Is Adam Lambert the next Michael Jackson?

A translation of http://epaper.dfdaily.com/dfzb/html/2013-01/11/content_723501.htm by hcluless

“American Idol” Adam Lambert will bring his new album to Shanghai to hold his first Mainland China solo concert.

By Qien Lienxei of DongFang Daily News Morning Edition

On the stage of American Idol Season 8 in 2009 there were the inexplicable presence of Adam Lambert who stunned and thrilled everyone. If the untamed black hair, bewitching black eyeliners and black nail polish is the manifestation of his powerful personal style; then his core must having been the superb stage presence, the other worldly hypnotic voice and the pure and sincere charm. On March 3rd this year, the 53th Grammy nominated Best Pop Vocal superstar will be bringing his new album ‘Trespassing’ to Shanghai. He will be performing on the stage of the Mercedes-Benz Culture Center; bringing us the only concert of his world tour that will be held in Mainland China. Tickets went on sale yesterday.

America’s first openly gay pop singer
Adam Lambert was not a guitar strumming boy-next-door overnight sensation. Before he past the audition of American Idol he had been working his way up in Hollywood for many years. This Hollywood boy started doing music theatre at age 10. After graduating high school, he gave up attending Cal State Fullerton and dived head first into working to make it in Hollywood. He also toured the US with music theatre companies.
On the stage of American Idol Season 8, Lambert’s sexual orientation was thrown into the open. As an extremely conservative mainstream TV program, once the question of sexual orientation showed up, it’s nearly impossible to keep advancing. Yet he miraculously finished the competition to the very end. Even though the title crown was given to Allen, Allen said afterwards ‘Adam deserves it.’ After American Idol, Lambert became the first Idol singer to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine before debuting his first album. In the picture he lay on an open closet (note: naked mattress?) Time Magazine called him the first openly gay singer. And his attitude towards this issue was ‘I know who I am, I have nothing to hide, I don’t believe God hates gay. God hates hate.’

In pop music world, only Michael Jackson and Madonna can push Being Yourself to the limit. The passing of Michael Jackson and aging of Madonna made people eager to find their heirs. Then there is Lady GaGa and Adam Lambert. When Lambert first burst onto scene, people were predicting him to be the next Michael Jackson or the next David Bowie.

Adam Lambert is hard to categorize. He can sound dark and cold or burning with passion. He’s crooning touches people deeply. He probably didn’t want to become anybody else; but just go on as he feels like it. “I just want to dress up, be famous. When you were a child you liked to play the game of Dream Comes True. I know this sounds childish, but if as an adult you kept the heart of a child, you are a ‘rock star’. That’s the kind of music I want to make, to encourage people by telling them dreams can come true, you can escape and find the music that interest you.”

New Album is sharp as talon but also tender as quiet confession
After the finale of 2009 American Idol, Lambert debut his first album ‘For Your Entertainment’. This album contained all sorts of styles, but didn’t do much to enhance his stage performance; yet worked by giving him a very colorful beginning. For Your Entertainment grossed 200 thousand dollars on it’s first week. And made Billboard chart at third place then top the chart the next week.

Three years later his second album Trespassing launched. One critic said ‘this kid from American Idol used the heart pounding rhythm of Queen’s ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ and the essence of Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ to announce to the world he is their heir apparent.’ (note: there are actual English original of these quotes, I don’t have time to find them.) Like For Your Entertainment, Trespassing is another substantial album. It sold almost 80 thousand copies first week and was number 1 on Billboard chart. Rolling Stone called it ‘an excellent pop album that everyone expected Adam Lambert to make.’ ITunes put it on their top ten list of the Best Pop Album of 2012. Lambert seemed to inject his body, heart, soul and sweat into this album. For him, being low key and reserved is not his style.

Compared to the vast varieties of his first album, this new one that he co-wrote 12 of the songs showed clearer intent. First half of it are passionate, fun loving dance tracks, such as Brother Mars (the planet. aka Bruno Mars) penned ‘Never Close Our Eyes’, a song with strong personality. And the 90’s best George Michael era sound-alike ‘Kickin’ In’ ‘Better Than I Know Myself’ in the middle begins the transition from light and fun to self examination. It demonstrated his para-natural soul grabbing high notes and the quiet moments of self analysis with claws retracted.

The soul of this album is ‘Underneath’, which lifted the heavy fog and unveiled Adam’s true love to his lover. He stood there in solitude and naked, quietly singing ‘look at me, now do you see?’ ‘I don’t want to hide anything from you’ It is very moving. And the marriage equality anthem ‘Outlaws of Love’, ‘they say we’ll rot in hell but I don’t think we will, they’ve branding us enough: outlaws of love’ shows listeners this usually beautiful man’s extremely brave heart.

Last July Lambert were invited by the band ‘Queen’ to replace Freddie Mercury as the temporary lead singer for a series of big concerts in London, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. The stages of Shanghai are no strangers to Lambert. He had performed serval times here already. Last September he was invited to appear on The Voice China and became the first foreign artist to perform on that show. Also, last December 2nd he sange six songs in the Hennessy Artistry concert.


All Adam and magazine quotes might have English originals. I didn’t have time to find them. ;)

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