14 DAY TRIAL // Adam Lambert made his big musical debut outside the American Idol circuit at the 2009 American Music Awards, held over the weekend in Los Angeles, at the Nokia Theater. Unfortunately, his live performance of “For Your Entertainment,” the title single off his debut album, was not what most fans would have expected of him, marking a clear departure from his lovable Idol image and drawing over 1,500 complaints with ABC, as Reuters informs.
ABC, the network airing the awards ceremony, says in a statement it had no idea of the kind of performance Adam was preparing, let alone imagine that he would kiss a male dancer and dance inappropriately, as critics have labeled some of his moves. Therefore, parts of his performance have been edited out of the west coast broadcast, but not before video of it reached enough viewers to upset them into sending complaints to the network. Those who did not make their complaints official took to Twitter and other channels to voice them, Reuters also says.
“The singer’s racy rendition of his debut single ‘For Your Entertainment’ was already on its way to becoming one of the most provocative TV moments in the music industry since Madonna and Britney Spears kissed on the MTV Video Music Awards show in 2003. Adam Lambert was among the top 10 most popular topics on Twitter on Monday,” Reuters reports. “American Music Awards producers, Dick Clark Productions, said they were unaware from rehearsals what Lambert had planned. ‘We did not expect the impromptu moments,’ a spokeswoman told Reuters,” it further says.
According to many reports in the US media, complaints continue to come in as we speak, despite the fact that ABC has already removed the very segments that most upset audiences. With all this, Adam himself insists that he’s not about to apologize to anyone if they found offense with his performance because he’s not out seeking to please everybody. His music and his art is meant to polarize and this is precisely what he aimed to do with the AMAs performance as well, he said shortly after the show, as we also informed you the other day.
As for another of fans’ complaints, namely that his voice left much to be desired, Adam says on his Twitter page that this shortcoming was not his fault. “Hope u had fun tonight! We did. All hail freedom of expression and artistic integrity. :) fans: I adore u. Don’t know what was goin on with the sound. Same thing always went down on Idol. Thank you for the support. It WAS a bit pitchy. I had a blast and am looking forward to my upcoming performances,” Lambert writes.