Adele announces 2016 live concert tour, first in four years

Adele, whose latest album "25" has smashed sales records in its first week of release, announced on Thursday she would begin a 15-week concert tour of Britain, Ireland and continental Europe in February.

Fans applauded the tour, Adele's first in four years, on Twitter while media sites noted that the 27-year-old singer appeared to have overcome her self-professed fear of performing before large crowds.

Adele, announcing the tour in a brief video on her website, said the reports of her fear of performing had been exaggerated.

"Hello it's me," she says in the clip, standing in front of a map of Europe and the British Isles.

"I have been bluffing this whole time and I'm so relieved to finally tell you I am of course coming on tour and I can't wait to see all of you there."

The tour will open on Feb. 29 at the SSE Arena in Belfast and will end at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium, a notice sent to subscribers to her website said.

Other concerts will be elsewhere in Britain and in Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and France, the notice said.

Fans were jubilant, with one tweet saying: "Omg. Next year Adele is gonna sing in Verona on 28-29 May! Can you imagine all the Arena singing #HELLO?! Italia's waiting for the queen!"

Adele broke the single-week U.S. album sales record in just four days with "25", Nielsen Music said on Tuesday, with sales at 2,430,000 since its release on Friday.