The Meaning Behind Adele's Burning Chair in the 'Oh My God' Music Video

Adele's resurgence continues and every little detail from her new material is being dissected by fans. The latest item in the spotlight? A flaming chair.

Ahead of the launch of the music video from her song "Oh My God," taken from her album 30, a short snippet was released, but that was enough for fans to start their investigation and spotted Adele's latest use of symbolism.

The music video for "Oh My God" will drop online on Wednesday, January 12 at 9 a.m. PT and 12 p.m. ET. Adele has dropped more hints as to what the video will contain with further clips and pictures on her social media channels.

Burning chair in "Oh My God"

Nothing is added by accident when it comes to Adele's music videos as each one appears to tell a story that runs concurrently with her real life. An example of this would be the house that she moved into in "Hello" but then moved out of in her recent song "Easy On Me." The timing of each release mirrored the beginning and ending of her relationship with Simon Konecki.

This time Adele's passionate fans have noticed that the music video for "Oh My God" features a chair on fire, and many were quick to point out that it's a call back to her previous music videos.

Adele burning chair
Adele shared a picture of herself dressed in red from the music video "Oh My God" while a burning chair features in the short video preview. Twitter @adele

This reference harks back to Adele's early work, as many fans pointed out. Adele fan accounts @adkinsupremecy (Adkins is Adele's second name) and @adeledrinkswine compared side by side images of the new video with "Rolling In The Deep."

The account @adelified took it one step further and included images from the music videos for "Hometown Glory," "Rolling In The Deep" and "Easy On Me." They wrote alongside the images that "she's moving on" which is likely a reference to her ending marriage.

@Adkinsupremecy once again weighed in and this time found lyrics from an old song which could be referenced. The song "My Same" from Adele's first album 19 includes the lyrics "I like to sit on chairs and you prefer the floor."

Unbeknownst to casual Adele fans, the singer has built up a reputation for singing while sitting — something which enthralls some of her supporters.

Looking ahead to the latest music video, @adeleiconic_ included four images from previous videos where Adele sings while sitting and described the effect she has on the world. @PhotosofAdele echoed the sentiment whilst also previewing the new music video.

Adele's days of sitting and singing may be behind her though. By burning a chair, it implies she's moving on from the tropes that she's known for and is eager to try new things. On Twitter @Adeleography used a phrase coined by Taylor Swift to describe Adele's sentiment when burning the chair, "The old Adele can't come to the phone right now." The end of that sentence according to Swift's song "Look What You Made Me Do" would be "Because the old Adele is dead."

The new music video for Adele's song "Oh My God" will launch on Wednesday January 12 at 9 a.m. PT and 12 p.m. ET.

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

About the writer


Jamie Burton is a Newsweek Senior TV and Film Reporter (Interviews) based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more

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