Calling Adele

(Piece written Feb 2016)

The celebrity crowd is starting to notice our province.
Robert Redford, eternal hunk even at near-80, called us a "special place" .
Some lesser known celeb recently tweeted enunciation hints on the eternal pronunciation mess-up of "Newfoundland".

Criss-crossing the island recently, singer and songwriter Adele kept me company for most of the trip. As I listened to her newest CD from Clarenville to Corner Brook & back (yes, tad bit obsessed), I am convinced some of her lyrics were inspired by our precious place here on the planet.

It’s not hard to believe adorable Adele was talking about our awesome culture, language and Newfoundland jig dance when she sings:

"Everybody loves the things you do
From the way you talk
To the way you move..."

From the same song "When we were Young", I imagine these words were written after she was gobsmacked by our award-winning tourism commercials:

"You look like a movie
You sound like a song ...
Everybody here is watching you
'Cause you feel like home
You're like a dream come true …""

Adele was surely lamenting the loss of our cultural heritage when she penned the following:

"Let me photograph you in this light
In case it is the last time
That we might be exactly like we were…"

Of course, her top single "Hello" was her special way of saying hi to us here in Terra Neuve
"Hello from the other side”.  How obvious is that given the star lives in London? From the other side - of the Atlantic Ocean - is what she meant, right?

Hmmm…. we just might have to correct her gently on that one" just the same. "It's not Hello" girlfriend! It's "Howse ya getting on over there...? "

She's clearly up to speed on some of our provincial issues, like the warnings to conserve electricity, when she pleads "Don't let the lights go out..."

Adele knows all about our Cod moratorium woes as well. She pays tribute to it with these lyrics:

"They say that time's supposed to heal, yeah
But I ain't done much healing …"

In fact, I'm so convinced Adele Adkins was so moved by this ecological and cultural crime, she named her album "25" as a special way to commemorate the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Cod Moratorium.

Come to think of it, I think Adele has Newfoundland roots. Just listen to these lyrics she belts out on one of her tracks. "It's in my roots! It's in my veins! and in my blood!" Now, doesn't that sound like a home-sick Newfoundlander after being away for too long?

Senior heart-trob Redford apparently plans to come to NL and that’s grand; but for me, I’m Cod-damned stoked for when Adele visits our fair province. Listen, that gal doesn't just have big vocals, she has super powers. In her last album "21" she revealed how she "set fire to the rain".

Jaysus, think about all the fun she would have sitting fire to the rain, drizzle & fog we often get blessed with in "marvelous terrible place".

I also think Adele was thinking about Newfoundland and Labrador when she named one of her tunes "Sweetest Devotion". But if we want to keep her devoted to this land of fish, we’ll have to lure her here during the spring and summer. We can't chance another winter Dark NL while she's here - even though she wails in one song that "All of my life, I have been frozen". No, this London lass gives us fair warning about her fickle affection when she sings

"I can’t love you in the dark...."

Imagine Adele in our next tourism videos - what a marketing score that would be!? Then we could getting bragging rights to the "Colour Adele" and add it to the next edition of our unique dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador language.

Funny, I called her a thousand times on that idea for our province, but she just never seems to be home! Just when you have a superstar idea, no one seems to pick up. Hello! What's with that?

|KP