Chris surprised me with tickets to see Adele at Madison Square Garden tonight. I honestly never thought I’d be able to see her in concert since it’s so competitive to get tickets for her shows, and she doesn’t tour or make albums that frequently, so this was a crazy surprise.

A few things were shocking to me during the show: they started more or less on time at around 8:10, and Adele had zero costume changes; she wore the same dress the entire evening, which lasted about 2.5 hours. She performed three songs right away back to back without any introduction or talking, and she was clearly singing live — no doubt about that. Her self-deprecating and light bragging humor was so real and funny. She asked the audience if we were hoping to have a good time tonight, and when we all started cheering, she responded, “Well, I don’t know why you’re here, then. You do realize that all I do is sing and whine about men and all my broken relationships, right? You think that’s a good time, eh?” Her humor around having a completely sold out tour was especially funny.

It was such a contrast to what I hear about American performers who are far more diva-like and egotistical. Mariah Carey, in her past shows, would always have on average a costume change per two to three songs (most of which showed way too much skin or ass crack), which also meant long periods (10-15 minutes each) of being off stage. That’s a long time when your show is only 2 hours long. I’ve been told that Beyonce concerts are known to start an hour to an hour and a half late. My cousin attended a Madonna concert in the Bay Area years ago where cameras of any kind were completely banned; in fact, that’s what happened at the Shania Twain concert my cousin, Ed, and I attended at Key Arena in Seattle; we have no photos from that show because cameras were prohibited.

Adele’s authenticity and complete focus on her voice were so memorable. The only thing really done to accommodate her was a man discreetly coming on stage to refill her hot water and honey for her throat. And as always, her live performance of “Someone Like You” was so moving. I could feel myself tearing up hearing her belt out the words to that timeless song that I’m sure people will remember decades from now.