Could you recognize the real Adele among a group of her lookalikes?
For a BBC television special hosted by Graham Norton, Adele disguised herself as a woman named Jenny and attended an audition alongside Adele impersonators.
She introduced herself as a nanny who also worked as a tribute singer, and the other women accepted her as another applicant.
It was quite an unusual acting assignment: she had to convince people who studied her performances that she was someone else trying to imitate her.
The video below shows how much preparation that required. Her appearance was only part of the disguise.
The conversations before the audition reveal how carefully she maintained Jenny’s character among people who knew Adele’s public mannerisms particularly well.
How Adele Became Jenny
A prosthetic nose and chin changed the shape of her face.
Gloves concealed the tattoos on her hands, which could have revealed her identity even if the makeup remained convincing.
Her speaking voice changed, too. Jenny spoke slowly and gently, with a reserved manner that suited the fictional nanny.
Adele maintained that character as she waited with the other performers and discussed their work.
The setting helped. Everyone had arrived for an audition, so another woman with an Adele-inspired appearance belonged there.
Watch Adele Audition as Jenny
The Voice That Revealed Her Identity
Once onstage, Adele continued to act nervous and deliberately missed her entrance.
Then she sang “Make You Feel My Love.”
Recognition came at different moments across the group.
Some faces changed almost immediately; others showed uncertainty as the performance continued. The camera records that brief interval when what they heard conflicted with what they had been told.
Their familiarity with Adele’s singing mattered. These women had spent time learning her phrasing and studying her delivery for their own performances.
The disguise had persuaded them during conversation, but her singing provided a much more familiar point of comparison.
Katie Markham, one of the participants, later told ITV News that she recognized Adele from the first words. Her work as an Adele tribute performer had made the singer’s delivery immediately familiar.