Glambert Sort Of Apologizes, Did He Need To?

By Sarah Cobarrubias in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 3, 2009 6:40PM

Even if you didn’t see Adam Lambert’s controversial American Music Awards Performance, you’ve surely been smothered by the slew of press surrounding it. To close the respected award ceremony, the season 8 American Idol runner-up chose to perform "For Your Entertainment,” the title track from his debut album by the same name - and spiced it up by French kissing the keyboard player and grinding a dancer’s face into his crotch. But America can relax, because after a week of being nationally shunned, Lambert finally admitted on Tuesday’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show that he took his performance “maybe a little too far.”

During the interview Lambert told DeGeneres, "I suppose part of what I got caught up in, that I forgot, was that this was the first time people were seeing me on TV again after Idol," and that he “would never intend to disrespect anybody.” Lambert further explored his performance during Sirius satellite radio’s Morning Jolt, confessing that before his fame he suffered from “a little bit of an ugly-duckling complex” and once weighed 250 pounds. He claims his recent risqué behavior is due to his major weight loss and new found confidence as a performer. Maybe it was having his debut album deleted from the Billboard charts or ABC canceling his appearances on Good Morning America, Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest and Jimmy Kimmel Live that persuaded Lambert to offer up something just short of an apology.

But maybe we were a little too hard on Glambert. After all, no award show is complete without some unexpected scandal to stir up the press for weeks after. And besides, he’s still America’s young pop superstar in-the-making, trying to find his own identity behind all that caked-on makeup. Either way, with the unfortunate AMA incident behind him, Lambert hopes to shift his focus to his music rather than his image. Here’s hoping, because all else aside, that night’s vocal performance was sub-par. And his album, For Your Entertainment, though versatile, was more like an exercise in imitation. Sure, “Fever” is a catchy glam-attack we can’t get out of our heads, and “Broken Open” proves what a stunning vocalist Lambert really is. But when he attempts to conform to the styles of the album’s many collaborators (Pink, Muse and Lady Gaga, among others), his vocals become strained and insincere. Not to mention the obviously Queen-inspired “Music Again,” and the All American Rejects-esque “Pick U Up.” Maybe next time the immensely talented Lambert will follow his own creative direction and offer up something a little more genuine.