The Adele Effect:
I went to a Karaoke party recently in my neighborhood. My 'hood is filled with young professionals who like to party.
As such, the bar (which is awesome called Silver Clouds in SF) was jam packed with mostly young men and women.
The women were pretty partiers mostly.
The dudes....they were often big, in shape dudes' dudes. Probably work out, play sports, etc.
Often that night they were seen chest bumping each other, a group of them were taking turns punching a hanging speed bag to see who could score the most and yelping their barbaric yelp.
The songs being chosen were mostly the kind of stuff you'd expect at a Karaoke club.
However, at one point a woman got on stage and had chosen "Someone Like You" by Adele.
I had never heard the song before and something magically unexpected happened.
Nearly EVERY person, young, old, in/out of shape, man and woman started soulfully belting out this tune by Adele. It was almost inexplicable.
The unbelievable thing was NOBODY was looking at the screen for the words, they ALL knew them. I was shocked.
Earlier in the evening I met and our hoops group adopted a lesbian couple that had recently gotten married they were BELTING the song out along with everyone else as I sat next to them.
They were the ones that told me it was Adele. Several of my hoops buddies were singing their hearts song along with Adele.
These two young men (one black, one white) both over 6 feet, in incredible shape with a group of women were near us too going all America's Got Talent or The Voice.
I pulled the black dude aside and told him that he totally owned the song.
He said to me "I f**cking LOVE that song!!!" and we became friends for the rest of the evening, dancing together at one point to Love Shack.
I've never seen anything like it. And I learned today (but will share it tomorrow) more about what the song is about and it makes the whole experience even MORE unbelievable.
One of my peak Karaoke experiences of all time came from the unexpected connective beauty of a song that transcends race, gender, sexuality, age and apparently alcohol intake.
Thank you Adele....
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