Adele is praising the women who inspire her, while providing a little too much information about how one woman in particular makes her feel.
The “Someone Like You” singer was honored Thursday with the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at The Hollywood Reporter’s annual “Women in Entertainment” event and provided the outlet with a classic TMI moment after naming the women who empower her.
“Barbra Streisand is one of them, I fucking adore her — one of my favorites,” Adele told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview Thursday. “My agent Lucy [Dickins], she sounds just like me and she’s British. Beyoncé, obviously, my idol, watching her and stuff like that.”
While the Grammy winner also thanked her mom, aunts and grandmothers, huge names have attended her “Weekends with Adele” residency in Las Vegas. One of them is a world-famous singer in her own right, making Adele so nervous she couldn’t help but squirm.
“There’s been one there that I shat myself the whole show,” Adele said.
“Gaga,” she revealed. “And I’ve spent a bit of time with her, but I rate her so hard. I was like, ‘The show’s terrible. It’s rubbish. I’m singing terribly. I’m not funny. My dress is rubbish this week.’ I was judging myself. And she’s not like that. But she made me really, really nervous.”
That level of admiration appears sincere, as Adele is one of the most acclaimed singers in history. She has sold over 120 million records and won 16 Grammys, an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar. Plus, she has broken 44 Guinness World Records.
Adele, whose residency began in late 2022 and launched its third leg in January, effusively thanked “the women in my life” for supporting her. While these included her mom, aunts and grandmothers, Adele is still reeling from the peers who have come to see her perform.
“I remember one of my first shows I did, Shania Twain came,” she told the outlet. “Because she had a hat on, I walked straight past her and didn’t recognize her until afterwards someone sent me a video. Then I saw her at the Grammys and we were talking about it.”
While Twain was a welcome surprise and Gaga made her queasy, Adele had “the most surreal experience” of her life when the doctor who delivered her son showed up. The singer naturally sought out his number the next day to properly thank him for that gift.
The Sherry Lansing award, meanwhile, was established in honor of the first woman to head a Hollywood studio. Ever so gracious, Adele told The Hollywood Reporter that all these proverbial doors are only available to her “because everyone else opened them.”