ITV producers are facing a storm of abuse this morning after cutting Adele off in the middle of her acceptance speech for the Best Album Prize (the most prestigious gong of the evening) at last night’s Brit Awards.
Adele then flipped the bird at organisers after James Corden interrupted the singer from Tottenham. She was ushered off stage after only 49 seconds to make way for a lacklustre Blur medley.
This all came after Damon Albarn had rambled on for more than three minutes while collecting the band’s Outstanding Contribution to Music Award.
“I flipped the finger but it wasn’t to my fans,” said Adele. “I’m sorry if I offended anyone, it was the suits that offended me.”
“Can’t believe I was told to cut off the amazing Adele.” Tweeted Corden afterwards, before adding “I don’t understand what happened but I’m upset about it. Blur get to play for 11 minutes and she gets to say thank you once.”
Other celebrities also joined the debate with Lily Allen explaining that she’d rather listen to Adele than Blur and TV host Michael Underwood branding it “a terrible call”.
BBC sports presenter Dan Walker weighed in to the row, tweeting: “That was like interrupting the Queen’s Christmas address to put on a re-run of Eldorado.”
Adele had already bagged the Best Female Solo Artist Award earlier in the evening but was left upset by the way her moment was ruined.
Following the ceremony at London’s O2 area, the show’s organisers released a statement saying: “We regret this happened and we send our deepest apologies to Adele that her big moment was cut short due to the live show over running.”
An ITV spokesperson said: “Unfortunately the programme was over-running and we had to move on. We apologise to Adele.”
