Could a rumoured new Adele album be the reason behind her turning down King Charles's coronation concert?

With the coronation of King Charles III fast approaching, the discussions about the King’s Coronation concert, taking place following the ascension of the new monarch, has died down a little. When we last checked in at Peopleworld, we discussed who could be performing and who had turned down their opportunity to perform. We know Lionel Richie will be performing, and we know that Ed Sheeran turned down the chance due to a tour.

But we also found out that Adele had also turned down the opportunity to perform at the royal engagement, but without an apparent reason for the ‘snub.’ There were no tour dates around that time and only recently has Adele revealed that she plans to continue her residency in Las Vegas with more dates - post the discussion of her not performing at the concert.

But with the rumour mill once again in force regarding Adele’s next steps, perhaps there is a little bit of smoke to the fire regarding what Adele has planned throughout May that has led her to excusing herself from the royal engagement?

The Sun have reported that Adele is set to release an album of new music “later this year,” produced by her fiance Rich Paul and, according to their source, is set to be a more joyous album celebrating the happiness that she has found through her new love. We had to check it wasn’t April 1 once again ourselves. 

But interestingly, some have suggested that the new album is set to be released “within weeks.” Within weeks could mean sometime around the month of May, should a promotional campaign take place this month, or if Adele is planning a surprise album drop, akin to Taylor Swift and Beyonce before her. 

Which would mean if Adele is on a promotional tour, she might be a little too busy to fully involve herself in such a mammoth event, even if it is the coronation of a new monarch. There is also a more noble option if this turns out to be the case also - the optics of performing at the event while promoting a new album.

Now - we know that the internet can be a fickle creature sometimes and for as many of us can distinguish between a promotional activity and a performance to honour the new king. But for some, those optics might instead have people thinking that she is only performing to “sell some albums” - which has been at times a fallback argument against artists involved in Live 8 and other fundraising events. A very cynical argument at that. 

But consider how savvy Adele and her team have been to not court controversy or bad faith from the general consensus of the public, perhaps someone might have suggested the potential “look” performing at a hallowed event while also touring a new album and decided that the negatives outweigh the positives - even if only by a small margin.Of course, this is all entirely speculation much like the news of Adele releasing a new album in the forthcoming weeks. But if it does eventuate that the album drops around the same time in the lead up to the coronation of King Charles III, then perhaps we’ve stumbled upon the reason for the right royal snob?