2.26.23 Adam News and Info

BBC

Adam Lambert: 'I didn't think I'd have a shot'


Adam Lambert juggles his time between Queen, his solo career, The Voice US and ITV talent show Starstruck

Once upon a time, just a couple of years into his career, Adam Lambert's record label asked him to record an album of 1980s new-wave cover versions.

It wasn't a terrible idea. Anyone who'd heard Lambert cover Tears For Fears' Mad World on American Idol knew how suited he was to that era of melancholy synth-pop.

But at that stage, two albums into his career, a covers album seemed like capitulation. Worried it would damage his credibility, the singer quit the label.

"This is the only kind of release they are prepared to support," he told fans in an open letter, but "my heart is simply not in doing a covers album".

A decade later, his position has changed. Lambert is arguably more famous as Queen's new frontman than as a solo artist; and his new album, High Drama, is entirely comprised of covers.

"Well, look, I mean, timing is integral," he protests. "At the time they wanted me to do that, I was not interested and that was that.

"I'm at a point now where the idea came up, and I thought, 'That sounds like a fun challenge'. The idea was to find some songs and flip them on their their heads so they sounded like totally new pieces of music."

Those heads have been well and truly flipped.

On his new album, Bonnie Tyler's Holding Out For A Hero becomes a hungry electro-pop anthem, Lana Del Rey's West Coast gets a grungy blues makeover, and Culture Club's Do You Really Want To Hurt Me is injected with a creeping sense of paranoia.

"I learned with Queen that the way to make the songs your own is to stop listening to the original for a little while and discover what it means for you," he says.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=OssPY9PeSIo


'Full of doubt'

During his stint on American Idol in 2009, Lambert was out to his family and friends, but the show only made veiled references to his sexuality. Even when they did, the tone was questionable: In one episode, Simon Cowell slyly expressed concerns about the singer's "theatricality".

When pictures emerged of him dressed in drag, kissing his ex-boyfriend at a US music festival, it made headlines in the US. Fox News called the photos "embarrassing", and commentators said the fallout cost him the American Idol crown.

"It was stressful and it was confusing," Lambert previously told the BBC. "I was like, 'What am I supposed to do?'"

He emerged from the TV show with a major label record deal but, even then, questions lingered about his commercial viability.

"A lot of people in the industry, even though they were excited for me and wanted to see me, they were full of doubt," he says.

"It was a very interesting time. if I look back at the headlines or the questions I was asked, you wouldn't dare do that today."

Lambert was vindicated when his debut album, For Your Entertainment, went to number one - selling twice as much as Idol victor Kris Allen.


More..  www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64722501