ADAM LAMBERT

Adam Mitchel Lambert (born January 29, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter and stage actor born in Indianapolis but raised in San Diego. He began performing in amateur theatrical productions in childhood, a path he pursued into adulthood, appearing in professional productions in the U.S. and abroad. Lambert became prominent after appearing on the eighth season of American Idol.[2] Although he was runner-up, Lambert launched a music career with the release of the studio album For Your Entertainment (2009) after signing with 19 in a joint venture with RCA. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, sold 198,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week, and reached the top 10 in several countries worldwide. Its singles "For Your Entertainment", "Whataya Want from Me" and "If I Had You" also became successes internationally.[3][4][5] Soon after he headlined a worldwide concert tour, Glam Nation, the first American Idol contestant to do so in the year following his Idol season. The tour was followed by two live releases: an extended play entitled Acoustic Live! (2010), and a live CD/DVD Glam Nation Live (2011), which debuted at number one on the SoundScan Music Video chart.[6] Lambert took executive producer credit and was a principal writer on his second studio album, Trespassing, released on May 15, 2012, to critical acclaim.[7][8] Trespassing made its debut in the number one spot on the Billboard 200 album chart,[9] also topping the Billboard Digital Albums Chart and Canada's Digital Albums Chart.[10][11] Lambert made music history as the first openly gay artist to achieve this top charting position.[12][13][14] Citing influence from various artists and genres, Lambert has a flamboyant, theatrical and androgynous performance style, and a powerful, technically skilled[15] tenor voice with multi-octave range.[16][17] He has received numerous awards and nominations, including a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 2011.[18] By April 2012 his first album had sold nearly two million copies worldwide[19] and 4.2 million singles worldwide as of January 2011.[20] The Times identified Lambert as the first openly gay mainstream pop artist to launch a career on a major label in the U.S