Adam Lambert
“I am so excited about what Lil Nas X did,” says Adam Lambert down the phone. “I just think it’s high time we had somebody out there being exactly who they are.” The American singer-songwriter is full of passion and praise for pop culture’s latest queer superstar, commending him for forging a successful and fruitful music career as an openly gay man.
It’s something Adam knows all too well. When he was catapulted to global fame following his memorable run on American Idol back in 2009, Adam had to navigate being unapologetically queer while cultivating a successful career that wouldn’t offend Middle America. More than 10 years on with millions of records sold, having toured the world, and fresh from launching his own philanthropic initiative to help LGBTQ+ people called the Feel Something Foundation, we’d say he’s done a decent job doing so.
While he faced a global pandemic-shaped bump in the road when releasing his fourth studio album Velvet last March, Adam didn’t let the cancelled tour plans get him down. Instead he launched himself into new creative projects, and reached out to other LGBTQ+ musicians to start a conversation about being a queer person in the music industry and the challenges that it brings. It led to his Feel Something Foundation partnering with Stonewall Day on 6 June, with Adam curating a very special line-up of musical performances
