Adam Lambert – AMA Update: Viewer Complaints, Sound Issues, And Whataya Want From Me on Letterman
Update: The Braintrust at the Parents Television Council has weighed in:
‘Last night’s ‘American Music Awards’ broadcast was nothing short of tasteless and vulgar. Adam Lambert, the second-place finisher in last season’s ‘American Idol’ competition, chose to treat American families to simulated oral sex and other demeaning behavior. ABC and Dick Clark Productions had every reason to know what to expect, as Lambert himself proclaimed that his performance would be ‘very sexy’ and would include leather and chains. But the producers and the network chose to bury their heads in the sand.
Adam Lambert’s controversial performance on the American Music Award’s did cause the expected water-cooler talk this morning. I posted some of the early morning news items last night and in this morning’s headlines thread. Here’s more:
ABC has received 1,500 complaints from viewers offended by Adam’s performance last night. The network considers it a “moderate” amount.
Adam talked to Rolling Stone after his performance last night. He confirmed that he’ll be performing “Whataya Want From Me” when he tapes the Late Show with David Letterman today. He also confirmed that the same-sex lip lock and simulated BJ were done in the heat of the moment. “Adrenaline is crazy,” says Adam, “and sometimes things just happen.”
Adam admits to Perez Hilton via twitter that his AMA performance was pitchy, but blames it on the sound mix, “It WAS a bit pitchy. Don’t know what was goin on with the sound. Same thing always went down on idol” Perez sends positive vibes Adam’s way HERE.
Rolling Stone wrote a positive review of Adam’s performance HERE. But RS is a card-carrying member of the over-hype machine, so no surprise there.
Michelle Collins of Best Week Ever? Loved it. Linda Holmes of NPR not so much. (Her take is pretty close to mine) New York Mag’s Vulture blog brings the funny. And we’ve got dueling opinions over at Entertainment Weekly. Michael Slezak says Hell No, while Ken Tucker cries Bring It On.
Posted in 447 Responses to “Adam Lambert – AMA Update: Viewer Complaints, Sound Issues, And Whataya Want From Me on Letterman”
Did anybody else notice that Adam’s voice got a lot stronger after he kissed Tommy? I wish he had kissed him at the beginning of the song, but better late than never.
LOVED LOVED that article – an intelligent and thoughtful deconstruction of rock and roll and sex and Adam…
mj said:
I apologize, mj. I’m 100% sure it’s my fault, but I have NO idea what you just said. Lol.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b155156_its_sexy_job_adam_lamberts_gotta_do_it.html
This was an amazing article!
Gossip Girl had a guy on guy kiss! And it comes on at 8:00!
ITA!
This was in the comment section:
“So Madonna can hump the floor and suck a water bottle, Christina can show her butt cheeks, on TV they have men kissing men (Supernatural) and women kissing women (Desperate Housewives) and yes Janet Jackson within the first 5 minutes of the show grabbed her crotch multiple times and her male back up dancer and then pushed him over to have some other kind of “Simulated butt play”.”
“Michael Jackson’s crotch grab and gyrations. Janet Jackson’s “If” video and AMA performance back when “If” came out featured a male dancer on his knees, at her crotch level, being tossed back and forth, as she gyrated. Madonna, and a full on crotch grab, and making out with her dancers on stage. Lady Gaga crawling around on stage with explicit acts of violence. Rhianna wearing little black cups over her boobies. These are all acts that have aired on broadcast television in the past few decades that have gotten less flack than Adam Lambert’s display. The only difference: Adam is openly gay. “
Agreed it was and as I glanced through the comment section noticed that the MAJORITY of people agreed with it. There were a few negative comments, but generally supportive and congratulatory. Maybe the tide has turned a bit – I know I was more genuinely a-taken-a-back by how upset and vicious people were than by anything I saw in the performance…
I loved that article. The only thing that bothered me where his vocals weren’t real strong and his fall. Seriously, doesn’t anyone watch the shows anymore?? That’s what the female stars are doing (I know not all but alot of them). I think the outrage is because Adam is a man and we aren’t used to seeing men do that on stage. OMG…I remember thinking “I can’t believe he just did that” after ROF. To me, his performance just went along with what others did. He just took it a little further.
Can’t wait to see him Weds morning.
Dlisted: For Your Taintertainment
Awesomely bitchy.
today Adam is doing the Elvis duran show it is streaming live
wen is the gma show?
any word about how it went when he taped letterman?
well someone mentioned that letterman gig was great. he got the emo hair and sang Wat ya want frm me, he even sing closely to tommy and then the audience wer isntructed not to shout coz they may ruin their sound system, but some cant help it they still screamed. then letteramn introduce adam while holding his cd. dats it.
Maybe a stupid question…what is a remix?
US radio has never supported a gay artist? Tell that to Elton John. To Melissa Etheridge. To Michael Stipe of R.E.M.
Adam was his usual precious, adorable self on Elvis Duran this morning. Still saying he got “caught up in the moment” , etc. during the ama performance and Tommy didn’t know what was coming. They played a bit of Fever and all of WWFM. They said a recording of the interview will be up on their site later. Listen, because it was fun!
elton john was years and years into a successful career before he publicly came out; michael stipe there were rumors about but not really public until well after REM had achieved success…i’ll give you melissa etheridge
I’d add the new judge on the biggest audience of all age groups show on TV. I don’t think Ellen’s viewership has any complaints about her openly gay lifestyle and I doubt AI’s viewership will go down due to her being the new judge either.
Big stations in Canada seem to be playing FYE — or they’ve added it at least. And I suspect that it’ll go over better in other countries. They can keep the video mostly on ice until they go for more international rollouts. I suspect Japan would like the video, and so on. …. They can put it up on the Internet to become a viral phenomenon. …. Etc. …. Lots of things you can do with a video that may get you extra pr these days.
Here is the interview — It is GREAT!!
http://www.mr-l.org/adam-lambert-on-elvis-duran-radio-show-112409-audio/
Not stupid at all — just shows you don’t frequent many dance clubs!
When somebody, often a dj-type, takes a song’s vocal and puts a different backing track and beats behind it, that’s a remix. Most of them these days turn a song into a dance track, but any time you take one or more tracks of a song and mix them with some different tracks that weren’t part of the original version, it’s a remix.
Me too. In fact I thought the performance was great (aside from the sound issues & a few vocal missteps). I was completely entertained for the first time all night. I thought he stole the show!
Then I went on-line and couldn’t believe my eyes. Someone earlier said he/she had to take 2 ambiens. Well I should have because I hardly slept all night. Things are looking much brighter today.
I do think Adam miscalculated. From many things he’s said he apparently has felt restricted in his performances from the beginning of his career. He could never do everything he wanted and let it all fly. So I do think he got a bit carried away. For me it was awesome. For many others, apparently not. lol
And Melissa had some kick ass songs that she didn’t need to simulate sex on stage to sell. As a gay woman she could have gone that route in her youth and men would have been tripping over themselves to see it. But she didn’t.
Look, I know that sex sells. But there are different kinds sexiness. From the outset Adam has said that he didn’t want to “be political”, that he just wanted to “make people dance” and “feel sexy”. He said that he just wanted to be himself. And people, mainly women, ate that up. We find him sexy without all the lewd and crude acts so why put it in there other than for shock value? He said “numbers shmumbers” as if this whole production wasn’t about selling songs and albums, as if getting the closing number on the AMAs wasn’t a huge honor, as if he doesn’t need fans to buy his album so he can pay his his bills.
Adam spoke about having an identity crisis while making the album. And I can certainly see why. There was no joy on that stage. Only agression. The opposite of dancing and feeling sexy. I compare Crawl Through Fire at the Zodiac Show and his AMA production and you can see the difference in his attitude. There was joy in the Zodiac show–you could feel his anticipation for the next move and next step. And it was overt and sexual and yet campy and fun. The AMA show was not campy and fun at all. Many people liked that he pushed the envelope but not because it made them feel sexy but for every political statement that it made.
At the Zodiac audience loved and craved the OTT as a matter of course. It’s who they were, it’s what they did. There were no political ramifications. Only fun and dancing. The AMAs is/was not like that. It turned into a brouhaha of if women can do that why can’t a gay man? It turned into professional jealousy and rivalry (from certain former idols via their tweets), it turned into numbers shmumbers and flipping off the audience.
How is any of that “joyful or sexy”? The very things that made Adam popular to begin with?
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First off, NONE of those artisists were openly and flamboyantly gay/lesbian when they ENTERED the music/entertainment industry mainstream. If they had been, their big-time music/entertainment careers would have probably been cut off at the knees! Also, many people’s options are based on what they’re “working with”. Adam has not ONLY his talent working for him, but mainstream/conventional attractiveness and sexiness that appeals to BOTH men and women (and gay and straight), his youth, and an uncanny resemblance to the original “white lightening” rock-n-roller, Elvis Presly! And we all know what impact his looks and gyrating pelvis had on groins and popular (and social) culture in his day.
When I look at Elton John or Michael Stipe, I’d rather just listen to the music instead and feast my eyes on something else. And had Melissa Ethridge looked more like “Baywatch” Pamela Anderson than say…oh…um…Melissa Ethridge!, then “she COULD have gone that route in her youth and men would have been tripping over themselves to see it”. But I suspect that “she didn’t”, because that really wasn’t a viable option for her. As for Ellen, when Ellen DeGeneres had her TV show “Ellen”, she was riding the high wave of her popularity, her talent and her looks. However, as SOON as she “came out” (via her TV character)…HER SHOW WAS CANCELLED!!! Popularity, talent and looks didn’t matter one bit. She was GAY and it was decided that THE GAY HAD TO GO!!! Fortunately for Adam, culture has changed and sensibilites have been sensitized and he gets to reap the rewards of all the hard work of previous gays/lesbians in the entertainment industry. Good for him (and ultimately us all)! I hope it works out for him the way he and his most ardent supporters imagined it would…and then some!
BTW, I have the Adam’s “FYE” album and I LOVE IT! I’m glad he’s going with the song Pink wrote for him for his 2nd single. It adds depth to his persona. He can’t be all glitter and glam! Would LOOOVE to see a visual (performance, video, etc.) of “Broken Pieces”! It’s SOOO cosmically ethereal! I LOVE IT!!!