“Hello…it’s me,” she murmured, as she majestically emerged onstage beneath Staples Center’s gleaming silver spotlight. Not that Adele needs any greeting or introduction at all – she can command any room with silence; but her chill-inducing opener at her concert affirmed that the Goddess of Heartbreak was in fact before us, in the flesh.
At first glance, it looked as though Adele was wearing a simple (yet stunning, of course), solid black gown. But as I looked more closely and she continued to glide downstage, the fabric started swaying and catching the spotlight. Suddenly, I discovered that her seemingly classic, solid black dress was in fact uniquely embellished with hundreds of tiny colored sequins that gleamed of different vibrant hues when shone upon. All we needed to see the dress in its full effect was some light.
Before Adele’s show, before she crooned her hits in her glimmering gown, I always thought her songs have merely been about the breaking and healing of the heart. Yet, as I became wholeheartedly immersed in her world for those two hours and watched her melodies come alive before me, Adele’s power-ballads no longer spoke of just love lost and found again. Rather, they began to tell a different side of her story, about gradual triumph and reflecting upon life’s inevitable disappointments for the sake of overcoming them with poise and wisdom. Her songs that I initially thought were about romantic gloom took on a brighter, more vibrant being – just like her dress did.
Strangely enough, though, even after this revelation, I still wondered why Adele’s sequined gown was the only outfit she dawned during the entirety of her performance. Why didn’t she have any costume changes like every other artist I’ve seen perform live? Perhaps she did so for the sake of simplicity, or possibly for the convenience…? But I think it’s because that one dress vividly embodies the entirety of her message that she conveys through her music: that we must open our eyes to seek out the specks of shining color amidst the darkness – in her performances, her art, and life in general.
After Adele set fire to the rain that poured down around her, drenching her stage – and our tear ducts, our songstress closed the show with her ultimate anthem, “Rolling In The Deep.” As if the final chorus wasn’t explosive enough, countless pieces of luminous white confetti suddenly flew down from the black ceiling, dancing in the air against multicolored light. I don’t know if it was the immortal child inside me or the hopeless romantic within that felt compelled to hastily pick up the confetti off the ground, but I did. I shoved as many strips of the tiny white paper into my pockets as possible, in hopes of making the now fleeting memory of that night as tangible as I could.
When I got home, I put my keys down on my chocolate wooden nightstand and emptied out all the confetti from my pockets. I was about to get ready for bed with her melodies still echoing in my mind, when I looked down and examined the remnants I had saved. What I thought were plain pieces of white confetti were actually tiny, hand-written notes from Miss Adele herself, with uplifting phrases jotted down, like “throw your souls through every open door” and, quite simply, “you are loved.”
So as it seems, the night wasn’t just about Adele or her art, her dress or her confetti, but about the call to action she presents: to keep our eyes open to seek out the pieces of light, color, and hope that inevitably lie within the darkness, that can even fly down from the sky in front of our faces. If we look at life in this way, that which seems stark or empty can become vibrant and abundant; there’s truly so much more than meets the eye.
And as Adele herself ferociously sings, “we could have had it all.” Well, if we look closely enough, maybe we already do. 