Watch Adele Perform ‘When We Were Young’ Inside Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room

Adele’s 2016 Brit Awards performance of “When We Were Young” remains one of the most visually distinctive moments associated with the song. Filmed inside Yayoi Kusama’s celebrated Infinity Mirrored Room installation at The Broad in Los Angeles, the performance brought together music, memory and contemporary art in a setting designed to create the illusion of endless space.

The performance has drawn renewed attention following the death of acclaimed Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who died earlier this month at the age of 97 in a Tokyo hospital, according to a statement published on her official website.

Kusama was one of the most influential and recognisable contemporary artists of her generation. Her work crossed multiple disciplines, including painting, sculpture, installation, performance, fiction and poetry. Even in her later years, she continued creating art and exploring ideas surrounding infinity, human connection, love and the eternal soul.

For Adele, Kusama’s installation became more than a visually striking backdrop. The singer previously explained that spending time inside the mirrored room gave her an unusual opportunity to reflect on herself and the experiences that inspired “When We Were Young.”

Adele’s 2016 performance inside an infinite world

In 2016, Adele spent approximately an hour inside Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, an installation by Kusama housed at The Broad in Los Angeles.

The room creates a powerful optical illusion through mirrors and hundreds of small lights. Reflections multiply across the space, making the boundaries of the room appear to disappear. The result is an environment that can feel vast, even though visitors are standing inside a carefully constructed physical installation.

Adele explored the room while preparing the visual component connected to her performance of “When We Were Young.”

The resulting footage was used for her memorable appearance at the 2016 Brit Awards, where the singer performed the nostalgic ballad in an environment surrounded by reflections and points of light.

The visual setting was particularly suited to the emotional tone of the song.

“When We Were Young” explores memory, the passage of time and the complicated emotions that can surface when people look back at earlier periods of their lives. Kusama’s mirrored environment created a visual metaphor for those ideas, surrounding Adele with countless reflections and giving the performance a dreamlike sense of memory stretching beyond the present moment.

Adele on seeing herself from different angles

Adele explained in 2016 that the experience of standing inside Kusama’s installation allowed her to think about herself in a different way.

For her, the mirrored environment offered the chance to see multiple versions of herself simultaneously.

She said the experience was particularly connected to the meaning behind “When We Were Young,” a song she associated with her own journey from childhood to adulthood.

Adele explained that spending time in the installation revealed aspects of herself that she had not previously noticed.

That personal connection is one reason the performance continues to stand out years later.

The installation was not simply chosen because it looked visually impressive on camera. The setting also reflected the emotional themes of the song: memory, self-reflection, nostalgia and the passage of time.

For an artist whose music often explores intensely personal emotions, Kusama’s work provided an unusual visual language for expressing those ideas.

What is Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room?

Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away is among the Japanese artist’s most recognisable installations.

Created in 2013, the work later became part of exhibitions and museum experiences that introduced Kusama’s immersive artistic world to a massive international audience.

The installation uses mirrors, lights and darkness to create the impression of an endless universe.

A visitor standing inside the room can see reflections extending in multiple directions. The effect challenges the normal perception of physical space and can create the sensation of standing within an environment without visible boundaries.

Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms have become some of the most photographed and widely discussed contemporary art installations in the world.

However, behind their visually spectacular appearance is a body of work that repeatedly examined much larger ideas.

Kusama explored infinity, repetition, individual existence, the universe and the relationship between human beings and the wider world.

Her installations encouraged viewers to physically enter the artwork rather than simply observe it from a distance.

That immersive quality made the room a particularly effective setting for Adele’s performance.

Kusama’s ideas about infinity and human connection

When the installation arrived at The Broad, Kusama discussed some of the philosophical ideas behind her art.

She spoke about concepts including the eternal universe, love for humanity and a longing for peace.

Her work often considered the relationship between individual people and something much larger than themselves.

The mirrored rooms are an especially clear expression of that idea.

A single person enters the space, but their image immediately becomes multiplied. The individual reflection becomes part of a seemingly endless visual environment.

The visitor remains physically alone inside the room while simultaneously seeing countless versions of themselves.

Kusama described her art as connected to ideas about the eternity of relationships and the ways human beings experience the world around them.

This makes Adele’s use of the installation particularly meaningful in retrospect.

“When We Were Young” is also concerned with relationships and memory. It reflects on moments that have passed and the people who shape different stages of life.

The combination of the song and the artwork therefore created a connection between two very different artistic mediums.

Why Adele’s performance worked so well

The success of the 2016 performance was not simply about placing a famous singer inside a famous art installation.

The imagery worked because the themes of the song and the visual environment shared an emotional connection.

Memory

“When We Were Young” is rooted in nostalgia.

The song looks back toward the past while remaining firmly aware that time continues to move forward. Kusama’s mirrored room, meanwhile, creates a disorienting environment in which it becomes difficult to focus on a single image.

The viewer sees repeated versions of the present, creating an atmosphere that can feel both immediate and dreamlike.

Self-reflection

The installation literally surrounds visitors with reflections of themselves.

Adele previously connected that experience to seeing different aspects of her own life and identity.

For a song inspired by personal memories and life experiences, that visual idea became especially powerful.

Infinity

The room creates the illusion of endless space.

That visual sense of infinity adds another dimension to a song about remembering moments that have disappeared but continue to exist emotionally.

The physical event may belong to the past, but the memory can remain alive.

Intimacy

Despite the illusion of endless space, the installation is experienced individually and at close range.

That sense of intimacy suited Adele’s vocal style.

Her performance did not rely on elaborate choreography or a large stage spectacle. Instead, the visual concept placed the focus on her voice, expression and the emotional meaning of the song.

Yayoi Kusama’s extraordinary artistic legacy

Kusama’s career extended across decades and multiple artistic disciplines.

Her creative work included visual art, sculpture, installations, performance, writing and poetry.

According to the statement published on her official website following her death, Kusama continued painting until her final days and remained committed to artistic creation throughout her life.

The statement described her as a pioneering avant-garde artist whose work achieved international recognition while continuing to evolve over time.

Kusama’s influence extended far beyond the traditional art world.

Her installations became major cultural events, attracting audiences who might not otherwise regularly visit contemporary art exhibitions. Her distinctive visual style also influenced fashion, design, popular culture and digital media.

The popularity of the Infinity Mirror Rooms helped introduce complex artistic concepts to a wider audience through direct physical experience.

Visitors did not simply look at the work. They entered it.

Adele and Kusama: Two artists exploring personal experience

Adele and Kusama worked in very different creative fields, but the connection between their work in this performance was remarkably natural.

Both artists have built careers around turning deeply personal ideas into experiences that connect with large audiences.

Adele’s music often draws from memory, relationships, heartbreak and personal transformation.

Kusama’s work explored identity, repetition, obsession, infinity and the individual’s place within a larger universe.

The 2016 performance brought those artistic approaches together.

Adele’s song provided the emotional narrative. Kusama’s installation provided the visual universe.

The result was a performance that felt more like a meeting between music and contemporary art than a conventional awards-show production.

The lasting impact of the ‘When We Were Young’ performance

More than a decade later, Adele’s use of Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room continues to stand out because of its simplicity and artistic clarity.

The performance did not need a large cast or complex stage machinery.

Instead, it relied on three central elements:

• Adele’s voice
• The emotional power of “When We Were Young”
• Kusama’s immersive artistic environment

That combination allowed the song to take on an additional visual dimension.

The mirrored reflections reinforced the themes of nostalgia and self-discovery while the endless lights created an almost cosmic atmosphere.

For viewers revisiting the performance today, it also serves as a reminder of Kusama’s remarkable influence on contemporary visual culture.

Her work has appeared in museums and galleries around the world, but it has also found a place in music, fashion, film and popular culture.

The Adele performance remains one of the most memorable examples of a major musician incorporating Kusama’s artistic vision into a musical moment.

A performance shaped by memory and infinity

Adele’s “When We Were Young” performance inside Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room was memorable because it brought two artistic languages together without allowing either to overshadow the other.

The song remained the emotional centre of the performance.

At the same time, Kusama’s mirrors transformed the visual experience into something that reflected the song’s central ideas about memory, identity and time.

Adele once described seeing things about herself inside the room that she had not previously noticed.

That observation now feels central to understanding why the collaboration between the song and the installation worked so effectively.

Kusama’s art asked viewers to look beyond the limits of ordinary space.

Adele’s song asked listeners to look back at the lives they had lived.

Together, they created a performance that existed somewhere between reflection and infinity.