Adam Lambert: ABC threatened to sue me for kissing a man at the 2009 AMAs
Adam Lambert is on a tear currently. He has every right to be, so go off, Adam. He put ABC on blast for acting like fools after his American Music Awards performance in 2009. He’d just placed second in season eight of American Idol after being afraid that he wouldn’t be accepted due to his homosexuality. Following his Idol performance, Entertainment Weekly wrote a favorable article on Adam that highlighted his approach to his sexuality as what made him such a great contestant. So Adam went into his AMA performance confident enough improvise a kiss with his bassist on stage. Following the show, stuffy ol’ ABC lost their fragile minds, banned him for a while and threatened to sue. In response to ABC’s antiquated reaction, Adam decided to, “be as gay as I f—ing can be.”
Adam Lambert opened up about his experience performing at the 2009 American Music Awards — and what he says was a negative reaction from ABC after he kissed a musician onstage during the telecast.
Lambert was accepting an award at the 2023 Creative Coalition Spotlight Initiative Gala when he made the comments, according to Entertainment Weekly’s Patrick Gomez.
“I did the kind of performance I had seen since I was a teenager,” Lambert said of his 2009 performance. “I was kind of sexy and had dancers on stage, and I did a couple of suggestive moves with a couple of dancers, and an impromptu kiss with my bass player.”
“I was feeling it,” the singer added.
But according to Lambert, ABC (which televised the awards show) had a less-than-positive reaction to his onstage kiss.
“I got off stage and I got in trouble. The network was like, ‘How dare you?’ They banned me for a while,” Lambert said, per EW. “They threatened me with a lawsuit. It was like, ‘Oh, okay, that’s where we’re at.'”
The “American Idol” alum said that he “didn’t know” his flirtatious performance would rub some the wrong way.
“I’d been in a bubble in LA amongst artists, weirdos, and I didn’t realize that that kind of thing would ruffle feathers the way it did,” Lambert explained.
Lambert went on to say in his acceptance speech that he subsequently decided to “be as gay as I fucking can be,” regardless of the consequences.
“If it gets me into trouble, it gets me in trouble, but I’m not going to back down from it,” the singer said of his decision to be “flamboyant” and “wild.”
ABC is, of course, owned by Disney, who is notoriously hypocritical about their LGBTQIA+ policies. I posted the video of the performance below. The kiss is about the 4:10 mark and it is clearly unplanned because it’s awkward as can be. The bass player maybe should be the offended one. But not ABC, there was nothing offensive or anything for them to push back on. It was a sexually charged, bondage-themed performance, a kiss was the tamest thing in it. Making an issue over the fact that it was two men was just silly. Also, I love that the network has an issue with Adam kissing his bass player, but they’re sort of fine with him smashing a man’s face in his crotch at the 1:05 mark. The fact that they pushed Adam to be as flamboyant as he wishes is delicious. Good for him.
As I said, Adam’s had a few points to make lately. Last week he reacted to the news that Theo James may be cast as George Michael in a biopic. Adam posted to Instagram, “Yay another straight man playing a gay icon.” This week, however, he clarified his point, saying, “I by no means think that gay characters can only be played by gay actors. That would be ridiculous.” But Adam believes that gay icons are different and should be played only by gay actors. I won’t argue this point. I will mention that Adam is currently starring in the film Fairyland, whose lead, Scoot McNairy is a straight man playing a gay man based on the author’s real gay father. And point out that Adam could possibly pass for George with the right makeup. And he can sing and act. Again, I’m not saying Adam doesn’t have a point, just giving you all the information.
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