Adam Lambert’s splashy re-entrance

As a very dedicated Glambert fan girl, you all knew I had some thoughts on the last couple of days, right? Of course! He’s got the entertainment world all a-twitter, and twittering, about Sunday night’s American Music Awards performance.

Being on the west coast, we saw the ‘edited’ version of his outrageous performance –  I’ve since seen the full version on You Tube. And it was outrageous. Over the top, self-indulgent, spontaneous (he admitted that certain ‘moves’ were not rehearsed), overtly sexual and most certainly too explicit for a non-cable network. However, I watched every performance and he is quite right when he points out the many OTHER explicit moves/lyrics which were NOT edited out that night by other artists (albeit more established ones) which were aired much earlier in the evening (if your concern is children) and which have received NO negative attention. Apparently the 1500 irate phone calls to ABC after wards were all about him. Nice work Adam 😉

Was the song sexual? Yes – he chose to debut his post American Idol live performances with one of the most risque songs on his new album.  There are 13 songs and not one of them is alike. They all carry a different energy as he will quickly point out and he is quite right about it. But he chose this one, I am sure, for what it allowed him to do – make quite a splash. And even without the ‘spontaneous’ moves, ABC was *still* billing it at every break for commercial as “the performance that you will be talking about tomorrow!” They were QUITE willing to promote the hell out of it. So really, don’t cry for ABC – I’ve read they get more negative phone calls from episodes of Dancing with the Stars! And before they lost their backbone, they DID allow Adam’s kiss with another man to air even after editing so I give them kudos for that. But then they let those 1500 phone calls scare them and they canceled scheduled appearance on Good Morning America.

So, on the day of his album’s official release, Adam had created a buzz. Not a good one, but a buzz. And he had made a statement by showing another side of him that was, of course, quite closeted on AI. I think he was making an even bigger statement too based on a post-AMA interview from MTV yesterday. He had many critics – before he had done ONE THING – accusing him of being afraid of being too ‘gay’ and of having ‘handlers’ from the American Idol production company suppressing his creative instincts. I am quite convinced that Sunday night was a huge “Oh really?” wait, who I am I kidding, it was a huge “Fuck you” to those early critics.

Wisely, CBS picked him up for this mornings Early Show and he did two songs for them. How’s this for brilliance…first he did What Do You Want From Me? and sang it with all the emotion you would expect after two days of backlash. It’s a song about vulnerability that let him show yet another side of himself and his vocals as well as straight out asking people – what do you want from me?! Then he did Music Again – one of my very favorites early on from the CD –  the chorus is  “You make me want to listen to music again” and it’s light and fun and makes you dance and takes you back to what it is all about – the MUSIC! Hundreds of fans had made their way to New York for the GMA performance and simply re-routed themselves to CBS instead and were there to support him. And that is a place he shines – his interaction with his fans.

Later tonight he will be on Letterman – the performance was taped Monday and he is doing What Do You Want From Me? again.

So now what will people have to say? I have no idea. My opinion of him has not changed one bit. In fact, I might admire him even more for the risks he has taken in creating this buzz! But then, I’ve always loved a rebel.  I think each one of these moves was somewhat planned – by HIM, not anyone else because his interviews have always revealed a man wise beyond his years which is a lot of his appeal for many of us. I think that while the AMA performance may have lost him fans, it will even out and that today and future appearances will gain him more and more. Shoot – if you count it by Twitter followers – he had over 200k before the AMA’s and he gained several thousand more that very night 😉

I think he will be just fine, and I know in the spirit of Thanksgiving that I am very thankful for American Idol launching his career. Because he HAS made me want to listen to music again (you think I would have even watched ANY of the AMA’s if not for him, no way!).