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Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origins of the word are debated, but 'Drag' has appeared in print as early as 1870.^[1] One suggested etymological root is 19th century theatre slang, from the sensation of long skirts trailing on the floor.^[2]

"Drag queen" appeared in print in 1941.^[1] The verb is to "do drag." A folk etymology whose acronym basis reveals the late 20th-century bias, would make "drag" an abbreviation of "dressed as girl" in description of male transvestism. The opposite, "drab" for "dressed as boy," is unrecorded. Drag is practiced by people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.

Drag in the performing arts[link]

There is a long history of drag in the performing arts, spanning a wide range of cultural as well as artistic traditions.

Drag in the theatre arts manifests two kinds of phenomenon. One is cross-dressing in the performance, which is part of the social history of theatre. The other is cross-dressing within the theatrical fiction (i.e. the character is a cross-dresser), which is part of literary history.

Drag is usually played for comic effect. Examples include the Monty Python Women and Joe and Jerry (Curtis and Lemmon) in Some Like It Hot.

Theatre[link]

Cross-dressing elements of performance traditions are widespread cultural phenomena. In England, actors in Shakespearean plays, and all Elizabethan theatre, were all male; female parts were played by young men in drag. During the practices and performances, notations were frequently made on the manuscripts when a male was to play a female part dressed as a female. Shakespeare used the conventions to enrich the gender confusions of As You Like It, and Ben Jonson manipulated the same conventions in Epicœne, or The Silent Woman, (1609). The plot device of the film Shakespeare in Love (1998) turns upon this Elizabethan convention. During the reign of Charles II the rules were relaxed to allow women to play female roles on the London stage, reflecting the French fashion, and the convention of men routinely playing female roles consequently disappeared.

Within the dramatic fiction, a double standard historically affected the uses of drag. In male-dominated societies where active roles were reserved to men, a woman might dress as a man under the pressures of her dramatic predicament. A man's position was above a woman's, causing a rising action that suited itself to tragedy, sentimental melodrama and comedies of manners that involved confused identities. A man dressed as a woman was thought to be a falling action only suited to broad low comedy and burlesque. These conventions were unbroken before the 20th century, when rigid gender roles were undermined and begun to dissolve. This evolving changed drag in the last decades of the 20th century, now unfolding. With the theatrical drag queen presented not as a "female impersonator" but as a drag queen (as, for example, RuPaul), drag changed conventions, meaning and audience.

In folk custom[link]

Men dressed or disguised as women have featured in traditional customs and rituals for centuries. For example, the characters of some regional variants of the traditional mummers play, which were traditionally always performed by men, include Besom Bet(ty); numerous variations on Bessy or Betsy; Bucksome Nell; Mrs Clagdarse; Dame Dolly; Dame Dorothy; Mrs Finney; Mrs Frail and many others.^[3] The variant performed around Plough Monday in Eastern England is known as the Plough Play^[4] (also Wooing Play or Bridal Play)^[5] and usually involves two female characters, the young "Lady Bright and Gay" and "Old Dame Jane" and a dispute about a bastard child.^[6]

A character called Bessy also accompanied the Plough Jags (aka Plough Jacks, Plough Stots, Plough Bullocks, etc.) even in places where no play was performed: "she" was a man dressed in women's clothes, who carried a collecting box^[4] for money and other largesse.

"Maid Marian" of the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is played by a man, and the Maid Marians referred to in old documents as having taken part in May Games and other festivals with Morris dancers would most probably also have been men. The "consort" of the Castleton Garland King was traditionally a man (until 1956, when a woman took over the role) and was originally simply referred to as "The Woman".^[7]

Opera[link]

In Baroque opera, where soprano roles for men were sung by castrati, Handel's heroine Bradamante, in the opera Alcina, disguises herself as a man to save her lover, played by a male soprano: contemporary audiences were hop the least confused. In Romantic opera, certain roles of young boys were written for alto and soprano voices and acted by women en travestie (in English, in "trouser roles".)^[8] The most familiar trouser role in pre-Romantic opera is Cherubino in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro (1786). Romantic opera continued the convention: there are trouser roles for women in drag in Rossini's Semiramide (Arsace), Donizetti's Rosamonda d'Inghilterra and Anna Bolena, Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini, even a page in Verdi's Don Carlo. The convention was beginning to die out with Siebel, the ingenuous youth in Charles Gounod's Faust (1859) and the gypsy boy Beppe in Mascagni's L'Amico Fritz, so that Offenbach gave the role of Cupid to a real boy in Orphée aux Enfers. But Sarah Bernhardt played Hamlet in tights, giving French audiences a glimpse of Leg (the other in fact being a prosthesis) and Prince Orlovsky, who gives the ball in Die Fledermaus, is a mezzo-soprano, to somewhat androgynous effect. The use of travesti in Richard Strauss's Rosenkavalier (1912) is a special case, unusually subtle and evocative of its 18th century setting, and should be discussed in detail at Der Rosenkavalier.

Film and television[link]

The self-consciously risqué bourgeois high jinks of Brandon Thomas' Charley's Aunt (London, 1892) were still viable theatre material in La Cage aux Folles 1978, (remade, as The Birdcage, as late as 1996). In the 1890s the slapstick drag traditions of undergraduate productions (notably Hasty Pudding Theatricals at Harvard College, annually since 1891 and at other Ivy League schools like Princeton University's Triangle Club or the University of Pennsylvania's Mask and Wig Club) were permissible fare to the same middle-class American audiences that were scandalized to hear that in New York, rouged young men in skirts were standing on tables to dance the Can-Can in Bowery dives like The Slide. Drag shows were popular night club entertainment in New York in the 20s, then were forced underground, until the "Jewel Box Revue" played Harlem's Apollo Theater in the 1950s: "49 men and a girl." The girl received a roar of applause, when she was revealed as the same smart young man in dinner clothes who had been introducing each of the evening's acts. Drag as a last-resort tactic in situational farce (its only permissible format at the time) made a big Hollywood splash in Some Like It Hot (1959).

For the San Francisco drag troupe, The Cockettes (1970–72), who performed with glitter eyeshadow and gilded mustaches and beards, the term "genderfuck" was coined. Drag broke out from underground theatre in the persona of "Divine" in John Waters' Pink Flamingos (1972): see also Charles Pierce. The crowd surrounding Andy Warhol's Factory scene of the '60s-'80s also included some drag queens who achieved a certain amount of fame, such as Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn, both immortalized in the Lou Reed song "Walk on the Wild Side". The cult hit movie musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show has inspired several generations of young people to attend performances in drag, although many of these fans would deny that they are actually transvestites.

On American network television, only the broadest slapstick drag tradition was generally represented. Few American TV comedians consistently used drag as a comedy device, among them Milton Berle, Flip Wilson and Martin Lawrence, although drag characters have occasionally been popular on sketch TV shows like In Living Color (with Jim Carrey's grotesque female bodybuilder) and Saturday Night Live (with the Gap Girls, among others). On the popular 1960s military sitcom, McHale's Navy, Ensign Parker (Tim Conway) sometimes had to dress in drag (often with hilarious results) whenever McHale and/or his crew had to disguise themselves in order to carry out their elaborate schemes. The popular Canadian comedy group The Kids in the Hall also used drag in many of their skits. Dame Edna, the drag persona of Australian actor Barry Humphries, is the host of several specials, including the Dame Edna Experience. Dame Edna also tours internationally, playing to sell-out crowds, and has appeared on TV's Ally McBeal.

Dame Edna represents an anomalous example of the drag concept. Her earliest incarnation was unmistakably a man dressed (badly) as a suburban housewife. Edna's manner and appearance became so feminised and glamorised that even some of her TV show guests appear not to see that the Edna character is played by a man. The furor surrounding Dame Edna's 'advice' column in Vanity Fair magazine suggests that one of her harshest critics, actress Salma Hayek, was unaware Dame Edna was a female character played by a man.

In England, drag has been more common in comedy: Benny Hill portrayed several female characters, and the Monty Python troupe and The League of Gentlemen often played female parts in their skits. Alastair Sim plays the head mistress in St Trinian's.

These characters are played straight(ish). Within the conceit of the sketch/film they are women, it is we that are in on the joke. Monty Python women are random middle aged working/lower middle class typically wearing long brown coats that were common in the 1960s. When the Pythons wanted a "proper" woman they used Carol Cleveland. They speak with falsetto voices.

The joke is reversed in Life of Brian where "they" are pretending to be men, including obviously false beards, so that they can go to the stoning. When someone throws the first stone too early the Pharisee asks "who threw that", and they answer "she did, she did,..." in high voices. "Are there any women here today?" he says, "No no no" they say in gruff voices.

Alastair Sim plays the head mistress straight in St Trinian's. No direct joke to the actor's true gender is made. However she is quite non-feminine in her pursuits of betting, drinking and smoking. Her school sends out girls into a merciless world where it is the world that need beware.

Kenny Everett dragged up in his TV show as an OTT screen star called Cupid Stunt. Kenny was particularly unconvincing as a woman because he had a beard to which a lot of flesh-tone makeup was applied. However she says "all in the best possible taste" as she exposed her knickers as she re-crossed her legs. She is in more of the Dame Edna genre.

David Walliams and (especially) Matt Lucas often play female roles in the British television comedy Little Britain. Walliams also notably plays the part of Emily Howard - a "rubbish transvestite," who makes an unconvincing woman.

Maximilliana and RuPaul co-star together in the TV show Nash Bridges starring Don Johnson and Cheech during the 2 part episode of "Cuda Grace". Maximilliana looking passable, leads one of the investigators to believe she is "real" and sexually advances only to learn there is something extra down there, greatly to his dismay.

Music[link]

The world of popular music has a venerable history of drag. Marlene Dietrich was a popular actress and singer who sometimes performed dressed as a man, such as in the films Blue Angel and Morocco. In the glam rock era many male performers (such as David Bowie and The New York Dolls) donned partial or full drag. This tradition waned somewhat in the late '70s but was revived in the New Wave era of the '80s, as pop singers Boy George (of Culture Club), Pete Burns (of Dead or Alive), and Philip Oakey (of The Human League), frequently appeared in a sort of semi-drag, while female musicians of the era dabbled in their own form of androgyny, with performers like Annie Lennox, Phranc and The Bloods sometimes performing as drag kings. The male grunge musicians of the '90s sometimes performed wearing deliberately ugly drag - that is, wearing dresses but making no attempt to look feminine, not wearing makeup and often not even shaving their beards. (Nirvana did this several times, notably in the In Bloom video.) However, possibly the most famous drag artist in music in the 90s was RuPaul. In Japan there are several musicians in the visual kei scene, such as Mana (Moi dix Mois and Malice Mizer), Kaya (Schwarz Stein), Hizaki and Jasmine You (both Versailles), who always or usually appear in full or semi-drag. Maximilliana worked with RuPual in the Nash Bridges episode "Cuda Grace" and was a regular at the now defunct Queen Mary Show Lounge in Studio City, California until the very end. Max (short for Maximilliana) is most well known for her performance as Charlie/Claire in Ringmaster: the Jerry Springer Movie. Max has also appeared in other movies including Shoot or Be Shot and 10 Attitudes as well as on television shows including: Nash Bridges, Clueless, Gilmore Girls, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Mas Vale Tarde with Alex Cambert, MadTV, The Tyra Banks Show, The Tom Joyner Show, America's Got Talent and much more. As of November 11, 2011 Maximilliana released her first album of all original, fun, dance music for the LGBT community and is available on iTunes, Amazon and CdBaby.

Drag kings and queens[link]

In gay slang, a "queen" is an effeminate gay man, or a gay man with a specializied quality (e.g. "rice queen," for a non-Asian gay man who prefers Asian men; "snow queen" for a non-caucasian man who likes caucasian men; and "bean queen," for a gay man who prefers Hispanic men). Along with "drag," the term "drag queen" has entered the general lexicon.

Drag queens (first use in print, 1941) are stereotypically viewed to be gay men that dress in drag, either as part of a performance or for personal fulfillment. Though a good portion who wear women's clothing are straight men, the term drag queen distinguishes them from transvestites, transsexuals or transgender people. Doing drag here often includes wearing dramatically heavy makeup, wigs and prosthetic devices as part of the costume. Females are called drag kings; however, drag king also has a much wider range of meanings. It is currently most often used to describe entertainment (singing or lip-synching) in which there is no necessarily firm correlation between a performer's deliberately-macho onstage persona and offstage gender identity or sexual orientation, just as biological males who do female drag for the stage may or may not identify as being either gay or female in personal identity. A faux queen is usually a woman doing traditional female drag in the same spirit as men have done.

See also[link]

• List of transgender-related topics

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Padva, Gilad (2000). "Priscilla Fights Back: The Politicization of Camp Subculture". Journal of Communication Inquiry 24 (2): 216–243. DOI:10.1177/0196859900024002007. 

v t e Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) slang Bareback Banjee Batty boy Bear Beard Beat Breeder Bugchasing Bulldagger Butch and femme Boi Bottom Castro clone Chicken Chickenhawk Chub Cottaging Cruising Daddy Down-low Drag Dyke Dyke tyke En femme Fag (Faggot) Fag hag Fag stag Faux queen Flagging (hanky code) Friend of Dorothy Fruit Gay-for-pay Gaydar Gaymer Glory hole Lesbian until graduation Lipstick lesbian Party and play Queen Santorum Shemale Soft butch Swish Tea-room Top Trade Transfan Troll Twink U-Haul lesbian Versatile LGBT portal Polari Lavender linguistics Terminology of homosexuality

Look up drag in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Drag may refer to:

In science and technology[link]

• Drag (physics), the force which resists motion of an object through a fluid
• Drag equation, a mathematical equation used in analyzing the magnitude of drag caused by fluid flow
• Drag coefficient, a non-dimensional coefficient that is one of the terms in the drag equation
• Aerodynamic drag, the aerodynamic force which resists motion of an aircraft or other object through the air
• Drag crisis, a rapid change in drag coefficient over a small range of Reynolds number
• Park drag, a type of carriage
• Police drag, a small dredge used to recover objects or bodies lost in shallow water
• Drag harrow, in agriculture, a heavy type of harrow used to break up soil
• In computing, to hold down a mouse button while moving the mouse, as in drag-and-drop

In arts, performance arts and entertainment[link]

• To drag, in music, to play slower than the indicated tempo
• Drag (percussion), in drumming, one of the 26 rudiments, or basic patterns used in rudimental drumming
• Drag (band), an Australian band
• Drag (k.d. lang album), a 1997 album by k.d. lang
• Drag (Red Aunts album), an album by the Red Aunts
• Drag show, entertainment, cross-dressing ensemble
• Drag racing, a form of automobile racing
• Drag (music genre), a sub-genre of dark electronic music
• Drag (film), a 1929 drama film directed by Frank Lloyd.

Other uses[link]

• Drag (clothing), the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender.
  • Drag king, mostly female identified people who dress and perform as males
  • Drag queen, mostly male identified people who dress and perform as females
• Drag, Norway, a village in Tysfjord municipality, Nordland, Norway
• Drág, the Hungarian name for Dragu Commune, Sălaj County, Romania
• a deep inhalation of a cigarette

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Adam Lambert
Adam Lambert at the 21st GLAAD Media Awards (2010)
Background information
Birth name	Adam Mitchel Lambert
Born	(1982-01-29) January 29, 1982 (age 30) Indianapolis, Indiana
Origin	Rancho Peñasquitos, San Diego
Genres	Pop,[1] pop rock[1]
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, actor
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2009–present
Labels	19, RCA
Associated acts	Queen
Website	adamofficial.com

Adam Mitchel Lambert (born January 29, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and stage actor. Born in Indianapolis but raised in San Diego, Lambert had dreamed of becoming a performer after appearing in numerous amateur productions in his childhood and adolescence. His passion overtook him when deciding to drop out of college, pursue his career, and perform in various professional theatrical productions across the world.

Lambert came to prominence following his appearance on the eighth season of American Idol.^[2] Although he was runner-up, Lambert launched a music career with the release of his debut studio album For Your Entertainment (2009) after signing with 19 in a joint venture with RCA. Debuting at number three on the Billboard 200, selling 198,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week, and reaching the top 10 in several countries worldwide, the album subsequently achieved international success with its singles "For Your Entertainment", "Whataya Want from Me" and "If I Had You".^[3][4][5] Soon after, he embarked on his first headlining worldwide concert tour, Glam Nation, making him the only American Idol contestant to do so in the year following his Idol season. The tour was followed by two live releases: an extended play entitled Acoustic Live! (2010), and a live CD/DVD Glam Nation Live (2011), which debuted at number one on the SoundScan Music Video chart.^[6] Lambert took executive producer credit and was a principal writer on his second studio album, Trespassing, which was released to critical acclaim on May 15, 2012.^[7] Trespassing made its debut in the number one spot on the Billboard 200 album chart,^[8] also topping the Billboard Digital Albums Chart and Canada's Digital Albums Chart.^[9][10]With this accomplishment, Lambert makes music history as the first openly gay artist to achieve the top charting position.^[11][12][13]

Citing influence from various artists, Lambert has become recognized for his flamboyant, theatrical and androgynous performance style, and his powerful and technically skilled tenor voice with multi-octave range.^[14][15] He has accrued numerous awards and nominations, including a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and has sold nearly two million copies of his debut album worldwide as of April 2012^[16] and 4.2 million singles worldwide as of January 2011.^[17] The Times identified Lambert as the first openly gay mainstream pop artist to launch a career on a major label in the U.S., while The LA Times ranked him fifth in its list of the top 120 American Idol contestants.^[18][19]

Biography[link]

Early life (1982–2000)[link]

Adam Lambert was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on January 29, 1982, to mother Leila (née Mitchel), an interior designer; and father Eber Lambert, a program manager for Novatel Wireless.^[20] He has a younger brother, Neil.^[20] His father is of mostly Norwegian descent and his mother is Jewish. Lambert was raised in his mother's religion^[21][22][23] and has since performed in Hebrew at Jewish events, singing songs such as "Shir LaShalom" at a 2005 tribute concert to assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin^[24] and performing at the San Diego Temple of the Arts multiple times, including at the Kol Nidre service on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.^[25]

Shortly after Lambert's birth, his family moved to California when a job opportunity opened for his father in San Diego.^[26] At first, they lived in Rancho Bernardo but settled in Rancho Peñasquitos after his brother was born.^[26] Attending Deer Canyon Elementary School, Lambert began performing with Metropolitan Educational Theatre network from the age of nine and appeared in local productions of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Fiddler on the Roof with the company.^[26][27] Around this age, he also received voice coaching and continued his passion for performing while he attended Mesa Verde Middle School.^[20]

While attending Mount Carmel High School (MCHS), he became heavily involved with theater and choir, frequently performed vocals with the school's jazz band, MC Jazz, and loyally competed in the local Air Bands competitions.^[26] Some of his memorable MCHS performances included Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance and "It's Only a Paper Moon" with MC Jazz.^[28] Still thrilled by the stage, Lambert auditioned for Starlight Theatre, a professional outdoor theater company in Balboa Park, where he performed in the ensemble for Hello, Dolly!, Camelot, The Music Man, Grease and as Captain Hook in Peter Pan.^[20][26] After graduating in 2000, he moved to Orange County to attend college. Shortly after enrollment, Lambert had a change of heart, pushed by his intense desire to perform. He left school after only five weeks and moved to Los Angeles. "I just decided that what I really wanted to do was try to work in the real entertainment world," he said. "Life is all about taking risks to get what you want."^[28]

Career beginnings (2001–2008)[link]

At 19, Lambert landed his first job, touring on a cruise ship with Anita Mann Productions for ten months.^[29] Afterwards, he began auditioning again and performed in light opera in Orange County, California.^[29] By 21, he was signed with a manager and cast in a European tour of Hair for six months.^[29] "That was a huge turning point for me personally, because I finally got comfortable in my own skin. I was discovering a lot about myself. Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, a lot of it."^[29] He dyed his hair black, and while in Germany, reportedly started smoking cannabis and tried ecstasy.^[30] In 2004, he appeared in the Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) production of Brigadoon^[31] and a Pasadena Playhouse production of 110 in the Shade,^[32] before being cast in the role of Joshua in The Ten Commandments: The Musical at the Kodak Theatre alongside Val Kilmer. Lambert, still unknown, was one of the few facets of the production to garner a positive review.^[32][33] After coming to the attention of the casting director for the musical Wicked, he was hired as the understudy for the role of Fiyero in addition to being an ensemble member in the first national touring production of the musical from 2005, and the Los Angeles production from 2007. He finished performances with the musical in 2008.^[32] Beginning in 2004, he regularly performed at the Upright Cabaret and the Zodiac Show, which was co-created by Carmit Bachar of the Pussycat Dolls.

During this same period, Lambert briefly moonlighted as the front man for underground rock band The Citizen Vein with Steve Sidelnyk, Tommy Victor and Monte Pittman.^[34] He remembers, "We did three gigs and that was it and we recorded a couple things, like rough recordings, and I don't know, it didn't quite click."^[35] He also worked as a demo singer and a session musician; a compilation of his 2005 recordings were later released on the album Take One (2009)^[36] by Hi Fi Recordings and Wilshire Records. Upon their release, Lambert issued a statement: "Back in 2005 when I was a struggling artist, I was hired as a studio singer to lend my vocals to tracks written by someone else. I was broke at the time and this was my chance to make a few bucks, so I jumped at the opportunity to record for my first time in a professional studio. The work I did back then in no way reflects the music I am currently in the studio working on."^[37]

[edit] American Idol (2009)

Lambert singing the national anthem during his visit to MCAS Miramar (2009)

Lambert auditioned for the eighth season of American Idol in San Francisco, California. He recalls his decision to audition for the show came after a week at Burning Man where he experimented with "certain funguses." He went on to say that "I had a psychedelic experience where I looked up at the clouds and went, 'Oh!' I realized that we all have our own power, and that whatever I wanted to do, I had to make happen."^[38] During his initial audition, Lambert sang the songs "Crazy", "Rock With You" and "Bohemian Rhapsody".^[35] Although advancing to Hollywood week and performing "What's Up" and "Believe" as solos and "Some Kind of Wonderful" in the group performance,^[39] judges Simon Cowell and Kara DioGuardi feared he was too theatrical.^[35] Nonetheless, he advanced to the top 36 where contestants were split into three groups of 12. Lambert was in group 2 and performed "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction",^[39] after which, he was voted into the top 13, joining fellow group 2 performers Allison Iraheta and Kris Allen. Lambert and Allen became roommates in the Idol mansion.^[21]

The first week of live shows, Lambert sang Michael Jackson's "Black or White", leading to praiseful support from all four judges.^[40] The following week, Lambert sang a version of "Ring of Fire". While Randy Jackson, DioGuardi, and Paula Abdul all liked his performance, Cowell called it "indulgent rubbish".^[40] On Motown night, Lambert sang an acoustic version of The Miracles' "The Tracks of My Tears". The judges all liked it, and Smokey Robinson, the week's mentor and the original singer-songwriter, gave Lambert a standing ovation. When Lambert performed "Play That Funky Music", DioGuardi capped the judge's across-the-board positive reaction with: "Every week I cannot wait to get to the show and see what you’re going to do next."^[40] Advancing to the top 8, he sang the 2001 Michael Andrews and Gary Jules arrangement of "Mad World". Because the show had exceeded its time slot, only Cowell gave a critique, which he did by simply giving Lambert a standing ovation. During the results the next night, the other judges agreed that a standing ovation was the best critique of Lambert's performance.^[40] The next week, he performed "Born to Be Wild" to which Abdul responded, "You're one of the bravest contestants I've ever witnessed", but Cowell questioned the performance's overall likability factor in the general public.^[40]

Photos of Lambert romantically kissing another man surfaced in the midst of the American Idol competition. Highlighted as controversial, they were presented and discussed by conservative commentators on The O'Reilly Factor, who called them "embarrassing", but did not agree that the images would impact the competition.^[41] Lambert confirmed that the photos were of him, stating he had nothing to hide and has always been open about his life.^[42] Mainstream media speculation centered on Lambert's sexuality; presuming he was gay, he would be the first gay American Idol.^{[43][note 1]} Much of the media focus regarded the readiness of American Idol voters for an openly gay winner.^[43] Asked by Rolling Stone whether the speculation surrounding his sexual orientation impacted the final vote, Lambert laughed and said "probably".^[44] He confirmed that he was gay in a Rolling Stone cover story interview shortly after he was named the American Idol runner-up.^[30]

For his second top 7 performance, Lambert sang "If I Can't Have You", delivering what DioGuardi described as his "most memorable performance", while Cowell described his vocals as "immaculate" and Abdul was reduced to tears.^[40] A week later, he returned with "Feeling Good" which received mixed reception from the judges who felt his edgy and dramatic theatrical performance was "a little too Broadway." For the first and only time, he ended up in the bottom two after the public vote, but received enough votes to remain in the competition.^[40] Down to the top 4, Lambert was the first to perform and sang "Whole Lotta Love". Cowell commented, "that was one of my favorite performances" admitting that "nobody can top that now", while Abdul described Lambert's performance as "a whole lotta perfect." He followed it by "nailing" his duet of "Slow Ride" with fellow competitor Allison Iraheta later in the night.^[40] For the top 3 show, he performed "One" before Cowell declared, "If you are not in the final next week, it will be one of the biggest upsets", and followed it with "Cryin' before Abdul affirmed, "we'll be seeing you next week and many years after that."^[40] He also visited his hometown and reprised his earlier successes of "Black or White" and "Mad World" at his alma mater, Mount Carmel High School.^[45] Afterwards, San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders declared May 8, 2009, "Adam Lambert Day."^[46]

Friends from the start, Lambert and Kris Allen were safe, and into the final. Lambert performed three solo songs in the final, reprising "Mad World" as his choice. He followed this by the 1960s civil rights anthem "A Change Is Gonna Come", picked by producer Simon Fuller, to a tremendously positive judge reaction. "That was the best I've EVER heard you sing, EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER!" cooed Abdul. "Whatever happens with this Idol journey, I know you're going to be iconic."^[40] The mandatory winner's single, "No Boundaries", was then performed by both Lambert and Allen. After the performance, Cowell summed up Lambert's journey, "Over the entire season, you've been one of the best, most original contestants we've ever had on the show. The hope and whole idea of a show like this is to find a worldwide star, and I truly believe we've found that in you."^[40] Alongside the usual solo performances, Lambert also performed a medley of "Beth", "Detroit Rock City", and "Rock and Roll All Nite" with rock band Kiss and joined with Kris Allen, Brian May and Roger Taylor (of Queen) to perform the anthem "We Are the Champions" during the final episode before the results were announced.^[47] Lambert was announced as the runner-up for the eighth season of American Idol but, upon winning, Kris Allen stated, "Adam deserved this." Explaining this remark later, Allen said that he thought Lambert deserved to win as much as he did, and that Lambert "was the most consistent person all year. He was seriously one of the most gifted performers that I've ever met."^[48] Lambert's version of the winner's single was released alongside Allen's version. The LA Times later ranked Lambert 5th in its list of the top 120 American Idol contestants, selected from seasons 1 to 9 of the show, above Allen.^[49]

[edit] American Idol season 8 performances and results

• ^ Note A: Due to the judges using their one save to save Matt Giraud, the Top 7 remained intact for an additional week.
• ^ Note B: It was only announced that Allison Iraheta received the lowest number of votes this week. The other member(s) of the bottom two or three were never revealed, and the safe contestants were announced in random order.

Fresh from the competition, Lambert participated in the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2009 with his fellow top 10 contestants which visited 50 cities in the United States and Canada from July 5 to September 15, 2009 and was the recipient of two 2009 awards: the Young Hollywood Award for Artist of the Year and the Teen Choice Award for Male Reality/Variety Star.^[50][51] He reteamed with fellow American Idol contestants Kris Allen and Allison Iraheta for a special Idols Rock My Town concert in February which was held at the Highline Ballroom in New York City.^[52] When Lambert appeared a guest on Larry King Live (guest-hosted by Ryan Seacrest) along with Kris Allen, judge Paula Abdul, and the rest of the top ten finalists, he stated that he planned to create a pop rock, multi-genre album fused with electronic production.^[53] Lambert stuck to those intentions; the album he subsequently released conformed highly to his description of the album he planned to make.^[54]

[edit] For Your Entertainment and touring (2009–2011)

Lambert at the 16th Screen Actors Guild Awards (2010)

For Your Entertainment, Lambert's debut studio album, was released in 2009. Number three on the Billboard 200^[55] and selling 198,000 copies in the United States in its first week,^[5] the album sees Lambert in collaboration with a number of producers, majorly Rob Cavallo, and a string of writers that includes Matthew Bellamy, Ryan Tedder, Rivers Cuomo, Justin Hawkins, P!nk, Linda Perry and Lady Gaga.^[56] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 71, which indicates "generally favorable reviews" with Entertainment Weekly writing, "he's still the belle of what turns out to be one heck of a glitter-pop ball," and All Music Guide stating, "there's a lot of pure pop pleasure here, more than any immediate post-Idol album has ever delivered." But Rolling Stone gave it a more mixed review: "The songs sound great but feel strangely stuffy--[it] seems like a disc that was overthought."^[57] Its Claude Kelly and Dr. Luke-produced lead single "For Your Entertainment" preceded the album's release but was not as successful as its second single "Whataya Want from Me" which impacted on charts worldwide, became his highest-peaking single (at number 10) on the Billboard Hot 100, and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 53rd awards ceremony. Another notable single included on the album was "Time for Miracles", which was originally intended as only the ending theme for the disaster movie 2012; Queen guitarist Brian May lauded the "truly sensational" song, admitting that he was "completely blown away" upon hearing the track.^[58] Since its release, For Your Entertainment has sold nearly 2 million copies worldwide ^[59] and was certified gold in the US.^[3][60][54]

On November 22, Lambert performed "For Your Entertainment" at the American Music Awards of 2009. The controversial performance, which was the night's finale, showed Lambert kissing a male bassist, grinding a dancer's head against his pelvis, and grabbing the crotch of another.^[61] In response, the Parents Television Council, a conservative decency campaigning group,^[62] urged viewers to complain to the FCC,^[63] despite the fact that the performance occurred "outside the FCC's usual 6am-10pm time frame prohibiting the broadcast of indecent material".^[64] ABC received about 1,500 telephoned complaints and cancelled Lambert's scheduled November 25 performance on Good Morning America.^[65][66] Consequently, CBS invited Lambert to perform on The Early Show instead, on the same date, in New York City.^[67] When discussing the incident in a backstage Rolling Stone interview after the performance, Lambert stated: "Female performers have been doing this for years—pushing the envelope about sexuality—and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out. 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."^[61] Lambert returned to the AMA's two years later as a presenter, and was warmly received.^[68]

In the months surrounding his album release, Lambert appeared on the cover of a number of high-profile magazines including Entertainment Weekly in May 2009,^[69] Rolling Stone in June 2009^[70] and Details in November 2009.^[71] In his Details shoot he was photographed with a nude woman, sparking controversy.^[72] His Rolling Stone cover story became the magazine's best selling issue of the year.^[73] He appeared on the cover of Out magazine in their "Out 100" issue (11/09),^[74] again sparking controversy when Out's publisher issued him an open letter questioning the "gayness" of his image.^[75] The Canadian website and magazine Rockstar Weekly published an Adam Lambert fan magazine in February 2010 featuring fun and inspirational stories from Lambert fans around the world. The issue sold out quickly in its limited first run and was re-issued in October 2010 with extra pages.^[76] In April it was revealed that Lambert had been chosen one of People Magazine's Most Beautiful People 2010.^[77] He appeared on the cover of Japan's May 2010 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, after his single "For Your Entertainment" reached its fifth consecutive number-one spot on their radio airplay charts.^[78] In November 2011, Lambert appeared on the cover of The Advocate, which included an in-depth interview about his upcoming album and other topics.^[79] The issue immediately became a sought-after item, since the magazine is available by subscription only.^[80]

In support of the album, Lambert performed at various events since its release, both in the US and internationally. These included radio-sponsored events, live concerts, and televised events. In December 2009, he hosted and performed at a number of radio-sponsored Jingle Balls, in New York, Miami, and Tampa, Florida.^[81] And, to ring in the New Year, he headlined the Gridlock New Year's Eve 2010 festival at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, CA. The event, hosted by Pamela Anderson, benefited the American Red Cross.^[82] In February 2010, AOL Music unleashed a special, intimate, five-song mini-concert on AOL Sessions where Lambert performed "Whataya Want from Me", the Lady Gaga-written "Fever", "Strut", "If I Had You" and "Soaked".^[83] The same month, he performed another intimate acoustic concert for IHeartRadio where he stopped the performance of "Whataya Want from Me" to ask an audience member to stop talking on her cell phone.^[84] Later that month, Lambert performed his first official solo concert, held at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California,^[85] where played to a sold-out audience of 3,500 fans, some of whom came from as far away as Thailand and Australia to attend the concert.^[86] On March 31, 2010, Lambert performed  a set in Berns, Stockholm, Sweden.^[87] In April 2010, he performed two concerts in British Columbia, Canada; the first on April 8 in Coquitlam, BC, and another concert at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond B.C. the following night.^[88] A year later in May 2011, Lambert performed at the Maxidrom Festival in Moscow, Russia, to an estimated crowd of 50,000 people^[89] while July saw him at the Ste Agathe en Feux Festival in Quebec, Canada.

At the start of June 2010, Lambert embarked on his debut headlining concert tour Glam Nation, playing throughout the United States with Allison Iraheta and Orianthi before performing throughout Europe and Asia. His concert in Malaysia on October 10, 2010, went ahead as planned, despite protests from an Islamist political party.^[90] Lambert performed a total of 113 shows; nearly all of them sold out.^[91] The concert performed at Indianapolis was filmed for Lambert's first video release Glam Nation Live, a package included a 13-track CD with a DVD which featured the concert and behind-the-scenes footage.^[92] The concert, which MTV called "out of this world", and his subsequent video release, were well-received, with Entertainment Weekly saying that it "sizzles" with the energy that Lambert's vocals bring in a live concert setting.^[93] Glam Nation Live debuted at number one on the SoundScan Music Video chart^[94] and landed in the number-12 spot on Billboard's 2011 year-end chart for music video sales.^[95] This followed the release of his first extended play (EP), titled Acoustic Live!, which included acoustic versions of his songs recorded live in various countries. The EP garnered excellent reviews and was called "electrifying" by the New York Daily News.^[96][97][98]

On November 6, 2011, Lambert joined the legendary band Queen as lead singer for a special performance at the MTV Europe Music Awards held in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the band was honored with the Global Icon Award. In a "spectacular" performance that closed the show, Lambert and Queen presented a medley of the classic hits “The Show Must Go On”, "We Will Rock You", and "We Are the Champions".^[99] On December 9, Roger Taylor was quoted as saying they are in talks with Lambert about fronting some more live shows for Queen, calling the artist "a really great performer with an astonishing voice."^[100]

[edit] Trespassing (2012–present)

After changing management from 19 Entertainment to Direct Management Group in August 2011,^[101] Lambert announced that his second studio album, Trespassing, would be released on March 20, 2012; and that he would serve as executive producer.^[102] In mid-February, he reported that the release had been delayed to "Mapril", citing last minute additions of new songs and collaborations.^[103] After unveiling snippets of four more album tracks, Lambert announced in late March that the album would drop on May 15, 2012.^[104][105] Anticipation for the release has been building and is considerable.^{[106][107][108]} The title track was co-written with Grammy Award winning Pharrell Williams,^[109] while the album's lead single, "Better Than I Know Myself", a collaboration with Dr. Luke and Claude Kelly,^[110] was released on December 20, 2011 to all digital retailers.^[102] His debut live performance of the single on January 17, 2012, on the The Tonight Show with Jay Leno received overwhelmingly positive reviews, focusing on Lambert's soaring and impeccable vocals on this melodically challenging song, as well as his more stripped down and sophisticated look.^{[111][112][113][114]} Its reprise on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show two days later, brought equally favorable reviews as well as an interview.^[115][116] The commanding album cover art by Lambert's friend and Art Director/Photographer for Trespassing, Lee Cherry, was revealed on January 24. The image is a dramatic departure from Lambert's depiction on the 2009 cover of For Your Entertainment, signaling a new era in his career.^[117][118]

On January 29, Lambert's 30th birthday, he was the first American artist to play the Q-Snowcase in Zell Am See, Austria. In a five-song acoustic set, he performed three songs from the new album—including a debut unplugged version of the title track "Trespassing," described as "fierce and funky" in this rendition.^[119]

Lambert premiered his provocative and "stunningly art-directed" video of "Better Than I Know Myself" on his Vevo channel on February 3, 2012.^[120] Directed by Ray Kay, the video provides the viewer with split screen and split personality entree into an interpretative world where dark and light collide and coalesce. The multiple meanings attached to the work serve as the introduction to the theme of the album Trespassing, which Lambert says reflects the dark and light sides of himself through song.^[121][122]

It was announced in February that Lambert would take the stage with Queen to headline the U.K.'s Sonisphere Festival on July 7, 2012. The performance was to have particular significance as its location at Knebworth Park marks the site of Freddie Mercury's final performance with the band in August 1986. In announcing the lineup, Sonisphere cited the "potent chemistry" between Lambert and Queen at the EMAs, as well as the event's historic significance.^[123][124] Discussing the date, Brian May remarked that he expected Lambert to be a "great interpreter" of Mercury's songs: “It will be challenging – my God, it will be challenging," said May.^[125] Queen announced an additional appearance with Lambert in Moscow's Olympic Stadium, on June 30, 2012.^[126][127] Subsequently, the Sonisphere Knebworth festival was cancelled due to logistics and "circumstances,"^[128] with both Queen and Lambert expressing disappointment and sadness respectively, but also hope for "redress" in the future.^[129][130] Days later, Roger Taylor announced that Queen and Lambert would perform three summer dates in addition to their Moscow show: two in London in early July and one in Kiev that would also feature Elton John as a headliner.^[131][132] In late April, another concert was added in Wrocław, Poland, for July 7, where Queen and Lambert will headline a new rock festival.^[133] Queen announced that a third London show would be added on July 14, as a result of the instantaneous sell-out of the earlier two London dates.^[134][135]

Lambert performed "Trespassing" on April 9, 2012, at the Logo channel's fifth annual NewNowNext Awards, where he closed the show with a "rousing" and "in-your-face" performance.^[136][137] On April 11, he announced via twitter, that the album's next single would be Never Close Our Eyes, written by Bruno Mars and produced by Dr. Luke.^[138][139] Reviews for the song, which was released digitally on April 17,^[140] have been overwhelmingly positive.^[141][142] "Never Close Our Eyes" debuted on national television on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on April 27, 2012, when Lambert performed for their concert series, again garnering positive reviews.^[143][144] He appeared on Good Morning America -- the show from which he was cut following his controversial American Music Awards of 2009 performance—on May 14, to sing "Never Close Our Eyes" and co-host the Pop News segment.^[145] He announced via Twitter that he would return to the American Idol stage for his third consecutive year to perform "Never Close Our Eyes" on the results show that precedes Idol's final week.^[146] The May 17 performance was touted for its vibrant energy and dazzle, as well as for the powerhouse vocals that have become Lambert's signature.^{[147][148][149]}

Trespassing was released on May 15, 2012, following more than a week of major news stories and a preponderance of positive reviews.^{[150][151][152][153]} Lambert tweeted his excitement at finding that the album had spent its first day at the top of the U.S. iTunes album chart.^[154][155]On May 23, the album debuted in the number one position on the Billboard 200 chart, selling upwards of 77,000 copies.^[156][157]Lambert again took to twitter, referencing the historic significance of being the first openly gay artist to reach this pinnacle, and as usual, acknowledging the help of his fans.^[158]

The video for "Never Close Our Eyes," released on May 29, flipped the song's more personal, manifest content on its head, as Lambert had done with "Trespassing"'s first video release, "Better Than I Know Myself." Directed by Dori Oskowitz, it depicts a a drab, futuristic, Orwellian-type landscape which becomes transformed through rebellion, visually represented by dazzling neon color and celebratory dance. The latter signify the return (and triumph) of individual expression, advancing the album's themes of dark vs. light, and suppression vs. self-affirmation.^{[159][160][161]}

Television (2009–2011)[link]

Lambert has made numerous television appearances since leaving the American Idol stage.

In May 2009, he performed outdoors at the Fifth Avenue studios of CBS' The Early Show with his rendition of "Mad World".^[162] The following morning, he was interviewed on Live with Regis and Kelly, and again performed “Mad World.”^[163]

He was interviewed for a segment of the ABC News magazine show 20/20 in June 2009, which was promoted as the first televised discussion by Lambert of his sexuality. The interview reviewed much of his musical career, leading into the up-coming 2009 Idol Tour.^[164]

In August 2009, he appeared with fellow Idols David Cook and Kris Allen on the Good Morning America televised concert series held in Central Park, New York City. He sang a nearly acoustic version of Muse’s “Starlight,” which had become part of his set list for the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2009, then running concurrently.^[165][166]

On November 25, 2009, Lambert performed his single "Whataya Want from Me" on The Late Show with David Letterman. Earlier that day, he had debuted the song live on The Early Show, where he also sang "Music Again" from the newly released For Your Entertainment album. The appearances provided a segue from his controversial American Music Awards performance that had occurred only days earlier.^[167]