Adele makes dreams come true as she pays surprise visit to seriously ill 12-year-old fan during break from Belfast tour dates

Adele surprised a young fan on Tuesday with a visit in between her Belfast tour dates.

12-year-old Rebecca Gibney's mother Tracy launched a campaign on social media, asking for a message from Adele for her seriously ill daughter.

But the Hello singer went one step further, surprising Tracy and Rebecca with a visit to her bedside.

See Adele updates as she visits seriously ill 12-year-old fan on break from Belfast tour

Hello, it's me! Adele surprised a young fan on Tuesday with a visit in between her Belfast tour dates

Adele superfan Rebecca has a range of serious health problems, including cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and is confined to bed.

Tracy was desperate to get a message from Adele for her daughter, creating an online petition, contacting the singer's management and tweeting requests for help ahead of the star's much anticipated Belfast dates this week.

On Tuesday morning Tracy received a call from Adele's team, informing her that the global superstar was keen to go one better than a message, and was already on her way round.  

The south London songstress called into the family home in Belfast's Short Strand on Tuesday afternoon to spend some quality time with Rebecca.

Surprise visit: 12-year-old Rebecca Gibney's mother Tracy launched a campaign on social media, asking for a message from Adele for her seriously ill daughter, who suffers from cerebral palsy and epilepsy

Tracy was overwhelmed by the gesture, sharing photos of the visit on her Twitter page and writing: 'I am so blessed and thankful that Adele came to my home today.'

Speaking to Belfast Live about the meeting, Tracy said: 'I am in shock, I got my baby's dream to come true. She was so nice, she could not have been nicer.

'Adele was sat beside her and she was talking to me and my other kid, she was so nice for wee Rebecca. I can not put it into words what it means.' 

Thank you: Tracy was overwhelmed by the gesture, sharing photos of the visit on her Twitter page and writing: 'I am so blessed and thankful that Adele came to my home today'

Adele played her second consecutive show to 11,000 fans in Belfast's on Tuesday night at the start of her world tour, which sees her play more than a 100 dates in nine months.

And amid sky-high anticipation for Adele's opening night of her European and North American tour on Monday, the singer triumphed, scoring a string of positive reviews from the critics.

Hitting the arena in her trademark down-to-earth-fashion with a cuppa in hand, critics in the sold-out crowd praised the Brit's flawless vocals and charming banter. 

Back on the road: Adele's opening night of her European and North American tour on Monday scored a string of positive reviews from the critics as she took to the stage in Belfast

Adrian Thrills for the Daily Mail wrote of the 27-year-old's 'commanding but reassuringly old-fashioned show that delighted her fans.'

In the four years since she had to cancel a string of concerts in 2011 due to throat problems, Thrills points out 'a lot has happened...She has settled down with long-term boyfriend Simon Konecki and become a mum. But any suspicions that domestic bliss has blunted her emotional edge were dispelled.'

'She remains a superb singer with a powerful voice that she uses to brilliant effect.'

See Adele updates as she scores triumphant reviews for her sold-out world tour in Belfast

Look who's back: The global superstar hit Belfast in her trademark down-to-earth-fashion, with a cuppa in hand

Alexis Petridis for the Guardian gave the singer's opening night four stars, writing:

'Her voice sounds fantastic. For all her tendency to the kind of expressive hand gestures popular with X-Factor contestants, she never over-sings in that melismatic look-at-me style that passes for talent on such TV shows.

She is hugely, earthily charming between songs – charming enough to get away with stuff that shades into end-of-the-pier entertainment, including singing Happy Birthday to one audience member and inviting another on stage to propose to their partner.'

The Sun's Ally Farrell commented that 'Adele's extended break from the stage has done her the world of good — as has that vocal surgery. This was as polished and perfect as pop concerts come.' 

Good to be back: The 27-year-old megastar hit the stage at Belfast's SSE Arena Belfast, her first run of shows since 2011, when she was forced to cancel the remainder of her tour due to throat problems

'After her recent hiccup at the Grammys, her vocals were flawless as she soared though her back catalogue including tracks One and Only, Rumour Has It and Water Under The Bridge.

Her cover of Bob Dylan's Make You Feel My Love sounded as good as it did when it transformed her career eight years ago.'

Mark Savage for the BBC pointed out that 'in the tour programme, Adele said the production was guided by two big questions: 'How do I make an arena show feel intimate?' and 'how do I put my stamp on a big industrial room?'

The answer turned out to be deceptively simple: Play the hits and have a chinwag.

No doubt the show will develop over the coming months - there are more than 100 dates pencilled into Adele's diary before November - but the pacing, flow and sound design have already been meticulously and thoughtfully honed.' 

It wasn't rave reviews across the board though, as Nick Hasted for the Independent gave the concert a three star review.

'How did it come to this?' he wrote. 'Adele Adkins in 2015 has become a symbol of safety; a blockbuster brand...The four-year wait for 25, the multiple studios and high-end producers it took to painstakingly chisel it together, suggest the quiet paralysis of a monolithic career.' 

The Proposal: There was a romantic atmosphere in the air as she brought one woman up on stage to ask her boyfriend to marry her in front of the audience

Adele's tour set appeared to be similar to the stage production she had for her short sold-out run in the Big Apple last year for TV special Adele Live In New York City with huge cubes broadcasting her face to the audience as she performed her emotion-ladden tracks.

She ensured no one went home disappointed by playing songs from her 2008 breakthrough album 19, her international smash hit 21 from 2011 and last year's record breaking 25. 

And there was a romantic atmosphere in the air as she brought one woman up on stage to propose to her boyfriend in front of the audience.

Taking a chance: Being a Leap Year, a female fan named Jenny asked her partner, Neil, to be her husband, with Adele encouraging the whole arena to chant: 'Come on Neil'

Being a Leap Year, a female fan named Jenny asked her partner, Neil, to marry her, with Adele encouraging the whole arena to chant: 'Come on Neil.'

After the bemused Neil said yes, the crowd went wild, with the superstar invited herself to their wedding. 

Showing off her slimmer figure, the blonde performer wore a sequinned black gown custom-made by Burberry for the trek.

She's sure to get an invite! After the bemused Neil said yes, the crowd went wild, with the superstar invited herself to their wedding

Speaking to the audience, the outspoken star revealed she feared her new world tour was doomed after waking up with a deep voice. 

She said: 'I woke up sounding like Arnie. My voice was so deep because I slept with the air con on my hotel room.

'My kid was being a nightmare, and then there was a spillage at Gatwick and I thought my boyfriend wasn't gonna get here - I thought the whole tour was doomed.

'I've been s**ting myself - I had severe bowel movements. But I've had an Imodium.'  

Adele's tour set appeared to be similar to the stage production she had for her short sold-out run in the Big Apple last year for TV special Adele Live In New York City with huge cubes broadcasting her face to the audience as she performed her emotion-ladden tracks

Woman of the moment: Adele showed off her slimmed down figure in a stunning sequinned black Burberry gown as she performed emotional-laden hit and hit 

Fans had braved the freezing rain in the Northern Irish capital hours before the doors to the arena opened, but nothing appeared to dampen the devotees' spirits, with many excitedly clasping their tickets to the show and beaming as they queued up.

It was no wonder they were so happy to be holding their entries to the show - the tour sold out in a matter of minutes when it went on sale last year.

Fans scrambled to snap up seats to the 36 shows in seconds, forcing organisers to add a series of new concerts across Europe in December. 

Tickets were being sold for almost £2,000 - despite the singer introducing stringent measures to tackle secondary ticket sales.

Emotional: The star performed hit after hit in front of huge video screens as thousands of fans looked on adoringly

Not one to disappoint: Rather than perform new songs, Adele powered through tracks from all three of her smash hit albums, 19, 21 and 25

Huge draw: The tour comes on the back of her record-breaking album 25, which set new chart records in the UK and US when it was released last Autumn

The original buyer's name is printed on the ticket and fans have been warned that identification will be required upon entry.

Speaking earlier last month, the singer's manager Jonathan Dickins insisted this and other steps were being taken to try and clamp down on touts looking to cash-in on Adele's huge popularity.

He said: 'This is a show for fans who've waited years for Adele to perform.

'Everyone working on it just wants the best outcome for those fans. 

When her US shows went up for grabs weeks later, an unprecedented surge of demand saw more than ten million people try to get to see one of her North American concerts. And most of them ended up disappointed.

All the hits: Adele belted out some of her biggest songs including Rolling in the Deep, Someone Like You and Hello

Coming to a town near you: The star returns to Belfast on Tuesday night before moving on to Dublin and then the UK

She's in fashion: The star wore a custom-made gown by Christopher Bailey at Burberry, with the brand even tweeting its support ahead of her big show

Huge demand: After the initial European and Northern American dates went on sale in December, organisers were forced to add dozens more to deal with unprecedented demand

Huge success: The singer can rest easy after her first concert went down a storm with fans, who flocked to Twitter after the show to boast about having the times of their lives

All 750,000 tickets for the singer's 56-date tour sold out within an hour. In New York, 100,000 were gone in minutes as more than four million people vied for a seat at one of her Madison Square Garden shows. Almost immediately, hundreds of tickets initially sold for between £23 and £70 were being offered on resale websites for up to £6,000 a pair.

Ticketmaster, the US-based company handling the sales, admitted it had never experienced such a demand. 

President Jared Smith told staff a new record had been set, with more than ten million customers visiting the website after tickets went on sale on Thursday.

Angry fans claimed online that Ticketmaster's site had crashed, but Mr Smith denied this was the case. 

He said: 'Unfortunately, when there is such an exceptional artist with unprecedented demand against short supply, there are inevitably going to be disappointed fans.

'Thanks to [the staff's] efforts , we delivered a good experience for as many fans as possible.'

Tottenham-born Adele kicks off her first American tour in four years in Saint Paul, Minnesota, next July and ends it in November with two concerts in Mexico City. After shifting more than five million copies of her third album, called 25, Adele now also tops the charts for selling concert tickets in the US.

Her new record sparked 'Adelemania' in America – a video of its first single, Hello, has been watched more than 760million times on YouTube.

The album has set a new record for sales, and only a month after coming out is already 2015's bestseller.

Last week a TV performance, Adele Live In New York City, was viewed by 11.2 million people, making it NBC's most-watched concert special since the Cher Farewell Tour pulled in 16 million viewers in 2003.

It follows an already stellar week for the London girl made good - she picked up four awards at the BRITs and moved the crowd to tears with a rendition of her song When We Were You.  

Hello, it's us! Fans had braved the freezing rain in the Northern Irish capital hours before the doors to the arena opened, but nothing appeared to dampen the devotees' spirits, with many excitedly clasping their tickets to the show and beaming as they queued up

If your name's not down: Adele and her team even introduced stringent new rules, with the original buyer's name is printed on the ticket and fans have been warned that identification will be required upon entry