Hey everyone!! I've been away for awhile, but I would like to take some time to share a few things with everyone. About everything and anything that's recently happened. Here I go:
1) I met
Jasmine and
Star today, and they're such nice people! (They're lurkers on Atop
) So happy to be going to the NYE show with them, along with my friends. I know Jasmine will read this, because she's just as addicted to Atop as I am.
They would also like to send their regards to
bamafan,
needacoke,
justwishin and
catzmadam (whom they met at Q+AL London back in 2012)
2) Woohoo!! I just ended my national exams today. They're the GCE "A" Levels, it's basically my ticket to (hopefully) a good university! I must say, I did feel pretty damn stressed out these past few weeks, it was a mad rush of studying (which I dislike) but I made it, and the feeling of liberation feels slightly foreign but exciting! No deadlines, no pressure, nothing! I'm a free man!! (Well, until I get enlisted into National Service next April)
3) I want to apologise on behalf of a few of my country's people, for the things that they have said. Yes, I'm talking about the petition. I first found out about the petition when I saw a fellow Singaporean glambert tweeting about it. I dug deeper and got a huge shock when I saw that the petition then already had over 3000 signatures. Let's not even talk about the comments, I could only get through a few of those hurtful words before I shut down that page. I was so concerned that something might happen if it hit the 20,000 goal. Would MediaCorp really take Adam off the show? I didn't think it was likely, but the fact that they were a bunch of bigots in Singapore who were so vocally attacking the LGBT community, as well as my Adam? I was utterly disturbed. And then I saw again, on Twitter, that someone had set a counter-petition against the earlier one, with a goal of 1000 (as compared to 20,000). I thought: meh, this petition isn't gonna do much, the other petition is already gathering so many conservatives to sign it. But I was so wrong.
Things went crazy from then on. It started with the two biggest newspapers/news sites reporting about the petition gaining traction. This enraged many people (I would say, mostly the younger Singaporeans). The first glimpse of relief came when I saw so many Singaporeans posting on Facebook posts, comments that dropping Adam because of his sexual orientation was irrational. A couple of online celebrities also posted about it. (Remember Gerald Koh? The DJ who asked Adam to help him in his proposal to his now-wife? He was pissed off, I can see why.) And then on Twitter, things started getting interesting. Because of the outreach of ST and Today, many people had seen the news about it. Some hadn't even heard that Adam was announced as the headliner, some hadn't even heard of Adam. But it was almost as if every single Singaporean teen was shocked at the petition. I did a search of "adam lambert petition" on Twitter and read tons of shocked reactions. And then, it was a perfect time to check up on the counter-petition, I thought. So I did. And it was surprisingly already reaching its goal of 1000 signatures. That's when I suppose the creator of the counter-petition decided to extend the goal. That's when I joined other glamberts in spreading THIS petition in support of Adam, and we got attention from not just glamberts overseas, but also from Singaporeans. We were kickstarting a mechanism, that just went on to propogate itself.
That's how Adam Lambert got trending 24 hours ago. I was on Twitter, and then out of the blue I noticed "Adam Lambert" as one of the trending topics in Singapore. I screenshot it and posted it on Twitter and here. And sure as hell, the conversation was spreading far and wide. Every Singaporean person on Twitter had probably heard about the news already. And then, our efforts to spread the counter-petition paid off. Not only did we spread it to many of these people on Twitter, other popular Singaporeans also shared it. For example, Nat Ho (remember him? He was the one who first hinted to us that Adam was coming to S'pore. He's also performing that day), and Gerald (understandably pissed off).
More people shared that petition with others, and those who saw it signed it, and shared it further. While all this was happening, the anti-Adam petition was still going on at a constant rate, but due to our efforts AS WELL AS the open-mindedness of the younger generation of Singaporeans, the counter-petition has successfully beaten the anti-Adam one by more than a thousand! (Also, thanks to all of you who signed it!)
And then, a whole other dimension was introduced when INTERNATIONAL media stepped in. It started with CNBC, then Telegraph and Dutch media, BBC, etc. Good news was, it was all in Adam's favour. Bad news was, it made Singapore look like a bigoted country. Thankfully, most of these sites mentioned both petitions, and gave only the link to the counter-petition. By now, it was big news in Singapore, satire blogsites slamming the anti-Adam petitioners. Then out came Warner Music & Adam, and their press statement. It definitely appeased some of the brouhaha, but the conversation is still running -- "Adam Lambert" is still trending.
(this tweet made me so sad)
That's where we're at now. Who knows what will happen tomorrow? Will the religious conservatives have something else up their sleeves? Will the Prime Minister of Singapore address the issue? I don't know. I didn't expect the the petition, yet it came. I didn't expect local media to cover it, yet they did. I didn't expect Singaporeans to react to it, yet they did. I didn't expect international press, yet there it was. I didn't expect Adam to address it, yet he did. Bottom line is, it's a world of surprises. No matter where this whole controversy leads to, I know one thing, and it's that it has given Adam's reputation more of a boost than anything else. The outpouring of support also informed the whole Singapore, "Hey you! Adam Lambert's performing on 31 Dec on your TV. There's this huge controversy about him doing this and that, and people are trying to take him down. Now you're interested in it, now you're gonna watch it on 31 Dec." This is simply publicity that no one expected, something not even Shosh could have planned. The only way I can describe it is, it just... happened.
And here's the part that I want to apologise to all of you about. You guys have read all these mean comments and accusations directed at our favourite man. It shouldn't ever have to be this way. All the negativity is accumulated in the comment box on the petition site, and no one should be hurt by reading all these. But most of all, I really want to apologise to Adam for the bigotry in my country. There's still a moderate amount of conservatism in my country, mostly stemming off certain religious groups. Adam should not have had to go through all these. He was clearly affected by it, but he is a strong man. "Fighting Homophobia one song at a time."
I'm sorry, Adam, I'm sorry.4) What's ahead for me? Well, my flight is in 5 hours' time. My family is going on holiday to ZhangJiaJie, a beautiful place in China. Have you watched the Avatar movie? This was where it was filmed. Notice the similarity?
It's a beautiful place. Glass walkways for me to look down the mountain (not scary at all!), walking at the edge of the mountain. Exhilirating!
I'm really excited!!! I'm not sure if Adamtopia is blocked in China. I hope not. I hope I can access Atop, YouTube (I can't miss MixMas!!!!), Twitter, Instagram, all the social media when I'm there! Anyway, just in case I don't get access, just know that I miss all of you alot, and that I'll have so much to catch up on when I'm back!! Love you guys, love this place