Adam in HS Nyt, 7/20/12

The best of all sons-in-law

Adam Lambert is the first chart-topper in American history to not hide his homosexuality.

Finland's son-in-law was #1 on the charts in America!

This sentence may sound funny, but it's true nonetheless.

Adam Lambert, who rose to fame on American Idol, released his second album, Trespassing, in May. In Finland, the album came second on the official list, but in the US, it went straight to #1. Even the moniker "Finland's son-in-law" is accurate - it's the tabloids' code name for Lambert, who is in a relationship with Finnish Sauli Koskinen.

Lambert made history with Trespassing. It was the first time the US album chart Billboard was topped by an artist who doesn't hide his homosexuality at all. "Perhaps in the past, people didn't believe you could come out of the closet and still have commercial success as a recording artist," he muses on the phone from London.

"I hope we get to a point where it doesn't matter any more," he adds.

This was the second time Adam Lambert half-accidentally advanced sexual equality: he was the first openly gay American Idol contestant. Lambert, who turned 30 in January, came second on Idol in 2009.

"Is the so-called post-gay era, where people are no longer classified according to their sexual orientation, one step closer now?" Lambert wonders. "Little things can change a lot."

In addition to the US, Trespassing got to #1 in, among others, Hungary, which is not exactly known for being liberal.

"I don't think people are buying the album because I'm gay. They buy it because they like the songs. If the music is good, it gives people the chance to see past their differences," Lambert says.

Megapopularity has put Lambert right in with royalty. He first sang with Queen on American Idol, and now he's been officially hired as a stand-in for Freddie Mercury. There were only a handful of gigs, though - the last one was in London last weekend.

How does it feel to fill Freddie Mercury's boots?

"I'm bringing my own boots to this party. My intention isn't to try to imitate Freddie, but to perform the songs the way they were originally meant to be performed. I've been listening to them and thought about what the core of them is. What the emotional central idea is," Lambert says.

Since Lambert is nearly Finnish, we have to ask: what's the strangest thing that ever happened to him in Finland?

He chuckles. "I think you know," he replies.

Lambert is alluding to the incident in last December when the police picked up both him and Sauli Koskinen after a scuffle on Iso Roobertinkatu.

Lambert doesn't mind the Finland question, but in the recording company rep who's on the line monitoring the call, it causes panic. All of a sudden our interview time is "up".

article by Otto Talvio in the Helsingin Sanomat weekly supplement Nyt, 7/20/12

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