Adele's vocal hemorrhage (internal bleeding of the vocal cords) happened in late 2011 during her Adele Live tour, which promoted her sophomore album, 21.
In May of 2011, Adele was diagnosed with a hemorrhage, then rested and recovered. Soon after, she was diagnosed with another hemorrhage. “My voice yet again went … it just switched off,” she wrote in a blog post on her official website.
In her blog, Adele explained that, in January, her voice became “weaker and weaker until it eventually ‘broke.’” Despite her best efforts, Adele was not able to regain her voice’s “complete strength.” In June of 2011, she was forced to cancel several United States tour dates, all of which she was able to reschedule. She later explained that:
| “ | I was in Minneapolis, which was about halfway through the tour. I made a Skype call in the morning on the day of the show, and during it, my voice suddenly switched off like a light! It was literally as if someone pulled a curtain over my throat. | ” |
She went on to perform in Denver, during which she felt “what I can only describe as something ripping in my throat.” Otolaryngologists later diagnosed Adele with a vocal hemorrhage, which she described as “like a black eye on the vocal cord.”
Eventually, she lost her voice entirely and was forced to undergo vocal cord surgery, following many rumors stating that she had developed throat cancer, which she denied. Dr. Steven Zeitels performed the surgery on her in Boston, Massachusetts. The surgery was successful, and Adele officially made her comeback at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012 with her performance of “Rolling in the Deep,” which received a standing ovation.