Helen Mirren Recalls First Hearing Adele Sing: ‘This Shiver Went Down My Back’

Helen Mirren vividly remembers the first time she heard Adele sing.

On Thursday, Mirren (78) presented Adele (35) with the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at The Hollywood ReporterAnnual Women in Entertainment Gala in Los Angeles. As Mirren spoke about Adele’s stardom at the event, she compared her first time hearing the six-time Grammy winner to the first time she heard music legends like Edith Piaf and Elvis Presley.

“You know, there are moments in life that you never forget, like when you hear an artist and a song for the first time that’s really different from anything that’s come before and that really speaks to you,” Mirren said. “And I’ll never forget the first time I had that experience was when I heard Edith Piaf sing, and then when I heard Elvis Presley sing, and I had the exact same reaction decades later. I think it was around 2008, maybe, when I heard Adele sing ‘Hometown Glory,’ this shiver went down my spine.”

“That chill you only get a few times in your life when you realize you’re listening to a brilliant, game-changing artist,” she said of the moment. “And I thought, wow, a goddess walks among us.”

Mirren added that she was just as surprised when she first heard Adele speak in a radio interview.

Adele says becoming a mum at the height of fame was considered ‘career suicide’ but ‘I got away with it’

Helen Mirren and Adele December 7, 2023

Matt Winkelmeyer/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, not only is she a goddess, she’s a regular Londoner just like me,'” she said. “I mean, what an extraordinary rare combination to be one of us, but also to have a talent and a tenor that can take us, transport us to something truly unearthly.”

Adele’s latest accolade “recognizes pioneers and philanthropists in entertainment and media,” according to THR. When the “Easy on Me” singer was announced as the winner of the award in November, the media noted that past winners were Charlize Theron, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey, Barbra Streisand and Viola Davis.

Adele speaks as Helen Mirren looks on December 7, 2023.

Matt Winkelmeyer/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“I recently read in an interview where Adele was called ‘the voice of her generation’ and I do not agree with that at all,” added Mirren during her speech. “Her voice is one for the ages. It’s truly timeless.”

Adele thanks Rich Paul’s late mother for raising a man who doesn’t think ‘female power diminishes’ his own

Adele and Helen Mirren (right) on December 7, 2023.

Matt Winkelmeyer/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images

Mirren cited Adele’s talent as a singer-songwriter and her work as a philanthropist while talking to PEOPLE about why the “Rolling in the Deep” singer is the rightful winner of this year’s award.

“Her incredible talent, not only as a voice, as a singer, as a songwriter, the beautiful music she creates, as well as her philanthropy is what we recognize today,” she says. “The quiet philanthropy that she does without song and dance, but she’s an incredibly generous and philanthropic person, so that’s what we’re celebrating.”

Also at Thursday’s event was Kerry Washington, who received the Equity in Entertainment Award he presented to her Desire star Ariana DeBose.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education