Adele Accepts The Sherry Lansing Leadership Award | Women in Entertainment 2023 - video Dailymotion

The Hollywood Reporter

Adele accepts the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at The Hollywood Reporter‘s annual Women in Entertainment gala.

Transcript

00:00 Thank you, Queenie.

00:02 [laughter]

00:03 Everyone's done such a great job of reading from that autocue,

00:06 but there's no way I'm going to be able to do that.

00:08 I've never done it in my life, so I will be reading off of my own stuff.

00:12 Could I clear this so I don't get confused and start reading somebody else's?

00:15 Hello. Good morning.

00:17 [laughter]

00:18 I am jet-lagged, as anything.

00:21 Fucking hell, it's definitely nighttime to me.

00:24 Ready for a drink.

00:25 [laughter]

00:27 [cheers and applause]

00:30 I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this event tonight.

00:34 The scholarship had me in floods of tears.

00:36 Girls, congratulations.

00:38 Absolutely beautiful to watch you.

00:42 My boyfriend, Rich, was casting me out because I cry at anything,

00:45 but obviously that's absolutely worth it for everything that you guys were saying and doing.

00:48 So congratulations.

00:50 Kerry, you know I love you.

00:51 Woo!

00:53 Also finally got to meet Dua Lipa.

00:55 Bit star-struck. Absolutely love her.

00:57 Love a Londoner.

00:59 And I'm just going to listen.

01:01 Disclaimer, I'm not really a motivational words kind of gal.

01:04 [laughter]

01:08 I'm just going to be up front about it straight away.

01:10 I'm also not really a speeches kind of gal.

01:13 So, well, they're really not my fucking forte, I can't lie.

01:19 [laughter]

01:20 When I'm nervous, I swear, forgive me, I'm British, what can I say?

01:23 I've never prepared one of these in my life.

01:25 I do, of course, though, as quite a few people in the room know,

01:28 I have the gift of the gab.

01:31 I can absolutely talk for hours and eat your ear off,

01:34 but when I talk for hours, it's about nothing.

01:37 [laughter]

01:41 Really.

01:42 So writing this has become-- well, not become, it's been quite a challenge.

01:45 I can't really lie.

01:47 And suddenly it dawned on me last night, I flew in from London last night,

01:50 and it dawned on me when I was writing this that there is no way--

01:53 I'm not saying it this event, but there is no way that all these big, long speeches

01:57 that we're always hearing from people, people cannot be writing those themselves.

02:01 It's impossible.

02:02 It's such a hard task.

02:04 I'm convinced that I could have hired someone to write this.

02:07 [laughter]

02:08 But it's too late now, you're going to have to listen to what I've got.

02:11 So easy peasy first, obviously, thank you so, so much to the Hollywood Reporter.

02:15 It's an absolute honor to be here today in full fucking glam at 8am on a Thursday morning.

02:21 [applause]

02:30 No, no, no, seriously, thank you so much for having me at this event.

02:33 It really is incredible.

02:34 I'm being serious.

02:35 I am honored to be here, I'm just saying.

02:38 It's listed as a brunch, this is breakfast.

02:41 [laughter]

02:44 Like I said earlier, congratulations to the scholarship winners and the mentor program.

02:48 That's incredible.

02:49 To the other honorees tonight.

02:51 And of course, the most, the reason I'm here, to Sherry Lansing.

02:55 What a don.

02:57 [applause]

02:59 Not really sure where to begin, Sherry.

03:01 I guess this award is pretty self-explanatory, I suppose.

03:05 I'm not quite--

03:06 This is still--

03:07 It's hard with this microphone, isn't it, Dua?

03:08 We're very, very tall, we're supermodels.

03:10 [laughter]

03:11 Well, you are, I'm not, but anyway.

03:13 But having a whole award named after yourself and your legacy is quite a flex, so.

03:18 [laughter]

03:19 It is.

03:21 I'm going to get serious for one second.

03:24 Shitting myself.

03:26 [laughter]

03:27 Sherry, you are the epitome, absolute epitome of what it is to open doors.

03:33 And more importantly, to leave them open.

03:36 [applause]

03:42 I'm blown away to even be sitting next to you tonight.

03:45 See, I told you this morning.

03:47 Let alone receiving your award, so thank you for everything you've done,

03:49 and of course, everything that you continue to do.

03:51 Thank you so much.

03:53 Yeah, give her another round of applause.

03:55 [applause]

03:59 This award feels very big and grown up,

04:03 and I feel a little bit out of my depth receiving it,

04:05 considering that I'm only 35, and I've only released four albums.

04:10 It feels like I only really kind of just arrived, that's at least how I feel.

04:13 But upon writing this speech and reflecting a little bit

04:16 and trying to work out what to say, I realise it's actually been 17 years

04:20 that I've been a signed artist, which is kind of crazy.

04:24 And sometimes I wonder within those 17 years if people think that I'm calculated,

04:28 you know, when I disappear for years on end,

04:31 that I'm elusive and that I believe that less is more,

04:33 you know, something like that.

04:35 But the real reason that I've only had four albums,

04:37 and I don't think that many people know this.

04:39 They might know that I have a child and that I'm a mum,

04:42 but my son is 11 years old, right?

04:45 So if you do the math, that means that right at the height of 21,

04:48 I could only call it pandemonium because that's how it felt to me.

04:51 Overnight it was like I was famous.

04:53 It was the strangest, most surreal experience of my life still to this day.

04:56 I felt pregnant, and to many that would be,

05:00 and it was considered career suicide.

05:02 However, always one to go against the grain.

05:06 It was there and then that I chose to reject the scarcity of success

05:10 and the idea that you have to be constantly relevant to be successful,

05:13 and that perhaps, just maybe, I could be a hit both on and off the stage,

05:18 and you'll never guess what, I fucking got away with it.

05:21 (laughter)

05:23 (applause)

05:27 And why?

05:29 Because of all the sacrifices that the women before me have made,

05:32 it's because of them that I have every right to be the boss at work

05:36 and the boss at home, so thank you.

05:39 (applause)

05:44 Now when it comes to how I might be here accepting this award,

05:47 I'm not particularly sure, I'm not entirely sure,

05:49 but I can't help but think,

05:51 and that's not me being self-deprecating or humble or anything,

05:54 I was genuinely quite shocked.

05:56 But I can't help but think because it's much to do with my character

05:59 as it does my talent.

06:01 Talent can't dictate how you move.

06:04 Talent can't decide how you treat people.

06:07 It doesn't have a moral compass. Talent cannot read a room.

06:11 You can be the most talented person on the planet and only make bad decisions,

06:14 and to be honest, talent is kind of random, you know?

06:17 It's like, you might have it, but what does it mean?

06:19 But character, well, character is observed, it is witnessed,

06:24 character is taught, and it's passed down.

06:26 My character, as I'm sure you can tell just from the last minute I've been on stage,

06:29 has a roughness and a toughness to it.

06:33 I trust no one, and yet I'm completely fearless,

06:36 and I 100% got it from the women who raised me.

06:39 As a child, you're a sponge, you learn what you're shown.

06:42 My mother, my aunties, my grandmothers,

06:46 they were all strong, loud, boisterous, loyal, and cutthroat women, like me.

06:53 Always ready to jump for you kind of women, chaotic but focused,

06:56 soft in the middle but solid on the outside, like me.

07:00 They were a force to be reckoned with and quite frankly, terrifying at times, like me.

07:06 But that was because they had to be.

07:08 They had to learn the hard way what it is to be a woman,

07:10 and so in turn, they hardened.

07:12 Their character was their armor, but thanks to them, my character is my skin.

07:17 As a child, you're a sponge, you learn what you're shown.

07:20 My teachers, my school teachers.

07:23 My God, I had some of the most amazing teachers who gave me my love of literature,

07:27 of words, of poems, and rhymes, stories, and writing.

07:30 They were far too qualified to be teaching at a school like mine.

07:33 I could easily have made double the money at private schools,

07:36 but they stayed with us to give us a chance, and that taught me loyalty.

07:41 These are my leaders, and I'm eternally grateful to them all for making me who I am today.

07:46 So thank you, guys. None of them are here, they're all in England.

07:50 All right, so my manager, right, this is where the lines get a bit blurry for me.

07:53 I don't--am I allowed to talk about a man, like, having a really positive impact on me?

07:59 At an event for women?

08:03 You never know.

08:04 You know what, just to be safe, let me thank his mum first, Jill Dickens.

08:08 [laughter]

08:12 Thank you for giving birth to Jonathan. Woo!

08:17 Jonathan, I'm not going to cry, you might, though.

08:20 And this might be controversial in the room, because I'm about to big this man the fuck up, okay?

08:25 I've never done it before in my life, really. He thinks I hate him.

08:30 No one has ever believed in me the way that you have.

08:34 From day one, when I was a teenager--or maybe I might get a bit emotional, actually--

08:38 you had me in every room and every meeting.

08:41 If I didn't understand something, you'd go over and over it with me,

08:44 like a kid doing maths in the kitchen with an irritated parent.

08:48 You've never tried to change me, never told me to pipe down or be small,

08:52 never told me to lose weight or gain weight, never told me to hurry up or rush an album,

08:57 and you were the happiest for me when I told you I was pregnant.

09:01 Not only have you helped me become a top-tier artist, Jonathan,

09:04 but you've helped me become a top-tier person, which in the end is all that actually matters.

09:10 I know. Give him a big clap.

09:13 [applause]

09:18 I'm going to tell him to fuck off later.

09:22 Jonathan is the example, but I actually have many men in my life who I love and who love me,

09:26 but in the spirit of this morning and in fear of bras being burned,

09:30 I'm going to thank their mothers and not them.

09:33 So along with Jill, I would like to thank Minerva Martin,

09:37 Rose McConnachie and Rosalind Russell, to name a few.

09:40 Thank you to them for raising good men who do not think that a woman's power diminishes their own.

09:46 That's a fucking vibe.

09:48 [applause]

09:55 It's nearly over, thank goodness.

09:58 And so I stand here today, Rose is crying her eyes out, my other manager,

10:02 "Are you all right? I love you too. I do, I do."

10:06 And so I stand here today as a testament to all of you,

10:10 all of the women before me and beside me who broke down doors and left them open for us.

10:16 I don't have stories of how my path to success was hard because it wasn't,

10:20 and I know that's rare and I know I'm lucky.

10:23 But that's because of you.

10:25 A lot of you had to claim your power and you've given me mine.

10:28 Thank you for leaving the key.

10:30 I accept this leadership award as an invitation to carry on being myself.

10:34 It's got to be quite far.

10:38 But also as a reminder that I'm following you.

10:41 I'm following you and that every single person has the right to be the boss at work and the boss at home.

10:47 And like I said at the top, even though it's morning, it only feels right to say goodnight.

10:50 So thank you very much.

10:52 [applause]

10:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Adele Accepts The Sherry Lansing Leadership Award | Women in Entertainment 2023

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