While pop star Adele seems to have found work-life balance, Penticton-based musician Amanda Bentley looks for the same while touring a concert focused on the music of the \u201cRolling in the Deep\u201d singer.<\/p>\n
Bentley\u2019s tribute show, launched last spring with pal Nicole Richard co-producing, comes to Surrey\u2019s Bell Performing Arts Centre on Thursday, Oct. 22 for \u201can evening of music, memories and friendship\u201d to start a tour of B.C. theatres.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe joke that we kind of organized it like a bake sale the first time out, and it has turned into a legitimate production company,\u201d Bentley said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work insanely hard on the promotion, marketing, the visuals, the production,\u201d she added. \u201cWhat we were able to do in such a short period of time, and the band that I was able to put together, one that you could see on any stage in the world, we\u2019re really proud of our little project.\u201d<\/p>\n
The vocalist created This is Adele<\/a> knowing that the Brit\u2019s music typically doesn\u2019t start a dance party. <\/p>\n \u201cAdele does have some fun, upbeat songs,\u201d Bentley insists, \u201cbut most of them are pretty somber, pretty emotional. So, our approach has really been about creating connection, sharing in the experience with the audience. I want people to feel something. But between songs is a chance to be really funny because Adele is really funny, right? We have people laughing, singing along, some are crying, laughing. It\u2019s every emotion under the sun at these shows.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a decade-plus since the hits of \u201cRumour Has It,\u201d \u201cSkyfall,\u201d \u201cSomeone Like You\u201d and \u201cHello,\u201d all of which Adele last performed live (publicly) nearly two years ago, in November 2024, ending a residency at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat she does is come out with a monster of an album, does a string of shows and then she disappears for, like, six or seven years at a time,\u201d Bentley explained. \u201cRight now she\u2019s retreated again and we don\u2019t know when she\u2019s going to pop her head back up. That\u2019s the work-life balance I think we\u2019d all strive for.\u201d<\/p>\n Blessed with a big voice, Bentley is also a bassist who has played professionally since age 12. She lived in Toronto and Vancouver for years, in pursuit of an original-music career, before moving back to the Okanagan with family.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you have kids,\u201d she said, \u201cit\u2019s a funny balance to work as a musician because it is a very unconventional career, so you start finding ways to earn a living but also have family balance.<\/p>\n \u201cI did start working corporate gigs, private gigs, doing cover songs, stuff people can dance to,\u201d Bentley added. \u201cThat allowed me to be home with my kids Monday to Friday. They never had to be put in a daycare, and then I would go work till 3 in the morning on the weekend. It\u2019s a tough grind sometimes, a life choice, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n With a backing band directed by her high school band teacher, Bentley encourages Adele fans to dress up for her tribute concerts. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not mandatory but, you know, if you\u2019ve got some fabulous dress clothes, an evening gown, you want to get a group of friends together and everybody pulls out their old prom dresses, we want to encourage to be absolutely fabulous, be ridiculous,\u201d the singer says.<\/p>\n \u201cHow often do we get an opportunity to really go out, dress to the nines, gather groups of people that we haven\u2019t seen in a long time? I\u2019m a working mom, so I know that with my friends, it\u2019s like, \u2018I love you. I just have no time to see you,\u2019 right? That\u2019s the connection we want for people, to create an evening that is more than just sitting in a seat at a theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n Tickets for the Surrey show are sold for $65 on bellperformingartscentre.com<\/a>, call 604-507-6355 or visit adeletribute.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n On tour this fall, This is Adele shows are Oct. 24 in Lake Country (Creekside Theatre), Nov. 2 in Revelstoke (Performing Arts Theatre), Nov. 15 in Chilliwack (Hub International Theatre) and Dec. 2 in Kamloops (Sagebrush Theatre), with more dates in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While pop star Adele seems to have found work-life balance, Penticton-based musician Amanda Bentley looks for the same…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":924564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-924563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}