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08th Oct 2021

Adele addresses ‘cultural appropriation’ backlash over controversial Notting Hill photo

Adam Bloodworth

She also explained why London house prices sent her to LA…

Adele has addressed the controversy that arose in the wake of her Notting Hill Carnival photo alongside discussions of her wealth and why soaring London property prices forced her to move to Los Angeles.

In 2020, the Notting Hill Carnival was cancelled due to the surging pandemic so Adele celebrated by sharing an image of herself dressed in a bra with Jamaican flags. She also wore her hair in Bantu knots, a traditional Caribbean hairstyle.

The singer was criticised for cultural appropriation when she posted the picture and – reflecting on the moment now – she realises it was a poor choice of outfit.

In a new interview with British Vogue, the 33-year-old singer said: “I totally get why people felt like it was appropriating… I didn’t read the f**king room.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEh6gF5AwXh/

Though she also added a justification for why she hadn’t yet taken the photo down from her social media.

“I could see comments being like, ‘the nerve to not take it down,’ which I totally get. But if I take it down, it’s me acting like it never happened,” she said.

In the same interview, Adele also revealed that she can’t afford to buy her dream house in her hometown of London.

She made the comments despite being worth £130 million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2021.

“The kind of house I have in LA I could never afford in London. Ever,” she explained.

“No, I looked at houses. It’s like hundreds of millions of pounds. I don’t have that much money at all. I’d throw up.”

Adele is primarily based in Los Angeles where she owns a house worth £7.7 million, according to TMZ. Though she also owns an £11 million Kensington mansion, report The Mirror.

Originally from Tottenham, Adele was speaking to British Vogue ahead of her new album launch, widely rumoured to be called ’30’.

The album will follow Adele’s three other LPs which were also named after her age. They were ’19’, ’21’ and ’25’.

The singer also revealed she had lost weight to work on her mental health. “It was because of my anxiety,” she said.

“Working out, I would just feel better. It was never about losing weight, it was always about becoming strong and giving myself as much time every day without my phone.”

She describes herself as “addicted” to exercise and says she “needed to get addicted to something to get my mind right… It could have been knitting, but it wasn’t.”

Earlier in the week, Adele released a 21-second teaser of new music. The excerpt is from a track entitled ‘Easy On Me’, but the clip is just a piano line and doesn’t feature any vocals.

https://twitter.com/Adele/status/1445388436773425163

Adele is one of the highest-selling artists of her generation, with over 120 million record sales behind her internationally.

Her last album ’25’ was released in 2015 and speculation about new music has been mounting since 2019 when she first referenced an album called ’30’ on social media.

In October 2020, she hosted US sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live but fan speculation that she might make an announcement about new music on the show was off the mark.

Adele finally announced on October 5 that ‘Easy On Me’ will be released on October 15 ahead of the album, which as yet has no release date.

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Adele