Adam Lambert Kisses a Boy During 2009 American Music Awards Performance; Adam Lambert's AMA Performance Shocks Many Viewers

Victoria Leigh Miller
American Idol runner up Adam Lambert closed last night's 2009 American Music Awards show with a racy performance of his single, For Your Entertainment. As usual, the glam bad boy of American Idol didn't fail to get his point across as he paraded across the AMA stage.

Lambert's AMA performance of For Your Entertainment featured scantily leather- clad backup dancers, lots of groping, simulated sex acts and a spontaneous kiss with another male midway through the performance. According to Rolling Stone, Lambert didn't clear the male kiss with anyone in advance. Lambert told CNN that the kiss happened "in the moment".

After a mostly tame awards ceremony featuring wholesome pop country singer Taylor Swift sweeping most of the major awards, Lambert's closing performance left a bad taste in the mouths of many viewers, especially parents who let their tween Taylor Swift fans stay up to watch the show.

After the tongues instantly started wagging about his shocking performance, Lambert, who has a fairly cocky attitude for someone who lost on American Idol, pulled the discrimination card, saying there's a "double standard" and telling Rolling Stone that it would be "discrimination" if his performance was edited for later broadcasts. Lambert was most likely referring to Madonna and Britney Spear's controversial kiss during their racy performance at the 2003 MTV Music Video Awards.

Lambert's song, For Your Entertainment, was in itself rather boring. It featured a few of Lambert's infamous shrieks, but the song itself wasn't all that memorable. If Lambert hadn't turned up the heat on his performance, certainly no one would be talking about it today.

Shock value aside, Adam Lambert has had much better performances during his stint on the American Idol stage last season. Most notably, his performance of the Tears for Fears song Mad World was one of the best performances ever on the show. Lambert's AMA performance, while controversial, paled in comparison.

Adam Lambert's American Music Awards performance didn't seem to bother ABC though. The network did not edit out any portions of Lambert's live performance for later West Coast broadcasts, although their phone and email lines must be burning up this morning.

Sources:
American Music Awards, ABC TV
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/11/22/adam-lambert-shocks-american-music-awards-with-racy-for-your-entertainment/
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/23/american.music.awards/

Published by Victoria Leigh Miller - Featured Contributor in Arts & Entertainment

Victoria Leigh Miller is a freelance writer specializing in arts and entertainment articles and informational web content. She is a Featured A&E Contributor for Yahoo and the recipient of the 2011 Y!CA Award...   View profile

28 Comments

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  • Tricia Sabol 11/24/2009

    Definitely a controversial topic!! Great report!

  • Jeff Rogers 11/24/2009

    Who is Adam Lambert? Better yet, who cares.

  • Sandy Rothra 11/23/2009

    Didn't see it.

  • John Myers 11/23/2009

    Interesting read Victoria! I haven't seen it yet, but I have it on DVR...interesting comments!

  • Chloie McYacker 11/23/2009

    Ugh! Don't need to see that stuff anytime.

  • darla 11/23/2009

    no way am i a prude, but that was just uncalled for. even when he was on idol i didn't like him & last night reminded me why! he has zero talent.

  • Carol Whyte 11/23/2009

    I'm not sure why people like Adam find it necesary to shock their audiences....what happened to just having talent?

  • Jody Harkavy 11/23/2009

    He got what he wanted, which is everyone talking about him. :0

  • k 11/23/2009

    what an a--hole he is......he wont last.

  • G 11/23/2009

    The overall performance was in poor taste. A true artist does not need to try to shock people in order to entertain. He has a great voice but I was so disgusted by the overall tone of the performance I couldn't enjoy the song. Compared to the other perfomances, he just came across like a guy who needs to attention (good or bad). Horrible performance.

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