Kendrick Lamar was a tough act to follow at tonight's Grammys, and Adele's challenge in doing so wasn't made any easier by sound problems that plagued her performance. She performed a delicate, intimate rendition of "All I Ask," from her 2015 album 25, while fighting against issues with the accompanying piano.

An attempt to explain the sound

At the very beginning of the song, before Adele begins to sing, you can hear a clanging sound over the piano. Adele later confirmed that this was caused by a mic falling into the piano and bouncing on the strings. Later, the sound dropped out, a sign that audio engineers were attempting to fix the problem, but the issue popped up again. Nevertheless, Adele recovered gracefully, and finished the song so that a distracted listener might not even have noticed.

The piano mics fell on to the piano strings, that's what the guitar sound was. It made it sound out of tune. Shit happens. X — Adele (@Adele) February 16, 2016

25 was Adele's first album in nearly five years. Almost immediately, the LP shattered several records, including the world record for single-week sales. Adele played a special pre-Grammys show in LA on Friday, where she performed 25's "I Miss You" live for the first time for the first time.

Talk about a professional. Way to go @Adele holding it down when a piano mic falls in the piano @TheGRAMMYs — BT (@BT) February 16, 2016

Update, 12:01AM ET: Updated to include Adele's confirmation of the issue.