Adele at the Brits: Remembering her astonishing ‘Someone Like You’ performance at the 2011 Brit Awards

As Adele prepares to perform at the 2022 Brits, we look back at her staggering solo debut at the awards show in 2011.

Adele will take to the stage at the 2022 Brit Awards tonight (Tuesday 8 February), where she’ll perform her hit single “Easy On Me”.

The song is nominated for Best British Song at this year’s ceremony – just one of four nominations for the singer. Her comeback record 30 is a strong contender to win Best British Album.

Adele has a long history at the Brits. She first appeared at the ceremony all the way back in 2008, making a guest appearance with Mark Ronson to cover Coldplay’s “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face” – part of a medley which also saw Amy Winehouse sing “Valerie”.

That same year, Adele became the inaugural winner of the Brits’ Critic’s Choice Award, which has since been renamed the Rising Star Award. Subsequent winners have included Florence and the Machine and Sam Fender. This year the award went to 22-year-old singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone.

The performance many fans have been reminiscing about in the lead-up to tonight’s Brits is her 2011 solo debut, when she sang a scintillating version of “Someone Like You”.

Backed by just a piano, her emotional performance received a standing ovation at the O2 Arena. Within days, the video had received millions of views on YouTube. The performance catapulted “Someone Like You” 46 spots up the UK charts to number one, making Adele the first artist since The Beatles to have two top-five singles and two Top5 albums at the same time.

Follow the Brit Awards 2022 liveblog here.