Adele, the renowned British singer, has amassed remarkable success since her debut album, “19,” graced the airwaves in 2008. Her powerful voice and emotive ballads have resonated with audiences worldwide. However, as her Las Vegas residency comes to an end, concerns have emerged among fans about whether Adele might step away from music permanently.

Let’s delve into the pivotal moments of her career, exploring both her triumphs and tribulations.

Early Success and Vocal Cord Surgery

Adele’s meteoric rise began in 2008 with her debut album, “19.” Her soulful voice and poignant lyrics captured hearts worldwide. However, the singer’s path was not without obstacles. In 2011, Adele faced a vocal cord hemorrhage that necessitated emergency surgery led by Dr. Steven Zeitels. The procedure was high-risk, with even a minute error potentially robbing the world of her remarkable voice.

2017: A Year of Challenges

Another significant blow came in 2017 when Adele was forced to cancel two major shows at London’s Wembley Arena. Health issues took their toll, but Adele remained committed to her authenticity, refusing to mime during her performances. She expressed that miming would not reflect her true self and artistry.

During a show in New Zealand that same year, she openly discussed her apprehensions about touring. Applause, though cherished by artists, made her feel vulnerable. She candidly stated, “I don’t know if I will ever tour again.”

Las Vegas Residency Setbacks

In 2022, Adele encountered further challenges during the preparations for her Las Vegas residency. Last-minute disruptions left her frustrated and in tears as she declared, “My show just ain’t ready!” The abrupt cancellation of shows on the verge of their premiere disappointed many fans.

The cancellations resulted from logistical issues, including team members affected by Covid. Adele’s commitment to providing her audience with a top-notch performance led her to take a stand. She acknowledged that she had let people down, but she also recognized that compromising her own standards would have been a greater disservice.

A New Chapter: A Passion for English Literature

As Adele’s Las Vegas residency wraps up, the acclaimed artist is preparing to embark on an unexpected journey. She has unveiled a newfound passion for English Literature and expressed her intention to take a temporary hiatus from the music industry after the residency concludes. In a Q&A session, she shared her aspirations for 2025, revealing her desire to earn a degree in English Literature.

Adele’s profound connection with the subject is evident as she envisions a potential career as an English Literature teacher. This revelation hints at a different path, one that, while distinct from her music career, is equally intriguing and reflective of her intellectual pursuits.

Hope for the Future

While Adele is pausing her musical endeavors, there is no definitive indication of permanent retirement. Her fans remain optimistic that she will eventually return to touring, sharing her incredible talent and resonating with audiences worldwide once more.

What had happened to Adele?

During her Las Vegas residency, Adele experienced a concerning incident as she collapsed backstage due to a sciatica attack. The 35-year-old singer disclosed to her audience at The Colosseum that a member of her production team discovered her immobilized on the floor, emphasizing the severity of the episode.

Does Adele write her songs?

Adele crafts the majority of her songs, drawing inspiration from her personal experiences. Back in 2018, she hinted at her fourth album’s impending arrival, and the anticipation certainly paid off!

On a full-moon night on November 15, the RBDSA Sports Complex, Bhoirymbong in Shillong—the “Scotland of the East”, a cliché that lives up to its hype—wore kaleidoscopic colours as the Cherry Blossom Festival 2024 kicked off with the “Year of Legends” theme boasting names like international hip-hop star Akon and the legendary Boney M group, an R&B, reggae, funk, and disco music group founded in the early 1970s.

“The Cherry Blossom Festival has entered a self-sustainable mode, a feat rarely approached by any music festival across the Northeast,” said Conrad K Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya. This year, the Government of Meghalaya contributed approximately INR 2 crore. However, the festival’s cost ran up to around INR 12 crore, thereby explaining the CM’s reference to the “self-financing model”.

Music and tourism are the biggest growth engines of Meghalaya’s economic development, said the Chief Minister. A testament to the narrative is the Cheery Blossom Festival 2024, which brought together a diverse medley of music representing some of the biggest home-grown and global names and showcased culture cutting across borders. This year, the two-day festival recorded the all-time highest number of visitors with more than 50,000 visitors.

However, despite its prominent role in anchoring Shillong’s growth story, there’s more to Meghalaya’s economic progress than the Cherry Blossom Festival.

“For tourism to grow as a whole and in terms of the entire ecosystem, multiple factors need to be addressed; we can’t look at any one event like the Cherry Blossom when we are talking about an entire ecosystem growth, but rather it’s part of the overall story,” said CM Conrad K Sangma.

At the intersection of music with a focus on local talent and tourism—an overarching sector encompassing the mobilisation of human resources and demanding the acceleration of infrastructure push—lies the emerging Meghalaya growth story.

To advance this vision, CM Sangma outlined these top five priorities:

1. Connectivity: Good connectivity would be a major boost, which means direct flights coming into Shillong, and improving the overall transport infrastructure (In Shillong, a major concern is traffic jams);
2. Maximising room capacity, boosting the hotel industry: We need more hotel rooms, including five-star hotels in larger numbers and across locations. Room capacity also needs to go up;
3. We need to improve the overall infrastructure in tourist spots so that the overall experience of the tourist goes up. Towards that end, we have almost INR 4,000 crore lined up in total to be invested in these areas;
4. Another area is the human resources. We need to ensure that the human resources are trained adequately so that we can serve tourists whether it is at the hotels, or concerning artist management, taxis, drivers, and guides. This is directly aligned with the goal of job creation as the essential purpose of tourism is to enable money flow and create jobs. Hence, if jobs are not created for local people then half the purpose is defeated. Therefore, job creation and ensuring that our youngsters get jobs is one of the main focus areas for us;
5. Large-scale festivals like the Cherry Blossom help us create branding; this is the story that every traveller carries with them–the story of how Meghalaya is changing. Therefore, all these aspects are related to one another.

Going forward, connectivity, infrastructure, increased room capacity in hotels, human resource development, boosting infrastructure capacity in the tourist spots, and large events and festivals to attract tourists and create a brand name for Meghalaya would be the key priorities to propel a music and tourism-driven economy.

Last year, it was reported that a tax revenue of INR 1.44 crore was generated at hotels via the Cherry Blossom Festival. This year, the CM said, the revenue is geared to increase. The number of tourists has doubled from 22,999 last year to 50,000 plus this year, which means 100% growth, as stated by Meghalaya’s Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma.

“To add to it, the flow of tourists has been consistent. So, it’s not the situation that we have seen tourists only during festival time. Of course, the number of tourists increases during festival time, but we are seeing tourists coming in throughout the season,” Sangma added.

Tourists have already started staying at Shillong’s booming homestays. Curated experiences are also on offer.

India-Japan alliance enabling entrepreneurial ambitions
With Japan being the official international partner country of the Cherry Blossom Festival 2024, the Government of Meghalaya has already been cultivating trade ties with Japan, including exchange of knowledge and training.

For instance, grassroots women who are part of the self-help groups (SHGs), are involved in shiitake mushroom cultivation. The Meghalaya government has not only imported the technology from Japan but even the sawdust machinery to yield production. Via the CM Elevate programme, these women are then connected with entrepreneurs who help them, in turn, to bridge the gap between production and selling in the market. “So, we are connecting all the dots in the manner and taking them on the entire journey,” said Sangma, adding that “shiitake is one story of how we are tying up with Japan and we are now going to take that story elsewhere, for instance, buckwheat, which is another product extensively used in Japanese cuisine. Japan currently has a shortage of buckwheat and women from the SHGs are actively involved in this fast-evolving production mechanism.”

“We started with 20,000 and today women-driven SHGs run into 45,000,” Sangma asserted. This takes the story of women’s SHGs beyond the traditional pickles and papads.