Determined not to repeat her much-maligned performance at the 2016 Grammys, Adele cut short her tribute to the late George Michael on this year’s ceremony and started over.
About a minute into her pitch-challenged rendition of Michael’s “Fast Love,” Adele stopped singing and blurted an f-bomb that was bleeped on the live TV broadcast.
“I can’t do again like last year,” she said. “I’m sorry for swearing and I’m sorry for starting again. Can we please start again?”
Encouraged by the cheering crowd, she did, and the vocals sounded more solidly on-key in the second version.
At last year’s show, discordant sounds interrupted Adele’s performance of “All I Ask,” and she later tweeted that microphones had fallen onto the strings of the accompanying piano.
“It made it sound out of tune,” she tweeted. “S— happens.”
Also plagued by gremlins was Metallica, victims of a faulty mike during their duet with Lady Gaga.
As frontman James Hetfield sang at the start of the performance, no audio was coming from his microphone.
It didn’t stop the high-octane show, which featured heavy metal and flames shooting up from the stage.
Hetfield eventually moved over and shared Lady Gaga’s microphone until the issue was fixed. At the end of the performance, Hetfield tossed his guitar offstage.
