Adele jokes about being jet-lagged and ‘ready for a drink’ after receiving award

Adele made a joke about jet-lag as she took to the stage to receive an award from Dame Helen Mirren at a Women in Entertainment gala in Los Angeles.

The British singer-songwriter was awarded the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award on Thursday for career accolades and using her platform to inspire others, from fellow recipient Dame Helen at The Hollywood Reporter’s annual event.

The Easy On Me singer, 35, took to the stage wearing a pinstripe suit before asking if she could clear some of the papers on the podium so she did not “get confused” while reading her own speech.

After Dame Helen helped her clear the podium, Adele joked: “I am jet-lagged as anything, f****** hell it is definitely night-time to me, ready for a drink.”

She later spoke about becoming pregnant at the height of her fame.

“(I’ll) call it pandemonium because that’s how it felt to me. Overnight it was like I was famous, it was the strangest, most surreal experience of my life still to this day,” Adele said.

“I fell pregnant, and to many that would be, and it was, considered career suicide.

“However, always one to go against the grain, it was there and then that I chose to reject scarcity of success and the idea you have to be constantly relevant to be successful and that perhaps, just maybe, I could be a hit both on and off the stage and you never guess what, f****** got away with it.”

Presenting the award, Dame Helen spoke about the first time she heard Adele speak.

“I will never forget the first time I heard her speak on the radio, and I thought, ‘Oh my god not only is she a goddess, but she’s an ordinary Londoner just like me’.”

On the pink carpet, 78-year-old Dame Helen said that she felt honoured “to be honouring” Adele.

“She is a fellow Londoner, she is a fellow artist, but on such a scale that is absolutely mind-blowing,2 she said.

“I think she is an incredible artist, one that we will all be very proud of, Americans and British people, but very specifically Londoners – so I am presenting it to her as a fellow Londoner tonight.

“It is not only that glorious, extraordinary voice for the century but also her work as a songwriter and of course then, after all of her work as an artist, it is her work as a philanthropist that we are recognising tonight, so all of those elements.”

Among the stars at the gala were Will Ferrell, Dua Lipa, Lily Gladstone, Diane Warren, Camila Cabello, Ariana DeBose and Kerry Washington – who received the Equity in Entertainment Award.

During her acceptance speech, Scandal star Washington said: “The problem is the ground on this side of the fence is uneven.

“It slopes down along the fence so even though the kids are the same size, only one of them can see over it.”

Meanwhile Oscar-winner DeBose, who presented Washington with the award, described her leadership on set, having worked on 2020 film The Prom together.

She said: “Being new, not really understanding where I was, she helped me understand the moment that I was in.

“I watched a leader in action on set, she turned a whole host of extras into one massive scene partner while never, ever once undermining our director – I had never seen that done before.”