4.27.19 Adam News and Info
Apr 26, 2019 23:51:03 GMT -5
Post by Q3 on Apr 26, 2019 23:51:03 GMT -5
Adam on Idol + ABC Special!
On April 28, Lambert comes full circle as he steps into the mentor role guiding the top eight “Idol” finalists as they each perform a song from the Queen catalog.
Viewers will get a bonus dose of Lambert, as on May 19 as he is set to perform on the season finale of the ABC show.
April 28’s two-hour episode won’t be an all-blowout: After Lambert helps teach the finalists how to go about replacing Freddie Mercury, another part of the show will be devoted to pairing the eight for “classic movie duets.”
Viewers will be able to watch and vote simultaneously across all U.S. time zones, with the show having an initial 5 p.m. airing on the west coast. Results will be announced at the end of the show.
The night following Lambert’s appearance, ABC will air the special “The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story.”
abcnetwork
The Show Must Go On.
@officialqueenmusic. @adamlambert.
April 29 at 8|7c on ABC.
Adam Lambert's Message to his Queen Critics
Ultimate Classic Rock-Martin Kielty April 26, 2019
As Adam Lambert led Queen icons Brian May and Roger Taylor into their performance at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2018, he took a moment to address the elephant in the room.
“I know what some of you may be thinking,” he told the crowd. “I’m just going to call it out: ‘He’s no Freddie.’ No shit! Because there will only be one rock god named Freddie Mercury.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d given such a speech since Queen + Adam Lambert began touring in 2012, three years after they first collaborated during the singer’s runner-up stint on American Idol in 2009. It’s an issue they may be hoping is finally behind them with the arrival of documentary The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story on April 29.
Since his first full-length concert with May and Taylor in 2012, the fact that he wasn’t Mercury had concerned him. “Man, I was really nervous beforehand,” he told People in 2018. “Not only did I have to make sure my voice held up and I knew all the words … but it was also the perception of the fans. I definitely had some concerns. This is not my music that I wrote: This is me, as a guest, with one of the greatest rock bands of all time, singing the songs that one of the greatest rock singers of all time brought to life.”
The doubters who went as far as buying tickets for a show are likely to have taken heart from comments made by his older colleagues. Speaking of their American Idol show – which had only been envisaged as a one-off event – the guitarist said, “It was really blindingly obvious that there was a chemistry already between us and Adam. It just happened completely naturally and made us all smile. The public reaction was massive, and so I think from that moment the idea of us working with Adam was seeded in our brains.”
Taylor described Lambert’s voice as “one in a hundred million” after they played the MTV Europe Awards in 2011.
In 2018 Lambert emphasized that “Freddie is irreplaceable. There’s no way to compare to him. It was always my hope that audiences would understand that I’m up there just excited to sing great music that everyone knows.”
He added that providing May and Taylor with the chance to keep performing was also a consideration. “Watching them delight in this connection with their fan base is really, really inspiring," he explained. "This is what they were made to do. This is their legacy. And I’m just happy to be a part of it.”
Link to article: ultimateclassicrock.com/adam-lambert-queen-critics/
Will Queen Ever Make an Album With Adam Lambert?
Ultimate Classic Rock-Apr 24, 2019
It's nearly 10 years since Adam Lambert made his first appearance alongside alongside Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen during the finale of American Idol’s eighth season. That moment formed a relationship that’s seen Queen + Adam Lambert delivering a series of tours, appearing at the Oscars ceremony and, later this month, starring in documentary The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story.
It’s a purple period for the British rock icons, following the $900 million box office success plus the four-Oscar triumph of biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. With so much achieved alongside Lambert – who frequently states he’s representing Freddie Mercury, rather than trying to replace him, and helping to keep the music alive – the band are often asked the obvious question: are you going to record an album together? The answer remains elusive.
The doubt on May’s part stems from the failure of The Cosmos Rocks, the album released under the Queen + Paul Rodgers banner in 2008 while the Free and Bad Company frontman was working with the band. “[W]e spent a big part of our lives doing that with Paul… on which there was some good material and we worked damn hard for months on end,” May told Rolling Stone in 2017. “He’s great, there’s no doubt about it, but nobody cared. It just disappeared. We sort of got the message, rightly or wrongly, that people just wanted to hear Queen with Freddie on record. The evidence is totally the opposite in regards to live – they love what we’re doing now, there’s no question, so we gravitated towards the live stuff.”
There’s no saying whether the success of Bohemian Rhapsody has changed minds. It seems a sequel was considered, probably just as a way of banking on its success – but suggesting that the industry believes there’s a place for major-league Queen product. Surely if any time was the right time to take a risk on Lambert, it would be about now? Taylor, for one, wasn’t always against the idea. In 2016 he said: “If we do anything in the future, I’d like it to be something new… I don’t know how new it would sound, but I think if Brian could come up with a song or two which we felt, sort of fitted, you know…”
Obviously new music that fits Queen, but written without Mercury, is enough of a challenge; but if anyone can do it surely May and Taylor can. (And perhaps bassist John Deacon might be persuaded to come out of retirement to ensure the recordings feel right?) The amount of touring Queen and Lambert have done together proves there’s an audience for what they do; but in order to address the problem experienced with the Rodgers album, they’d have to ensure mainstream interest. Perhaps the documentary is aimed as a step towards filling in the gaps, so fans might better understand and support the relationship.
Arguing that Mercury would “love and hate” Lambert, May told Yahoo last year: “In no way does he imitate Freddie but he provides that piece of the jigsaw puzzle. It’s stupendous… we would never be doing this now if it weren’t for Adam.” If a wider audience can get behind that concept, perhaps an album becomes a surer success.
Lambert himself has more to bring to the table than ever before, going by recent comments he made while announcing his new solo record. Reporting that he’d gone through a “dark period” of suffering artistic compromise and finally rediscovered his love for music, he explained: “I love making and performing music, but there have been many times where I’ve had to compromise on my artistic vision, with executives making decisions based on money and not art.” The experience left him “second-guessing my own artistry and having my mental health suffer because of it,” but after professional and social support, he said he was returning with a new attitude. “The tracks will chronicle the journey of taking responsibility for my own happiness and strength, and searching for intimacy,” he added. “I’ve found the joy I was missing and I’m back in my power.”
Those who have seen Bohemian Rhapsody will recognize his life experience appears to match Mercury’s own – which could mean he’s now an even better candidate for representing the iconic singer in the studio. If that can be agreed upon, it only comes down to whether Queen + Adam Lambert can write the kind of music Queen fans want to hear, despite Mercury’s absence.
Link to article: ultimateclassicrock.com/queen-adam-lambert-album/