Award-winning British singer and songwriter Adele gives a colorful speech while accepting The Hollywood Reporter’s Sherry Lansing Leadership Award.
Singer Adele was recently honored at the Women in Entertainment breakfast gala, presented by Lifetime. The 16-time Grammy winner was recently unveiled as THR’s cover star this month.
She was presented with the prestigious Sherry Lansing Award, which recognizes trailblazers and philanthropists in entertainment and media by acclaimed actress Helen Miren. The award was established in honor of Sherry Lansing, the first woman to head a Hollywood studio.
Adele said,
“Sherry [Lansing] , you are the absolute epitome of what it is to open doors and, more importantly, to leave them open. Thank you for everything you’ve done. This all feels very big and grown up, and I feel a little bit out of my depth, considering I’m only 35.”
She opened up about being signed for 17 years, how she successfully disappears when she wants to, getting pregnant, and her sudden fame. “if people think that I’m calculated when I disappear for years,” she said.
“However, always one to go against the grain, it was there and then that I chose to reject the scarcity of success and the idea that you have to be constantly relevant to be successful,” she said. “And that perhaps, just maybe, I could be a hit both on and off the stage — and you’ll never guess what — fucking got away with it.”
She continued, “All the sacrifices the women before me have made, it is because of them that I have every right to be the boss at home and the boss at work. So, thank you.”
Read the full speech here.
