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Adele Will Not Accept Your North American Beer; Twix, However, Is OK

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Adele has sold millions of albums worldwide while somehow managing to remain aloof from the flash and swagger of most other contemporary pop. She’s palatable to the masses, then, but not exactly in a down-market way. Which, as it turns out, also neatly describes the British singer-songwriter’s taste in beer.

The Smoking Gun got hold of Adele’s tour rider, and in addition to two bottles of the “very best quality red wine,” the retro-soul phenom demands 12 bottles of “best quality European lager beer. ie Becks, Stella Artois, Peroni etc.” As for what she doesn’t want, she warns, “North American beer is NOT acceptable.

Whether you love Adele and a cold Stella, or merely tolerate them, those choices are pretty fitting, right? It’s not as if Adele is asking for anything exotic here — or anything that’s so vastly superior to North American beer (none of her choices receives better than a mediocre “C” rating from the expert hop heads over at Beeradvocate). In fact, by disallowing any of North America’s many wonderful microbrews, she’s actually missing out some good stuff. And paying a premium over Budweiser, Miller, or Schlitz.

Think of Adele at this summer’s MTV Video Music Awards, where her performance of 21 cut “Someone Like You” spurred the song to the top of the Billboard singles chart. Like Beck’s or Stella, she was popular enough to be there in the first place. But on the other hand, she set herself apart — her unadorned rendition stood out in a show otherwise marked by a mad-hatted Katy Perry or madly dancing Chris Brown. Then again, a stuffy insistence on the superiority of traditional performance can result in missing out on a lot of fun: the party-friendly hits of VMA winner (and recent birthday girl) Britney Spears, for instance.

Moreover, when it comes to cigarettes, Adele — who was recently nominated for six Grammy awards — has no such bourgeois affectations. She insists on a pack of Marlboro Lights and a disposable lighter, according to the Smoking Gun — though it’s unclear whether that’s changed amid the “Rolling in the Deep” singer’s ongoing recovery from vocal chord surgery. Her tastes in sweets are similarly populist, including Twix, Milky Way, and Mars, among other acceptable candy bars. Just don’t try to buy her a Bud Light

Here’s what Dennis Hopper wants to know: Does Adele like Heineken?