.