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Loading ...Corvino: Adam Lambert’s “loss”
At the risk of stating the obvious, let me say that Adam Lambert is going to be just fine.
I’ll say it anyway because, barely minutes after Kris Allen was announced as the “upset” winner of American Idol, my Facebook feed was loaded with status updates declaring Adam’s loss a “hate crime,” with people vowing to take the streets to protest (on the eve of the anniversary of the White Night riots, no less).
I trust that their histrionics were limited to message boards, and that the streets are safe from drama. There will soon enough be events worth marching about.None of which is to diminish the importance of Lambert’s nearly winning America’s blockbuster musical talent competition as a more-or-less openly gay performer. Sure, it’s not DOMA, or DADT, or ENDA. But if greater issues always displaced lesser ones, there would be no justification for watching American Idol in the first place—or for art of any sort.
As for those who think that a contestant’s sexuality is nobody’s business, I’ll buy that the moment we apply the same standard to straight performers. Kris Allen’s wife, explicitly identified, was a regular presence. Third-placer Danny Gokey, as we heard repeatedly, was a widower. Family backstory is standard Idol fare. But Lambert, as Entertainment Weekly’s Mark Harris aptly put it, “was apparently made by the hand of God and left in a basket backstage at Wicked.”
Should Lambert have beat Allen? Lambert is the clearly more talented singer and performer, though Allen is not without his charms.
Lambert is also queer—in the broad sense of that term. Put aside the internet pictures of him in drag making out with other guys. Many Idol voters were unaware of such pictures, despite their being aired, for example, by Bill O’Reilly on Fox News. (O’Reilly did so under the guise of “Will America have a problem with this?” but it’s hard to believe he wasn’t trying precisely to provoke such a problem.)
Many Idol voters surely also missed Lambert’s skillful non-answers to media questions about his sexuality. ”I know who I am,” he told Entertainment Weekly when asked the gay question. “I’m an honest guy, and I’m just going to keep singing.”
But no viewer could miss Lambert’s flamboyant costumes, his outrageous high notes, or his eyeliner. Whatever his romantic interests, Adam Lambert reads queer. And that’s new territory for Idol. While Clay Aiken, the last gay near-winner, projected “wholesome,” Lambert screams “edgy.” (It’s a pitch-perfect scream, held impossibly long, which pierces the audience.)
And that’s why, despite Lambert’s superior vocal skills, Allen’s victory was unsurprising. American Idol contestants win by getting the most votes, and the average American doesn’t typically vote for queer. That’s part of what makes it queer, after all.
Nonetheless, Lambert seems no less a victor, and I hope he’s basking in his glory right now, eyeliner and all.
He made it to the final round while unabashedly being himself (in his appearance and performance, if not in direct response to interview questions). He has solidified his reputation as a consummate entertainer. He will no doubt go on to have a great career, far more successful than Allen’s, and probably even more successful than the career he would have had were he constrained by the packaging that comes with the “Idol” title.
Meanwhile, he has taught America something, if not about gays, then at least about “queers.” He has “mad skills”, yes—but he was also unfailingly polite, consistently expressing gratitude for the behind-the-scenes folks who developed his arrangements. He graciously expressed admiration for his competitors, including Allen. He was edgy, but not off-putting—all of which made it easier for people to see the main thing: his tremendous talent.
Besides injecting new life into Idol, Lambert also appears to have changed its culture. Idol has always struck me as a homophobic show, not just because of the noticeable absence of openly gay performers, but also because of the juvenile gay innuendo that regularly takes place between judge Simon Cowell and host Ryan Seacrest. That innuendo seems to have dramatically decreased this season—no doubt partly due to Lambert.
It will be interesting to see, now that Lambert must shift his attention from votes to sales, whether he chooses to talk more explicitly about his sexuality. I look forward to what he has to say. But I look forward even more to what he’s going to sing.
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John Corvino, Ph.D. is an author, speaker, and philosophy professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. His column “The Gay Moralist” appears weekly on 365gay.com. Read more about him at www.johncorvino.com.
John will be a volunteer faculty member this year for Campus Pride’s Leadership Camp for GLBT students. For more about Campus Pride’s work, or to make a donation on John’s behalf to support this year’s program, visit http://www.campuspride.org/.
From what I can see, American Idol tends to feature stereotypically hetero performers. So, it has probably built up an audience that’s most comfortable with performers who seem straight. I’m sure people who wouldn’t discriminate are out there, there just aren’t so many watching and voting on American Idol.
What happens when you get one really good performer who seems gay competing with a bunch of performers who don’t? As the seemingly straight performers are eliminated, their voters gravitate to other seemingly straight performers. In the end, even when the gay performer is the most talented, the last seemingly straight performer gets all the seemingly straight votes and wins.
Of course, this only happens if people are voting at least partly based on perceived sexual orientation. So yeah, I think there’s a good chance that Lambert lost because he’s gay.
Times are changing. Someday an Adam Lambert will win. Someday a Brokeback Mountain will get best picture. Before then, ENDA will pass and DADT will be repealed – because it’s easier to admit that we shouldn’t be discriminated against than to recognize when one of us is the very best.
For the first time in a long time (if ever) I am disappointed in a Corvino column. I have felt so alienated by all the Adam Lambert publicity the last few weeks, and especially by the assumptions everyone makes that since he and I (presumably) share a sexual orientation, he is automatically my favorite. Nope. Sexual orientation may play a role in some aspects of my life, but not necessarily in my taste in music and performers.
To get yet another dose of Adam Lambert here, of all places, was a disappointment, especially when I have learned to expect something a little more intellectually stimulating as respite for those who seem to demand that part of my sexuality be an automatic subscription to certain aspects of pop culture.
“Idol” is not the only homophobic show. Did anyone see “So You Think You Can Dance” last night when Nigel Lythgow said that same-sex dancing “alienated our audience” and that he preferred dancing be a place where “boys should be boys and girls should be girls?”
I’m surprised that no one has called him out.
Lythgow also has a history of attempting to make some of the more obviously queer competitors appear straight.
Anyone who thinks Kris Allen can sing better than Adam Lambert should hear this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJYyqzUr6jU
Oh who the hell cares, seriously!
Actually, judging solely on the live performances, Kris is solidly the better singer. And if the show is what it claims to be, then the voters picked the right man. And who can be upset that the new Idol is so cute? If he can act at all, we’ll be seeing him in film.
But based on studio recordings, and being an all-around entertainer, Adam wins easily. I’m looking forward to buying his stuff (but I can’t stand iTunes so I’m waiting…)
The problem with the show is that people get so involved in it, and it really stops being about the music at some point, so I’m glad Adam and Kris got along so well and there was not a competitive animosity between them. Their fans need to tone it down a few notches, and get on with life. So many are taking the vote as a personal attack on themselves. And poor Kris did nothing wrong, but now he has to go everywhere and almost apologize for winning. He deserves better than that.
I thought Adam was the most consistent performer all season and believe he has more potential than anybody else in his class.
But yeah I didn’t think he could win. Too many voters summarily dismissed him for a number of reasons. That’s a problem with Idol, at it’s core, it’s a popularity contest. Many viewers formulate opinions about the contestants and lose all semblance of objectivity. One just has to follow comments on forum threads and bloggers about Idol to see examples.
I agree with the disgust many gays feel about the Christian right stealing the win from a more qualified contestant, but the reverse has happened on AI. One season there a female African-American called Madissa who also had ‘mad vocals’. She was the frontrunner till she made some homophobic remarks and was then voted out. She was also a devout Christian. Karma perhaps?
The overriding format of the show is competition. “Who or What” do “We” like best when compared side by side. That’s always been my main reason to criticize American Idol or Britain Has Talent. When we get hooked deliciously by a Susan Boyle or an Adam Lambert or a Kris Allen it makes our hearts sing.
It’s really our system of valuing that’s the ogre here. Remember how disappointed some of us were when Brokeback Mt. lost “Best Picture”? Well, it was best to us no matter what Title others put on it. It obviously stood out for us that it was The Winner. But the Us is the salient component. And the fact that different talents or products are compared–like they are actually comparable. It’s not like two identical twins are singing the same song. Now that, I argue, would be comparable–sort of….. Despite the inherent (for me) problems in competitions, American Idol has introduced some wonderful talent. Both those guys are major “winners”.
I think one of our steps into the future must be to reevaluate values. That Adam divinely showed us Adam in many of his incarnations said he wasn’t playing the same game. He wasn’t safe. He may have “lost” because he wasn’t safe. But he “won” far more. And so did we. That can be one of the benefits of being queer.
The intent of saying “Idol has always struck me as a homophobic show, not just because of the noticeable absence of openly gay performers,…” is something I don’t totally agree with. Perhaps many of the gay contestants want to be judged only on that aspect? Adam himself has been evasive on the question outside of the show. That’s his business. Danny obviously choose to be open about the loss of his wife, right from the beginning. Second, there have been many obviously gay performers on Idol. I do think they carefully juggle their prime time offerings and how the gay performers are presented. The “straight” audience would need to be blind to not see that many of them are gay and getting the exposure they deserve. During the eliminations in Vegas, I remember the young gay boy with the lip rings who could have subbed for the “leave Britney alone guy” and was prominently featured. He showed that he had talent and he advanced quite far in the competition. I think Idol presented his storyline quite well, as a person that fought to rise to the top while being true to himself. They showed his struggle with the girl he got paired with in the group challenge and that he wasn’t going to let her destroy his dream. No, I would not say that American Idol is homophobic. Let’s be real.
Great article John. I read yesterday that Kris Allen was interviewed in the beginning of this week and had commented that he hoped that the Christian vote would not be a deciding factor on his wining. Did Kris know something the viewers didn’t know? Even when Kris had won, his response was that it was Adam that deserved to have won. How sad for Kris to stand there and admit his undeserving win on national TV. Kris knew he was not only the underdog in this competition but a possible pawn for some Christian voters that had turned this contest into a religious issue based on Adam’s life style. Their intent was to make sure Adam would not win.
Adam put his all each and every week, as all American Idol contestants should. Every week Adam shined above all the other contestants in his confidence, his amazing vocals, his ability to create a stage presence and his amazing ability to captivate his audience as well as the judges. There’s no doubt that Adam will have a successful career regardless of being railroaded.
American homophobia never ceases to amaze me. How arrogant and righteous of some people to steal a well-earned title from a very deserving human being who brims over with talent! America is so full of closet-cases it’s becoming the laughing stock of the free world. What on earth are these people afraid of?? LOL@Barbara Walters,,, it’s a family-oriented show? So that does that mean all those millions of gay families count now?? What a fool. When they said that a record number of votes had been cast I had this instant vision of the ChristianCrazies holding their phones in one hand and their bible in the other, praying feverishly to make the gay singer go away. Aren’t they going to quiver when he becomes one of the greatest legends of all time…
“Third-placer Danny Gokey, as we heard repeatedly, was a widow.” A widow is usually female. Fairly certain he’d be a widower.
That said, I’m glad I’m safe from Idol-mania for the summer.
Unfortunately, I saw it coming. Just as I was acutely aware of the fact that Clay Aiken was in trouble. And, sure enough the ridiculous Rubin Studdard won over Clay. Once again, a homophobic issue. It’s not only us, John Corvino, Jim David of The Huffington Post writes about it this morning. Homophobia is alive and well in America. Adam Lambert was head and shoulders above Kris Allen in the competition. Someone on Facebook said my comments sounded like sour grapes. He went on to say that Kris Allen could play the piano and the guitar. Oh, please . . . it’s a “singing” contest, idiot. I noticed that Simon Cowell, when Kris Allen was announced the winner, not only didn’t stand up, he didn’t even applaud. Everyone with an ounce of sense knows full well that Adam was robbed of the title. “It’s a Family Oriented show,” says Barbara Walters of the View. Homophobia is alive and well in the United States, folks. There seems very little we can do about it. What a shame.
I liked Kris Allen better. That isn’t to say that Adam isn’t a dynamic singer. I liked Kris’ voice better.
I disagree about his wife. I was getting more and more pissed at how they kept snubbing her out of fear of tweeniebopper rebellion. Simon said early on that he wouldn’t keep bringing up that he was married if he was to stand a chance.
Adam is going on to much larger things. I had heard Queen was looking for a new front man and I would not be at all surprised if it ends up being him. I think that is a much bigger deal and I think Adam would believe this also. I can’t imagine being a young, theatrical gay singer and stepping into Freddie Mercury’s shoes. Could there possibly be anything better? Of coursae he has to Idol Tour first.