Divorce, a proposal and new tracks: The key moments from Adele’s Oprah interview
Adele has spoken openly about her divorce, its impact on her son, and how people reacted to her weight loss in a wide-ranging interview with chat show legend Oprah Winfrey.
The 33-year-old also performed tracks from her new album 30 at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles on the CBS special, ahead of its release later this week.
Here are the key moments from her performances and interview on Sunday night.
Adele was worried her new album was a ‘bit too private’
Speaking to Winfrey in the same garden where the former chat show host interviewed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Adele said she was worried that her upcoming album, which she has previously admitted was written while going through her divorce, could be too personal.
“I think the reason I’m so brave to do it in my career so far is because music helped me in any situation and I would like to do the same for people who are so alone… to be reminded that they’re not alone,” she said.
“There were moments where I was writing the record and I thought that might be a bit too private, too about myself to put out.
“But nothing is as scary as what I’ve been through over the past few years behind closed doors.
“So I’m not frightened about what people might or might not do.”
Adele’s new album is released this week. Pic: Colombia Records
It was the first time her son Angelo had seen her perform live
Her performance during the two-hour special was also the first time her son, Angelo, had watched her perform live on stage – something she said made her nervous.
Adele also told Winfrey that 30 was dedicated to her son, and is a way of showing him “who I am”.
She said: “The whole album is not about him, it’s about me and I just wanted him to hear me talking madly, deeply about who I am and how I feel.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to have that conversation with him in real life, so he can go and listen to it.”
Also in the audience at Griffith Observatory were James Corden, Drake and Lizzo, with Adele telling the crowd she was s******* herself for the performance.
Adele with new partner US sports agent Rich Paul (centre). Pic: AP
Adele publicly addressed her weight loss – saying she wasn’t “shocked” by the reaction
She mentioned it briefly during her stint on Saturday Night Live, but Adele opened up to Winfrey about her weight loss.
The singer said that she had never set out to lose almost 100lbs (45kg), and that she always has been, and always will be, body-positive.
“My body has been objectified my entire career, I’m too big, I’m too small, I’m hot or I’m not,” she said.
“I never looked up to anyone because of their weight.
“I [was] body-positive then and I’m body-positive now – but it’s not my job to validate how people feel about their bodies.
“I feel bad if anyone feels horrible about themselves but that’s not my job. I’m trying to sort my own life out.”
She also boasted that she can now deadlift 160lbs (72kgs) and that she told her trainer she wanted to be an Olympian.
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We heard new tracks from 30 for the first time
We’ve already heard Easy On Me, her first single off 30, but Adele treated the LA crowd to three more tracks during her performance.
Fans heard I Drink Wine, Hold On and Love Is A Game, as well as the aforementioned Easy On Me from the new album.
The crowd also heard a number of classic Adele tracks including Hello, Rolling In The Deep and her Bond-theme Skyfall.
Two fans in the crowd got engaged with the help of Adele
Two loved-up fans, Quentin and Ashley, used Adele’s Griffith Observatory performance to get engaged – with the singer helping them out.
Adele asked the crowd to be quiet before Ashley was blindfolded and led on stage, where Quentin popped the question.
The singer then stepped out, stunning Ashley, and invited them to sit on the front row with Lizzo.
She then performed Make You Feel My Love, saying in-between lines: “She’s crying her eyes out!”.
30 is released later this week.
Video footage has shown the moment singer and actress Ariana Grande was accosted by a fan at a film premiere.
Ms Grande was in Singapore for the debut of Wicked: For Good when the incident unfolded on Thursday.
The video captured the moment the fan scaled the barricade and pushed past photographers towards Ms Grande.
Pic: tacotrvck_vb/X/via REUTERS
He then threw his arms around her, before co-star Cynthia Erivo intervened and security swoops in to stop him.
The man, now identified as Johnson Wen, 26, is reportedly a notorious red carpet crasher.
Wen, who has since been charged with being a public nuisance, goes by the nickname Pyjama Man, and gloated as he shared footage of the intrusion online.
“Dear Ariana Grande, Thank You for letting me Jump on the Yellow Carpet with You,” he wrote on Instagram.
Pic: tacotrvck_vb/X/via REUTERS
In video stories posted to the site beforehand, he was seen at the Universal Studios venue, revealing his intentions.
In one, he said: “I feel like I’m in a dream, that’s my best friend, Ariana Grande, and I’m gonna meet her. I’ve been dreaming about that.”
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The Australian has ambushed several performers on stage, according to reports, including Katy Perry and The Chainsmokers at concerts in Sydney, and The Weeknd in Melbourne.
It has been reported that Wen intends to plead guilty and that he could face a fine of more than £1,000.
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo at the London premiere for Wicked: For Good
Ms Grande took a moment to gather herself in the aftermath of the intrusion, visibly shocked by the incident.
She didn’t address the incident on her own Instagram, but shared some photos with the caption “thank you, Singapore”, adding “we love you”.
The singer battled post-traumatic stress disorder after her 2017 concert in Manchester was bombed, leaving 22 people dead.
She told Vogue in 2018: “It’s hard to talk about because so many people have suffered such severe, tremendous loss. But, yeah, it’s a real thing.
“I know those families and my fans, and everyone there experienced a tremendous amount of it as well. Time is the biggest thing.
“I feel like I shouldn’t even be talking about my own experience – like I shouldn’t even say anything. I don’t think I’ll ever know how to talk about it and not cry.”
In the same interview she also addressed her own anxiety, saying she has “always” had it.
Ms Grande plays Galinda Upland in Wicked: For Good, the character who becomes Glinda the Good Witch. Ms Erivo plays Elphaba, the character who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West.
The film is released in UK cinemas on 21 November.
Entertainment
A third of daily music uploads are AI-generated and 97% of people can’t tell the difference, says report
Do you care if the music you’re listening to is artificially generated?
That question – once the realm of science fiction – is becoming increasingly urgent.
An AI-generated country track, Walk My Walk, is currently sitting at number one on the US Billboard chart of digital sales and a new report by streaming platform Deezer has revealed the sheer scale of AI production in the music industry.
Deezer’s AI-detection system found that around 50,000 fully AI-generated tracks are now uploaded every day, accounting for 34% of all daily uploads.
File pic: iStock
The true number is most likely higher, as Deezer’s AI-detection system does not catch every AI-generated track. Nor does this figure include partially AI-generated tracks.
In January 2025, Deezer’s system identified 10% of uploaded tracks as fully AI-generated.
Since then, the proportion of AI tracks – made using written prompts such as “country, 1990s style, male singer” – has more than tripled, leading the platform’s chief executive, Alexis Lanternier, to say that AI music is “flooding music streaming”.
‘Siphoning money from royalty pool’
What’s more, when Deezer surveyed 9,000 people in eight countries – the US, Canada, Brazil, UK, France, Netherlands, Germany and Japan – and asked them to detect whether three tracks were real or AI, 97% could not tell the difference.
That’s despite the fact that the motivation behind the surge of AI music is not in the least bit creative, according to Deezer. The company says that roughly 70% of fully AI-generated tracks are what it calls “fraudulent” – that is, designed purely to make money.
“The common denominator is the ambition to boost streams on specific tracks in order to siphon money from the royalty pool,” a Deezer spokesperson told Sky News.
“With AI-generated content, you can easily create massive amounts of tracks that can be used for this purpose.”
File pic: Reuters
The tracks themselves are not actually fraudulent, Deezer says, but the behaviour around them is. Someone will upload an AI track then use an automated system – a bot – to listen to a song over and over again to make royalties from it.
Even though the total number of streams for each individual track is very low – Deezer estimates that together they account for 0.5% of all streams – the work needed to make an AI track is so tiny that the rewards justify the effort.
Are fully-AI tracks being removed?
Deezer is investing in AI-detection software and has filed two patents for systems that spot AI music. But it is not taking down the tracks it marks as fully-AI.
Instead it removes them from algorithmic recommendations and editorial playlists, a measure designed to stop the tracks getting streams and therefore generating royalties, and marks the tracks as “AI-generated content”.
“If people want to listen to an AI-generated track however, they can and we are not stopping them from doing so – we just want to make sure they are making a conscious decision,” the Deezer spokesperson says.
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Concerns about artists’ livelihoods
Deezer’s survey found that more than half (52%) of respondents felt uncomfortable with not being able to tell the difference between AI and human-made music.
“The survey results clearly show that people care about music and want to know if they’re listening to AI or human-made tracks or not,” said the company’s boss Alexis Lanternier.
“There’s also no doubt that there are concerns about how AI-generated music will affect the livelihood of artists.”
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Musicians protests AI copyright plans
Earlier this year, more than 1,000 musicians – including Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn and Kate Bush – released a silent album to protest plans by the UK government to let artificial intelligence companies use copyright-protected work without permission.
A recent study commissioned by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers suggested that generative AI music could be worth £146bn a year in 2028 and account for around 60% of music libraries’ revenues.
By this metric, the authors concluded, 25% of creators’ revenues are at risk by 2028, a sum of £3.5bn.
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