Mariah Carey. Jennifer Hudson. Stevie Wonder. It was all one big prelude leading up to this. Wednesday night, as promised, The Late Late Show’s James Corden presented his full Carpool Karaoke session with the one and only Adele.
Corden has explained that because he films the regular segment with just him, his guest, and mounted cameras in the car, viewers get to see these massive stars as they are without their entourages monitoring and controlling every moment.
“I think they find that very liberating and there’s a joy in that I’m very proud of,” the late-night host said. It is the same phenomenon that can make Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” so intimate and revealing.
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This was truer than ever in the case of Adele, who has rarely appeared in such an unencumbered environment onscreen. The pair belted out not only her recent megahit “Hello” but also old classics like “Someone Like You” and “Rolling in the Deep” with Corden doing an impressive performance on backup vocals. Just for fun, they threw in The Spice Girls’ “Wannabe.” They even traded beauty tips.
And then there was the moment when Corden convinced Adele to drop Nicki Minaj’s rhymes from Kanye West’s “Monster.”
Seriously, just try not to smile while you watch this.
