When Adele graced the stage at the 2016 Grammy Awards, she left fans with an unforgettable performance in more ways than one. The singer stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show for a Thursday (Feb. 18) taping to break down what actually caused the sound issues during the ceremony, admitting she "cried all day" after it happened. Adele also opened up about the constant pressure of success.

Contrary to a popular rumor swirling around, Justin Bieber's rehearsal was not the cause of her technical problems that night. The malfunction was actually caused by a microphone that fell onto the piano strings, which is what caused the guitar noise to come through the speakers. Despite believing her live performance "All I Ask" of went pretty well, Adele ultimately found the whole situation overwhelming.

When the multi-Grammy Award winner realized it was the microphone, she immediately thought about walking over to the piano to pull it out, but she "froze." The 17-year-old London native added that her singing sounded a bit "pitchy" due to the emotion behind the song, but she wasn't too bothered by that either.

"I woke up the next morning to people in England being like, 'We still love you, don’t worry' and I was like, I didn’t ask you if you still loved me, but thanks," Adele told DeGeneres. " I was so embarrassed I cried pretty much all day yesterday. In fairness I would have cried if it went really well as well. If it was a stand out performance I would have cried as well. I always cry.”

Despite the embarrassment she felt, one thing good came from her highly-viewed performance. Adele feels the disaster might have cured her stage fright. Well, not completely. She believes the experience was beneficial to her career, but as her success continues to grow, so does the pressure for her to reach even higher expectations from people.

The mother of three-year-old Angelo James Konecki says the incident made her more confident to take action the next time something goes wrong. Adele admits she wanted to tell a joke to the crowd to break the tension, but because it was a live event, she thought it wouldn't be appropriate. In the future, Adele believes she will have no problem starting a song over or telling others that something doesn't sound right to her. 

"I just feel the more successful I get, the more pressure there is. I don't feel like it could get much worse than the Grammys. Anything after that, I can just dust it off."

To catch Adele's full interview with the daytime talk show host, tune into The Ellen DeGeneres Show today at 4 p.m. ET on NBC.

Join the Discussion