Adele’s Munich run ‘a milestone in music history’

The team behind Adele’s historic German run have told IQ the acclaimed show represents “a milestone in music history” and debated whether it will inspire further residencies.

The singer broke numerous records with her 10-night stint at a giant pop-up stadium in Munich – the largest temporary arena ever built.

More than 730,000 tickets were sold for the exclusive European concerts, held between 2-31 August, which registered the highest attendance of any concert residency outside Las Vegas, according to promoter Live Nation.

Speaking in the latest issue of IQ, Adele’s agent Lucy Dickins and Live Nation GSA CEO Marek Lieberberg do not rule out the possibility of other acts staging similar productions down the line, but stress that it isn’t an easy template to follow.

“Not everyone is of Adele’s scale,” reflects Dickins, WME global head of contemporary music and touring. “I still have yet to see anyone greater than her live. She’s the most unbelievable professional I’ve ever, ever had the pleasure of working with. She’s super-smart, she always knows exactly what she’s doing.”

The “bespoke” outdoor venue boasted a 220m x 30m LED screen, supplied by Solotech, which has been certified by Guinness World Records as the Largest Continuous Outdoor LED Screen (temporary) ever built.

“Before this started, I said: ‘Never before and never again.’ Now, I would say, ‘Never before but maybe again”

Alongside the venue, the 75,000-square-metre Adele World – which included an authentic English pub, a fairground wheel, karaoke, Farmers Markets, merchandise and a typical Bavarian beer garden with live entertainment – attracted 500,000 visitors.

“It’s been very intense because something like this has never been done before. There is no precedent. We could not simply use a blueprint of another project – we had to start from scratch,” says Lieberberg, who co-promoted the residency with Klaus Leutgeb, CEO of Austria’s Leutgeb Entertainment Group.

“Before this started, I said: ‘Never before and never again.’ Now, I would say, ‘Never before but maybe again. We need to analyse the Munich residency thoroughly. All the shows have been spectacular and overwhelming, from Adele’s unique performances to the audience response, as well as the reaction of the media worldwide.

“It’s a milestone in music history, for sure. And it seems too good to waste. But if we ever did something like this again, it has to cater to the specific vision of the artist, like this one has.”

Leutgeb, who organised shows at Munich Messe with artists including Andreas Gabalier, Helene Fischer and Robbie Williams in 2022, had approached Dickins with a series of proposals in the past. However, an updated offer including the suggestion of a purpose-built stadium – illustrated by a sketch from production designer Florian Wieder – persuaded Dickins to take the concept to her brother Jonathan, Adele’s manager, last year.

“I knew questions would be asked, like, why Germany? Why Munich?”

“I knew questions would be asked, like, why Germany? Why Munich?” she says. “Well, she hasn’t played in Europe since 2016, and if you look at Munich, it’s slap-bang in the middle. But the main bit for me was the Oktoberfest is held here. So they have infrastructure to get a lot of people in and a lot of people out. I had all these ideas going around in my head, and I called Jonathan, and he was like, ‘Yeah, it’s interesting.’”

Lieberberg credits support from the very top of Live Nation with enabling the project to come to life – and reserves special praise for the production team.

“We had so many brilliant minds joining forces,” he says. “At these shows, we possibly experienced the greatest open-air sound ever – it was like sitting in a studio with B&O boxes and a Thorens player, and you put on the vinyl. And then you have a world-record LED wall in the shape of a wave, like a film scroll. A tailor-made stadium, all in black, no advertising at all, just with Adele signage. It’s really a piece of art.

“In German, there’s a word for it: Gesamtkunstwerk. A total piece of art, a composition of many parts creating an artwork in itself. And people realise that when they enter into a new environment that is so different from any other arena or stadium. This stadium was made for the show, and the show was made for the stadium.”

The full feature on Adele’s German residency can be read in issue 130 of IQ, which is out now.

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