Last Sunday’s American Music Awards left us with two performances that sparked the audience eye. Igniting the flame was Lady Gaga setting her piano on fire in a very hot number of Bad Romance and Speechless. Then at the show’s finale Lambert got busy setting crotches and mouths on fire in a fully clothed erotic spectacle that left some viewers in shock and in homophobic disgust. What’s Adam’s response to all this? It was, “in the moment” as was told to CNN. And, probably this…
For your Entertainment is a risqué, upbeat glam rock tune that’s meant to push buttons. Reminiscent of Madonna’s “Erotica” album with such tracks as, Erotica, Bye Bye Baby and Where Life Begins, Adam’s “Entertainment” shares in a quest to break ground from a male perspective, a gay male.
During his AMA performance this past Sunday, Adam unleashes his sexual prowl on his fellow stage members, both male and female. Dragging performers by leash around the stage and shoving their faces in his crotch. If that’s not shocking enough for the un-expecting ABC/AMA viewers, Adam takes it a step further and tugs on a female dancer’s costume while she’s hovering over his face. But wait… It’s not over yet. Near the end of the performance, Adam grabs a male guitarist from behind the head and pulls him in for a full on mouth to mouth tongue swap.
If you were watching this on the East Coast then you were treated to the full uninterrupted performance. However by the time the show was aired in the remaining U.S. time zones it had been edited and toned down just a bit, mostly just removing the close-ups.
Monday morning, the Parents Television Council calls for action as ABC receives what it calls a moderate response of over 1500 complaints. “They’re outraged,” said Timothy Winters, president of the Parents Television Council. “They just can’t believe the nature of the content, the explicit nature, and how much graphic content there was.”
Adam’s AMA performance via YouTube (while it lasts).
Update: Adam Lambert speaks out on ABC’s decision to censor his performance:
“If it’s edited, that’s discrimination. I will be a little disappointed because there is a little bit of discrimination going in this country. There’s a big double standard, female pop artists have been doing things provocative like that for years, and the fact that I’m a male, and I’ll be edited and discriminated against could be a problem. Shock is fun, shock rock is like something that existed, for example, like in the 70’s, Alice Cooper…David Bowie, you had artists that liked to push the envelope and that’s what made them so fresh. Prince for example, wore assless chaps one year – think that surprise is part of entertainment. I think that it keeps people watching its fun, it makes you laugh and it should be that way. And if it made you uncomfortable, maybe I’m not for you.” Via Music.Spreadit.Org
Subsequently ABC canceled an Adam Lambert appearance on its morning show because it fears his performance will be too risqué for that time slot. Meanwhile, CBS has booked Lambert on its own morning show after hearing of ABC’s cancellation.
Lika’s Take:
I haven’t done a “Lika’s Take” in quite some time. It is topics like this that compel me to do so – so here it is. Some of the articles and comments across the internet on Adam’s performance are really driving me up the wall. Like my above article they all focus on the simulated orals, provocative insinuations, the male to male kiss on a nationally televised family program in a prime time TV spot that millions watch. To all you hypocrites, F*ck you, I say… Then get over it. I say hypocrites because most of you think it’s perfectly acceptable for a female artist to do this sort of thing but when a male does it – sh*t hits the fan!
I would have preferred to write an article based on the actual performance but to be honest it really wasn’t that good. The performance and quality in itself just wasn’t newsworthy in my opinion. The vocals were off, the stage set was scattered all over the place. It was just too busy to make a real artistic statement, let alone be truly entertaining. IMO, it was a theatrical design flop. The over-the-top Lambert was just that – way over the top. That said, I love the song, the lyrics and I’m quite sure the album version of the song is probably much, much better.
I think my biggest gripe with all this is with ABC. The network was aware of what the performance was going to be or at least enough to know what to expect might happen. There were rehearsals and videos of said rehearsals published all over the net the prior week. ABC itself used Lambert’s scheduled performance to up sell the 2009 AMA event saying that everyone would be talking about Adam Lambert’s performance the next day. The man-to-man kiss may not have been planned and was “in the moment” according to Lambert, but surely it wasn’t so far off-base that it was an utter shock to ABC. Regardless, instead of eating its own words the network spits them back in Lambert’s face. Whatever!
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