Adam Lambert – American Idol Season 8 Top 36 Contestant
Adam Lambert – San Francisco – 26 – Hollywood, CA -
- Audition – “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen
- Hollywood Group – “Some Kind of Wonderful”
- Hollywood – “Believe” by Cher
- Chair Episode
- Semis Week 2 – “Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones
- Semis Week 2 Results- “Closer” by Ne-Yo – Group Number
- Semis Week 2 Results – Adam Advances to the Top 13
- AI Hollywood Video – AI Top 36 Video
- Dance!
Hollywood, CA – Adam’s got the 70à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s heavy-metal androgyny deal going on, with crazy insane vocal ability, and an amazing range.
With plenty of screen time and a growing fan base, I think Adam’s got a shot to make the Top 12. If he does, ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll be interesting to see how far Adam gets, or if he lets he freak flag fly.
His MySpace is dismantled, but there are still plenty of videos on the net.
You Tube Goodness: Dancing Through Life, As Long as You’re Mine (both from Wicked), Crazy (Adam’s freak flag? It’s flying) and the beautiful, “I Just Love You”. Adam was also in a band – Band MySpace.
Check out more music HERE.
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100 Responses to “Adam Lambert – American Idol Season 8 Top 36 Contestant”
Go on U-Tube and have a look. My favorites are, previously mentioned, Does Anybody Hear Me, and What’s Up ( 4 non blondes 1993 ) I think he shows a versatility and song connection. Wasn’t fond of the Cher song either but I hope he brings it on the Idol stage, one thing he shouldn’t have is stage fright.
I love Bowie. He went through so many personas, practically a different one with each album for a while. If there were ever an example of someone experimenting with personas to see which one fit…. Thin White Duke? Not much emotional connection there at all, but that was his point – or maybe it was all the drugs that created the disconnect. His early work was really before my time, but I invested in his back catalog and enjoy that more than anything he put out after the mid 80’s. And I think it’s clear Bowie was trying hard to be something very different with each of those early personas. Part of what made him so entertaining was how fully he threw himself into such different roles, he changed his appearance and performing style completely for each. Adam isn’t anything like Bowie that way – I don’t think he’s trying to be a different person with each performance. I think he’s just trying to present very different songs in very different ways, and for me that’s entertaining and refreshing. It’s so much more fun for me than someone taking very different songs and turning them all into the same genre. Really, for me most AI contestants are just so conventional. That’s not entertaining for me; there’s enough conventional out here already. I see Adam as the only possibility of a little bit of unconventional on AI this year. Is it possible to be a modern take on a throwback to glam rock? Yes I know, sounds like a contradiction of terms. Anyway, I don’t see that Adam has much in common with Bowie; Bowie was much much more theatrical. I just threw Bowie in to explain why in comparison I don’t see Adam as very theatrical at all; I know he can be, but I think that he’s been quite restrained on AI so far. I think vocally Adam reminds me of Plant and Mercury, and in terms of approach to performing, he might be a toned down version of Mercury. Mercury once interviewed that one of his favourite performers, one of his inspirations, was Liza Minelli. It really showed in his performances – even Bowie has said that Mercury took rock theatrics to extremes. That’s funny coming from Bowie!
It’s great that people have looked up stuff they like on U Tube but…he picked a Cher song to sing. That’s just scary.
I love this guy’s voice. We shall see. LMAO thinking back at how I wore my hair like Bowie as Ziggy Stardust in high school. God, I am old.
I like Adam’s look, but can’t tolerate the singing. Too theatrical for sure, the constant facial mugging is a turn off. I prefer nuance to screaming.
Adam was my pick to win from his first audition. Thankfully, I don’t see him as The Chosen One – he hasn’t won over the whole judging panel and many viewers are still on the fence. Still, he already has a huge following and I, personally, think he’s a shoe in for the top 3. I love the glam rock. His voice is amazing, but I don’t think we’ve seen him at his best yet. He appears pretty toned down to me in these early stages. He has charisma, maturity and a charm about him. Best of all – a quiet confidence. He’s going to save season 8!
That’s one choice I don’t get. I get the concept, sort of. It’s easier for an artist to stand out as being “innovative” if they choose a song that is outside their general nature. In other words, rock guys picking pop songs, boys picking girl songs, etc. If they don’t naturally sound like the original singer people are more apt to believe they are being innovative, even if they sound different from the original by default because their style or voice mean there’s no other choice. That was probably what Adam was going for. Pick a disco song sung by a woman. Adam is neither disco nor a woman, so he can’t sound like the original.
He succeeded in not sounding like Cher’s disco version of the song. He even slowed it down (which makes people think he’s being more sensitive and contemplative). Problem was that about 15 seconds into it he reverted back to his theatrical vocals and it turned into something that was cheesier than the disco original. If he’s going to make every song sound like it belongs in the final, dramatic scene of a Broadway musical then at least pick songs that weren’t cheesy in their original form.
I don’t even think he’s glam rock–he just looks glam rock. I don’t hear any resemblance between his vocal style and that of Bowie. Bowie was theatrical in style, but in substance the music wasn’t Broadway.
Has this been posted before? -
http://tinyurl.com/clonry
Just curious because he talked about being compared to Freddie Mercury and Robert Plant.
This boy certainly has charisma. The way he talks/walks/ kissed Paula’s hand, so adorable. He reminds me very much of Cook with that awfully bad haircut in the first half of last season. I don’t like his theatrical style. Not my type.
I’m checking out Anoop’s YouTube videos with the Clef Hangers. Now that’s good music. So in love with his “Angel of Mine” and “Because of You”!
Adammm
I don’t think anyone’s a shoe in for the top 3 at this point. He has a good voice but I’m not impressed by him because I think his performances so far seem to belong in the theater. I think they do want him in the top 12 and he’s lucky not to have to be in group 1 so he probably will be.
Bowie certainly did invent different personas. The key word for me is just that… invent. He was brilliant and did stuff no one else had(as far as I am aware… I, too, had to check out his early stuff after the fact). I don’t see any Bowie in Adam at all, so the comparison baffles me. I don’t see a lot of glam rock. Just Pete Wentz hair, a good voice, and a broadway sound.
Again, he could change my mind. I haven’t seen much of him yet. But if his idea of changing up an old song is doing that version of Cher, I don’t see a heck of a lot of originality in him. Maybe its because I groaned when he said he was going to “change up” a song… it’s like he’s reading the AI play manual from the last two years. Then he did it, but with such lame results.
Not a big Adam fan at all…
He’s the only one that really stands out to me. I can’t keep the others straight at all. He does have a tendency to shriek on the high notes and he doesn’t have to. He’s got the range.
He’s cool; he’s talented; and he has charisma. I really did like what he did with Cher’s song; however, second place would suit him just fine.
I love him! That is all =)
Well I freakin’ LOVE him! I think if you dig artists like Freddie Mercury, Bowie, Prince, Duran Duran, Fall Out Boy, The Killers, Panic at the Disco, early Elton John, etc… then you’ll probably dig Adam. I LOOOOOVE the over the top theatrics. I love all of the crazy things he can do with his voice.
If the above isn’t your cup of tea, then I can see why Adam puts you off. But for ME, I can’t wait to see what he does on AI. He’s one of the few I think who will be brave enough to experiment and push the envelope. I really don’t think Adam is banking on winning. I’m guessing his goal is to first make the tour, then stay on the show long enough to get noticed.
If things don’t work out in America, I can GUARANTEE you they’ll freakin’ go NUTS for him in Europe.
Too theatrical for me & I flove Bowie, Elton, The Killers and Mercury.
Maybe it’s because I refuse to watch youtubes at this stage, but why can’t one love Bowie, Freddie M, Prince, The Killers, etc. and not yet embrace Adam? I do draw the line at Fall Out Boy, however.
So far, we’ve seen him sing twice, right? And not even for 90 seconds. He has plenty of time to prove himself. Or not.
The competition is just getting started. I don’t know anyone last year at this time singing Cook’s praises.
That might be the reason. Seriously, if you’ve watched “Crazy” and “Crawl Thru Fire” you’d TOTALLY get the Freddy Mercury/David Bowie comparisons.
CRAWL THRU FIRE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXvSA6QL7Ac
Come on! You know you wanna!
p
Snuffles, I took your bait and watched “Crawl Thru the Fire” and I do see the Freddie imitation. I’m still not sold. Fun to watch, but I wouldn’t listen to that song on its own. I don’t like wailing too much.
He does look way better androgynous.
There’s something very attractive about him. I think I like him interviews better than singing. So far, his style has just been too too much. Over the top syrupy. I’m not seeing much soul on stage.
Thanks for the interview link Hazehel! I love that he is obviously taking everything in and plotting his course in an intelligent way and yet realizing that he’s not going to be everyone’s cuppa.
I just love after he sings Believe, that Simon gives him a thumbs up. Simon’s taste often surprises me, lol. It willl be interesting to see how Adam goes over with him.
Horrible skin. If he keeps doing songs like Believe he’ll be out pretty soon. So, *fingers crossed*
I think any contestant who sparks this much healthy debate and has such a love hate relationship will go at least to top 6.
You either LOVE him or HATE him.
Either way, he’ll go far.
I’m personally on the love him side.
Adam seems like a good guy, genuinely charming, attractive if you don’t look at him too closely. I don’t expect him to hit any bum notes. I’m just not into the song stylings. I can already imagine how he would take any song and make it sound like a woman singing an OTT cabaret style of “Believe” and I really don’t want to hear that. Actually, I don’t mind hearing it within the context of the show – I think Adam will be entertaining if he keeps singing that sort of stuff. I expect him to stay around for awhile, but I hope he doesn’t run away with the show and win the thing. If he does a quiet acoustic number without wailing a bunch of unnecessary high notes just because he can, I might change my mind. I like a little subtlety.
I don’t get the Brandon Flowers or Fall Out Boy comparisons at all (well, he has the same stupid hair dye as Pete Wentz). I love Bowie and get the glam comparisons. Key difference is Bowie sounds like a man. As far as Freddie goes, Adam’s singing strikes me as more of an exaggeration of Freddie’s style – Adam is way more shrill.
Adam had a very good shot to reach top 12.
Hmm, maybe some laser skin teatments would help. Not for me , I am on the Adam train. Hopefully, he can shake this season up. Otherwise, ZZZZZ.
I think he has freckles, that’s all. I can tell.
He’s smart and has an amazing voice. Personally I think he’s good-looking. It’ll be interesting to see how far he pushes the envelope. I agree that without him the season would be kind of a snooze fest.
I was a little freaked out by how much Simon fawned over him in The Chair episode. He usually hates the theater boys!
I like Adam. He’s seems like a sweet guy when he is being interviewed. I think he has a lot of talent. I think Adam charms everyone, men and women and that’s why Simon was fawning over him along with Kara and Paula. Those ladies stood in line to give him a hug after the chair episode. It’s kind of an unusual dynamic between him and the judges. As far as his looks, I think he’s a ginger haired fellow from what I can tell from his kid pictures, so what you are seeing on his skin are his freckles, I think. I wonder what he would look like with his natural hair color? Not sure if he can win it all as he may be too far out there for some. But I hope he does well and gets what he wants out it.
I think he looks like a cartoon character.
It is entirely possible PJ for someone to like all of those acts and not like Adam. I see no similarities whatsoever to Bowie or Freddie.
I think I’ve already stated too many times who Adam reminds me of (waves to my fellow Adaminelli’s!). Honestly, he doesn’t have a bad voice, but I have yet to see him do anything on this show that totally blows me away.
The rest of the AI viewers are not going to go searching for his old videos. All they’re going to know of him will be his AI performances. That’s where he has to show who he really is. And, all he’s shown them so far is show tune boy. If that’s who he is, that’s fine, but I think it will be difficult to convince the viewers to choose that persona as the AI winner.
He may indeed be vaulted directly to the Top 3, but I’m not sure he’s winning without removing all that dye from his hair and discontinuing to wear so much makeup. And of course, toning down the theatrics.
Every time I see him, I see future Broadway performer or failing that, future Liza Minelli impersonator (okay, with a good wig, he could probably do Cher). I just don’t get the glam rock vibe and certainly not any kind of plain old rocker vibe at all.
Adam is part of the theatrical cabaret tradition which includes Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Scott Walker, David Bowie, Jeff Buckley, and Marc Almond of Soft Cell, to name a few notables. He’s not going to be everybody’s cuppa, but here’s a novel thought. AI has always been about letting the show make stars and then plug them into an existing radio niche. They don’t actually like to spend money the AI contest makes for them on promoting the talent (see Aiken, Clay). What if someone, maybe Adam, became so phenomenally popular that he could actually created his own niche or popularized one long overdue for revival? That is what I have been waiting for.
Regarding Bowie, he actually started out imitating his idol, Scott Walker of the Walker Bros. He exec-produced the current documentary about Scott, 30 Century Man.
The Walker Bros. were three American musicians, not actual brothers, who took the surname Walker and migrated to England in the 1960s — a sort of reverse British invasion. They became bigger in England than the Beatles. When all my childhood friends had crushes on Paul McCartney, I was listening to my sister’s Walker Bros. albums and having an 8-year-old’s fantasies of being Mrs. Scott Walker.
After they scored hits here and in the UK with The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore and Make It Easy on Yourself, the band continued to top the charts in England where Scott became even more popular as a solo artist after the band’s breakup.
Over the decades he became increasingly more experimental musically — you can see his influence over Bowie — and antisocial. I find his recent recordings very strange, such as those where he pounds on a side of beef. Still a resident of England, Walker exerted a huge influence over generations of British musicians, including Bowie, producer Brian Eno, Johnny Marr and Morrissey of the Smiths, Marc Almond, and the band Keane.
So I love this guy. Everything about him is everything I hate (the hair, the clothes, etc) but I love how theatrical he is, probably because I love musical theater. I watched his videos from Wicked and he was fabulous, it’s too bad they did Andrew Lloyd Webber/Broadway night last season, haha. I also love Freddie Mercury (not that I think they’re on the same level) so I definitely think there’s a place for the kind of OTT operatic music he could make…hey, it worked for Meat Loaf for decades!
If anyone wants to see what we missed on Andrew Lloyd Webber night, here is a video of Adam singing Heaven on Their Minds from Jesus Christ Superstar.
It’s not what interests me about him, but Adam’s hair reminds me of an emo-ized Robert Smith of the Cure and that’s not a bad thing.
I absolutely LOVE that “Heaven On Their Minds” vid, Terrie. I hope Adam can find a find a song to sing on Idol that will allow him to show off his range like that one does.
:lol_wp:
word.
Waving backatcha my friend!
Okay, so do you think we can get MJ to mention the Liza thing in one of her new articles – now that she’s famous and all? (I’ll totally bake you cookies MJ).
And Adam fans, don’t be upset by my constant Liza Minelli references. I spent the beginning of last season talking about how weird looking I thought David Cook was. So, no worries – this could totally be a good thing. (Sarah knows this – so, she probably squeed with glee the first time I made fun of him).
The Liza thing doesn’t bother me as long as long as it’s done with love.
I only worry because there are some folks who may not be that accepting of Adam’s lifestyle and if turns into a punchline, eh, not so fun anymore. I think Adam is very talented, but I would’t mind trimming up the hair a bit. And I agree, David Cook was much improved after the stylist got a hold of him.
Okay, Adam is probably too polarizing to win, and he will have an uphill battle trying to show America the difference betwen a theatrical musical performance and musical theater, but still…
Hee! See, even though it will be impossible to top last season for me, that right there is why I am probably going to end up watching most of season 8 waiting to see what Adam will do week to week. (My favorite part is the “fiyah fiyah, eee-rupt uh ” :devil_tb:) It’s not everyone who can wear gold lame pants and platform boots and manage to look at home on stage. Believe me, I’ve tried. (Kidding. Maybe.) Plus I actually think his voice is unique and kind of cool.
Nah, I think that’s just freckles. Read somewhere else that he’s naturally a freckled redhead. I can’t picture it, though.
I had not been following Adam much and wasn’t crazy about the way he looks and the apparent early hype, but after hearing him sing a the last couple of times, I’m thinking now I can get behind this guy.
Wow, Terrie — I clicked on this thread and am surprised to see talk of Scott Walker. I adore him a lot and just didn’t think this would be a place to see someone talking about that awesome documentary. lol
Anyway, I like Adam. He’s not my main contestant (I am looking forward to what Megan Corkrey might do as I really enjoyed her audition), but I am curious about him. I do think he could be “rock” since I find that to be such a loose genre now which many different singing styles can fit. Even Adam’s theatricality.
He seems very secure about who he is. He’s sure of himself in a good way without being arrogant about it. That’s one of the reasons I like him and hopefully people will respect that whether they like his style or not.
This guy has almost 100 comments, compared with 16 so far for Lil Rounds. People definitely have some feelings about Adam.
So true. I don’t get why that plays there with them, but it does.
Personally, I think that Adam is an incredible vocal talent but after seeing that “crazy” youtube, it’s just too much of a freak for me.
That bad thing about AI is that we judge on stuff that we’d never judge most recording artists on. The whole makeup/androgyny thing–I totally don’t know or care about when I buy music–but when it’s my neighbor, I wonder what point they are trying to make.
Not him. He’s too polarizing. He could make it really far, depending on his songs, how he acts, etc. because he’s talented and he’s done a lot of stage performance. But eventually, as less distinctive people drop out of the competition, those voters will start to band together and will vote for someone more mainstream.
Hey, maybe Adam will tone down the drama and the look and it will turn out differently, but right now, he’s just too out there for the masses. He’s going to have a huge die-hard voting base, but the vanilla fans will eventually overtake his base as people drop out.
I mean–come on–Carly was out last year b/c the masses would not vote for someone who sang “Jesus Christ” without the words “my Lord and saviour” immediately following.
We don’t know for sure that was the reason Carly was voted off. I doubt she would have gone much further no matter what she sang. She didn’t have the fan base to beat either Jason or Brooke and she could have gone the week MJ was voted off.
I do agree that the Idol audience in general has more of a vanilla taste. I’m genuinely curious to see how someone like Adam would play in say, Peoria.
Adam’s original songs!
POP GOES THE CAMERA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7vDziPv964&fmt=18
KISS AND TELL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoKm9nvP-D0&fmt=18
They’re really good! He’s like a male version of Lady Gaga!
Adam will be the next American Idol.
Too theatrical? So was Mercury, Prince, Bowie, Tyler… I think he’s in a great club!
This guy has the vocal range none of the other contestants have.
Talented, intelligent… nay… GENIUS, the guy is a musical GENIUS.
Whomever can’t get a grip on this fact, doesn’t know squat about music or talent.
Just wondered what happened to the “Whole Lotta Love” video on the site? I have it from itunes on my ipod but was always cool to come back here and see the judges comments. Just wondered why some videos disappear and others stay is all. Thanks.