Adele Explains Her Off Key ‘All I Ask’ Grammy Performance

Celebrity

 | February 16, 2016 | By Margo Gothelf

After a long hiatus, Adele returned to the Grammy stage on Monday night, but anticipated performance underwhelmed after technical issues marred the singer’s normally flawless vocals.

Adele performed “All I Ask” from her record-breaking album 25, however, early into her power ballad the Grammy winner could tell something was off. As she sang, a strumming sound could be heard in the background causing her microphone to briefly cut out. Adele powered through, but she looked distracted and knew the performance was not going right.

Fans picked up on the sounds mishap right away, but were super confused as well. How could Adele sound flat?

Adele's pitch is consistently & historically flawless. FLAWLESS. That was 100% an audio issue & she was fighting hard from go. Hush, ya'll.

— Nichole Nordeman (@nicholenordeman) February 16, 2016

NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES, #GRAMMYs!!!!!!!!!!!

— Adam B. Vary (@adambvary) February 16, 2016

Did anyone else just see Adele not hit a single one of her high notes? Cringe. And that acoustic guitar issue…Can we blame bad sound?

— Joy Macke (@joyheartshearts) February 16, 2016

Adele's struggles tonight might've been monitor-related — there were sound issues all over the place — but she was pushing. Hard

— Josh Lincoln Dickey (@JLDlite) February 16, 2016

RIP to the sound guy that just messed up @Adele's performance #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/ayZ00oWmmj

— Colton (@ColtonBradford) February 16, 2016

So what exactly happened?

The Grammy-winning artist took to Twitter to explain the technical mishap. Turns out the piano microphones fell on to the piano strings causing the guitar sounds that were heard during her performance. However, Adele found a silver lining from the misfortune and treated herself to a little In-N-Out Burger after the ceremony.

The piano mics fell on to the piano strings, that's what the guitar sound was. It made it sound out of tune. Shit happens. X

— Adele (@Adele) February 16, 2016

Because of it though… I'm treating myself to an in n out. So maybe it was worth it.

— Adele (@Adele) February 16, 2016

Recording Academy President Neil Portnow went into detail explaining the flub after the show.

According to Variety, “The process of lifting the piano onto a satellite stage, a microphone inside the piano dropped, which caused the clanking sound heard over the broadcast. They tried to correct it by going to a backup system, which caused the feed to be lost for a second.”

However Adele was still able to pull through, proving how fantastic she really is.

“To Adele’s credit, she killed it, she did a fantastic job, the pro that she is,” Portnow explained. “That was all an issue on our behalf. Kenny (Ehrlich) asked that we make that really clear to everybody.”

Adele’s hit album 25 was not eligible for any Grammy’s this year and will compete in next year’s categories where it is expected to sweep the competition.