Adam Lambert

NEW YORK – “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert will mentor the show’s current crop of contestants next Tuesday, and will perform his single “Whataya Want from Me” on the following night’s results show.
“It’s true!” the glam-pop singer wrote on his Twitter page Tuesday. “In addition to performing on Idol April 14th, I will be mentoring the top 8 on the 13th. I feel honored to be asked.”
While the theme for next week’s performance show has not yet been announced, Tuesday’s top nine contestants tackled the John Lennon/Paul McCartney songbook.
Though “American Idol” mentors typically have decades of success under their belts, the show has been using younger artists this season. Miley Cyrus and Usher mentored the contestants through their Billboard No. 1s and R&B/soul-themed performances, while Katy Perry, Joe Jonas and Avril Lavigne served as guest judges during the early audition rounds.
Lambert was confident that he would have useful advice for those hoping to follow in his footsteps. “Even though I’m just at the start of my recording career, I hope to lend some insight as one who’s been thru the Idol adventure.” Lambert said on Twitter. “Excited!!”
Lambert also announced that he will release a new EP containing remixes of his first two singles — “For Your Entertainment” and “Whataya Want from Me” — and a third track from his debut album entitled “Voodo.” The “Remixes” EP will be released on Lambert’s Web site adamofficial.com on Friday and to digital retailers next Tuesday.
Evidently alluding to his controversial performance at the American Music Awards last November, when the openly gay singer kissed a male keyboardist, Lambert promised fans he would keep next week’s “Idol” appearance PG-rated. “Don’t worry America,” Lambert tweeted. “I will be beyond family friendly. Relax and enjoy. For Your Entertainment.”
from Reuters

Eminem

In typical Internet age fashion, two new tracks off Eminem’s “Relapse: The Refill” were leaked online last Thursday.
You can listen to both “Elevator” and “Buffalo Bill” on YouTube, something thousands have already done. Not surprisingly, the lyrics of “Elevator” are raising some eyebrows.
The line in question references “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert, who created his own buzz at the American Music Awards with his provocative live performance.
“Sorry, Lance, Mr. Lambert and Aiken ain’t gonna make it/ They get so mad, when I call them both fake/ It’s all these fucking voices in my head, I can’t take it/ Someone shut that fucking baby up, before I shake it.”
The exact point of controversy occurs at end of the third line and the beginning of the first, where Em ends one line with “fake” and begins the next with “it’s”. When he runs the two together in rap, it sounds an awful lot like a slur against homosexuals.
All three of the men referenced in the line — former ‘NSYNC member Lance Bass, pop singer and former American Idol contestant Clay Aiken and Lambert — are openly gay.
Lambert commented without much complaint on his Twitter page on Thursday:
“Wow eminem mentioned me in a song?! I must be doin something right!? Even if he used the f word…. Whtev.”
A few minutes later, he even seemed to concede the last part:
“Oh he says “fake it” my bad,” he tweeted.
Eminem, who has a history of using anti-homosexual lyrics in his songs, so far denies the implications that he is using a slur in the song.
from Metro Detroit
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Adam Lambert

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – For the second time since his controversial American Music Awards performance, ABC has canceled an appearance by Adam Lambert, this time on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
On his Twitter account, glam rocker Lambert, who finished as runner-up on “American Idol” in May, wrote, “Yes, sadly friends, ABC has canceled my appearances on Kimmel and NYE. don’t blame them. It’s the FCC heat … I AM doing Leno though. And lookin into something for NYE … It’ll all blow over. Let’s focus on being positive! ”
“NYE” presumably means ABC’s telecast of “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” Sources say Lambert’s appearance on the Dick Clark-produced event was still tentative.
Lambert was booked to perform on Kimmel’s outdoor stage December 17 before his performance at the November 22 American Music Awards. During the live telecast of the awards show, the openly gay Lambert caused a furor with a rendition of his debut single, “For Your Entertainment,” that included simulating oral sex and kissing a male keyboard player.
After ABC, which had broadcast the show, received more than 1,500 complaints about Lambert’s performance, the network canceled Lambert’s scheduled appearance on its “Good Morning America” news and talk show.
CBS’ “Early Show” swooped in and booked Lambert instead, only to get blasted by some viewers for blurring video footage of the kiss between Lambert and the keyboard player.
Disney/ABC Television Group president Anne Sweeney recently said the company was reviewing the steps it takes to vet live performances and plans to contractually obligate artists to match their stage shows to their rehearsals.
“We certainly don’t want to suppress artistry at any level, but we also have to be very cognizant of who our audience is,” Sweeney said.
from Reuters

Adam Lanbert

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert defended his sexually-charged performance at the American Music Awards on Sunday, saying his goal was to promote “artistic freedom” rather than upset the television audience.
Millions of viewers saw Lambert simulate oral sex with a back-up dancer, plant a passionate kiss on the mouth of a male keyboard player and gesture to the audience with his middle finger during the closing act of the live music awards show.
Broadcaster ABC cut away from one moment in which Lambert rubbed his crotch for its U.S. West Coast version that aired later on Sunday evening. But by then, the singer’s racy rendition of his debut single “For Your Entertainment” was already on its way to becoming the talking point of the show.
“Female performers have been doing this for years — pushing the envelope about sexuality — and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out,” said Lambert, who publicly declared he was gay after “American Idol” ended in May.
“We’re in 2009; it’s time to take risks, be a little more brave, time to open people’s eyes and if it offends them, then maybe I’m not for them. My goal was not to piss people off, it was to promote freedom of expression and artistic freedom,” the singer, 27, told Rolling Stone magazine after Sunday’s show.
Lambert’s performance — the day before his debut album “For Your Entertainment” was released — may be the most provocative TV moment in the music industry since Madonna and Britney Spears exchanged a passionate kiss live on the MTV Video Music Awards show in 2003.
Lambert told CNN that much of his sexual energy was “in the moment.”
“Adrenaline is a crazy, crazy, crazy feeling. Some of the things I love most about performing is when you’re up there and all of the sudden you just have these feelings, this rush that comes over you,” he told CNN afterward.
Entertainment Weekly music reporter Michael Slezak wrote that Lambert’s first major TV outing since the “American Idol” show “felt less like a genuine expression of his high-octane sexuality…and more like a carefully planned stab at dominating the post-AMA blogosphere/water-cooler discussion.”
An estimated 14.2 million viewers watched the “American Music Awards” telecast — the largest audience since 2002, ABC said on Monday, based on preliminary viewing figures.
Many viewers were shocked at Lambert’s sado-masochistic theme, which featured male and female dancers in bondage costumes.
“His face in the guy’s stomach and the kiss was over the top for my 12 year-old. I didn’t expect that from a guy who was on ‘American Idol!’” wrote N Smith on the Rolling Stone.com message board.
from Reuters

photo collage via After Elton