'09
Adam Lambert is still out there, doing the publicity rounds like he’s still the story of the week. Sorry, Glambert, but the tabloid press has moved on to Tiger Woods. But still, Lambert still wants to tell us what he thinks about the aftermath to his boy-kissin’, crotch-grabbin‘, oral-sex-portrayin’, bird-flippin’ AMA performance that launched a million head-shakes. Personally, I did find the performance to be inappropriate for network television, and I think Lambert should have had a better explanation/apology than “they’re attacking me because I’m gay”. Of course, Lambert’s critics and the networks totally overstepped the appropriateness issue when they did, in fact, make it about Lambert’s gayness, revealing a sort of knee-jerk homophobia that was just unpleasant. Anyway, Lambert went on Ellen to talk in greater detail about his performance and how he thinks maybe it’s all about “the taste level”.
Among the people who weren’t thrilled with Adam’s Lambert’s controversial American Music Awards performance: His dad.
“My dad was like, ‘Maybe you should apologize, Adam,’” he says on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Tuesday “I was like, “You know, dad, I don’t feel like I did anything wrong. It just wasn’t maybe the right judgment call. It’s a taste thing more than an obscenity thing. I think it’s just a taste level.’”
During his performance, he smooched another guy, simulated oral sex and flipped off the audience, Looking back, “maybe that wasn’t the best first impression to make again,” Lambert, 27, says. “I mean, I had fun up there, I had a good time, my dancers had fun and the band had fun.”
Still, he said he felt people walked away from his performance “feeling disrespected. I would never intend to disrespect anybody. So that was not my intention.”
He said that “people aren’t used to seeing gay man portrayed that way on TV. The gay male image in the media tends to be very cliche and safe … I think I got up there and put more energy … I was putting on a character, putting on a persona, being this kind of rock star, kind of dangerous kind of guy. After seeing one of my favorites Lady Gaga tear it apart on stage … I don’t know something came over me, and I got caught up in the moment and maybe went a little too far.”
As for being canceled on ABC’s Good Morning America, Lambert says he isn’t upset at the network.
“I don’t blame them,” he says. “They gave me a great opportunity to close the AMAs, and I would never want to smack that gift horse in the mouth. I think they were taking a leap of faith having me do that, and it unfortunately didn’t work out as we all thought it would.”
[From Us Weekly]
In total, I think the entire incident was a wash. No one came out ahead, really, although I’m sure Adam Lambert enjoyed being the hot topic for a week, and maybe he got some added record sales with that. And what did the networks really learn? Don’t let Lambert perform live? That it’s okay to confuse systemic homophobia with simple appropriateness levels? Whatever.
In other Lambert news, he gave an interview to some Sirius show where he talked about how he used to be heavy. He told the interviewer: “I suffered from a little bit of an ugly duckling complex in my early twenties. When I was in high school I was 250 pounds and that creates some stuff…some body image stuff, some confidence issues and I got a lot of my confidence from the validation I got as a performer.” The Huffington Post’s headline on this story? “Adam Lambert, Former Fatty”. For goodness sake, ease up, HuffPo.
Here’s part of Adam’s interview at Sirius:
Adam Lambert performing on the CBS ‘Early Show’ on November 25, 2009. Credit: WENN.
Written by Kaiser
Posted in Adam Lambert, Gay Issues, Weight
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23 Responses to “Adam Lambert on AMAs: “I would never intend to disrespect anybody””
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He continues to disrespect me with that Covergirl foundation he puts on with a putty knife.
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I think you’re just plain backtracking (but not apologizing, which I don’t think he should) now. You should have shut up before you made this statement. How do you even think that simulating oral sex is not an attempt at offending someone?
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When he was in his early 20′s?! How old is he? I thought he was only in his early 20′s.
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“I would never intend to disrespect anybody.”
Really?
You flipped the country the finger, dude.
How was that misinterpreted by any sexual orientation?
Backlash = back-tracking.
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We both went to Mt carmel high school and graduated in 2000. He was definitely MUCH bigger than he is now, and had dirty blone hair. Something has done him good!
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In the end he has let himself down as a performer. There are so many other gay singers out there and they don’t feel the need to fondle people on prime time to show that they can sing – with the exception of Madonna who can’t really sing and lip synchs.
It also pisses me off when people like him try to make it a gay issue, that people are picking on him because he’s gay. Frankly, I don’t care if he’s gay but I’m sure as hell tired of gays having to feel the need to shove sex in everyone’s face like they’re supreme authorities. There ought to be such a thing as visual consent. He has to really make up his mind about his performance. Is it going to be a vehicle to promote homosexual sex or is it a vocal performance? If it’s the former, then I’m sure there are other places he can perform.
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“….an ugly duckling complex in my early twenties. When I was in high school I was 250….”
hun??? he was in highschool in his early 20′s???
anywho it’s really time to turn the page on this none event.
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Wow, in that photo he looks 40…all that foundation really ages him.
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He’s got awful skin. I don’t think wearing that much pancake makeup is going to help that get better.
But I guess if I was going to make all these appearances and I had all those pits and bumps, I’d do my best to hide them too. He does have nice eyeliner skills.
I can’t even imagine him as a blonde. He must need constant attention to keeping his brows that black.
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He’s 27, almost 28.
lol@ Firestarter. I was just wondering if I put a lit candle next to his face if it would melt.
That’s ok. If he hasn’t completely effed up his career he’ll get a better makeup stylist eventually. They all do. Hell, it just may be his new boyfriend.
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agreed. His make-up is horrid! Katie price would be proud and I bet Pam wants to get in on that putty action.
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~
He’s disrespecting everyone who can see through his fame-whore shenanigans.
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I thought his performance was a bit over the top… BUT I don’t think it was that bad! I know a lot of people are up in arms about it being during primetime- but I really doubt that most (young) kids that saw that would have really understood what they were looking at. I didn’t think the simulated oral sex was painfully obvious- it only happened for a second, and when he kissed the guy- I didn’t think it was that obvious that it was a guy (could have been a girl with short hair— as far as any young kids could tell anyways). And I didn’t actually see when he flipped off the audience (and yes, I watched the whole thing- twice). So maybe I was a naive kid, but I don’t think I would have been too phased by that performance…. it’s time to let this go!
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Adam Lambert really perplexes me. He went on American Idol, which is a family-friendly show. Then he jumps over to doing inappropriate performances on network TV? I understand not wanting to be pigeon-holed by American Idol, but since that is the format he used to get famous, I would expect at least a slower transition to adult themes.
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Aren’t there rehearsals for these things? Does the network really expect us to believe that they just let the performers get up there on live TV and not know what they’re doing? I call BS on that.
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As a former music industry executive, I have seen them come and go. I can say with confidence that he doesn’t have enough talent and is too new to the industry to pull off all these antics. The gay community is not in favor of someone who misrepresnts their sexuality the way he did on the AMAs. He will alienate mainstream America and the teenage girls who are the artist target audience. The gay community will not embrace him for the long haul because he doesn’t have real talent and isn’t good looking enough to be their sex symbol.
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After being semi-forced to watch last season’s AI, I am not surprised at all by his performance. Just based on his attitude on the show and his performances, I got the impression that his whole “selling point” is that he’s over-the-top and different.
He should have been smarter, though, than to alienate the targeted audience of the very network that gave him a big break. Honestly with all of the crap available to children these days via the internet and tv, this is so tame. I was more offended by the crappiness of his music than his performance. Why don’t we all just boycott trashy pop radio music? Then all of these narcisstic un-talented a-holes will go away.
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I am straight and I have seen performances by Janet Jackson that I thought was appalling. As for this guy that performance was disgusting and the sad part is he is actually crazy talented but not on that night he was just a hot train wreck.
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He is soooooo done. Maybe he can get a Cover Girl contract like Ellen. He clearly wears more make-up!
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How come that Madonna can simulate oral sex and she is a “legend” meanwhile Adam can’t do it? Is it because he is gay or what? If it were taste it should have applied to both. Fact is, if a woman does it, in this homophobic society, then it’s “all right”. If a gay man does it, it raises eyebrows. Granted, I find it to be pretty tasteless… but I also believe that Adam was attacked because he portrayed male-to-male oral sex. If it were hetero oral sex, or female-to-female it would have been “cool”.
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@ Stella
Children are much more sophisticated these days as information is quick and cheap. I do think that they have the presence of mind to know what was happening on that sage. 6 and older, anyway.
As regarding the disparity between AI nd his current image, entertainers will take damn near anything they possibily can to break into the industry. Anything. Fame is a monster, indeed. If they are legitimately talented (not really a requisite anymore), have basic business sense, decent management, and let’s not forget a little bit of luck, then they may actually be present for more than 15 minutes.
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Lambert is doing what other industry jokes do when they don’t have any talent: he’s making a circus of himself, hoping someone will buy a ticket to see the freak show and will forget about the horrible singing, like Madonna, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, Boy George, etc. Draw attention away from your non-talent, Adam… it should buy you at least a year of fame before people get tired of watching the bearded lady and actually want to hear some music, at which time they’ll seek out the main stage for the real talent.
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People who say stuff like “i didn’t mean to hurt/disrespect/etc you” generally sound like they are saying they have zero control of their own behaviour.
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