Adam Lambert grabbed headlines for his racy rendition of “For Your Entertainment” on Sunday’s American Music Awards, and now the American Idol star is giving fans a more PG-13 version of that performance in the song’s video, which debuted on Adam Official. Lambert, his spiked shoulder pads and his cadre of dancers take to a grimy subterranean nightclub for title track from his debut album, and it’s easy to see how the AMAs performance riffed off the clip: some of the choreography is the same, as is the general theme — a sexy Lambert on the prowl after hours. As an added bonus, Lambert brings back the green snake that was his costar on the cover of Rolling Stone.

See photos of the AMAs Glambglory plus more from the big show.

Compared to Glambert’s controversial AMAs set, the “For Your Entertainment” video is pretty tame. (more…)

Photo: Cohen/WireImage.com

Adam Lambert defended his controversial American Music Awards performance on The Early Show this morning, telling host Maggie Rodriguez the AMAs were filled with content that wasn’t kid-friendly. “I think it’s up to the parents to discern what their child is watching on television. Lady Gaga smashing whiskey bottles, Janet Jackson grabbing a male dancer’s crotch, Eminem talking about how Slim Shady has 17 rapes under his belt — there was a lot of very adult material on the AMAs this year and I know I wasn’t the only one.” (Watch his interview below.)

Adam Lambert shocks, Taylor Swift soars: see the 2009 AMAs in photos.

Lambert was the only star to face a major backlash following the ceremony, which aired from 8 to 11 p.m. ET on ABC Sunday night. After ABC received 1,500 complaints over Lambert’s simulated oral sex and make-out session with a male bandmate, the network nixed his appearance on Good Morning America. Lambert argued that female pop stars wouldn’t have received the same scrutiny, and that being gay and a man was a “double whammy” because audiences “haven’t seen that before.” He concluded, “I’m not a babysitter. I’m a performer.” (more…)

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Adam Lambert’s racy performance on the American Music Awards has led ABC to scrap his scheduled concert tomorrow on Good Morning America. “Given his controversial live performance on the AMAs we were concerned about airing a similar concert so early in the morning,” an ABC spokesperson told Rolling Stone while confirming news of the Lambert cancellation.

Adam Lambert shocks, Taylor Swift soars: the 2009 AMAs in photos.

It’s not all bad news for the Wild Idol, however: Lambert will instead perform on tomorrow’s episode of CBS’ The Early Show. It’ll be a double dose of Lambert on CBS tomorrow, as he also recorded a performance yesterday at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theatre that will be broadcast tomorrow night on The Late Show With David Letterman. In an interview with Ryan Seacrest, Lambert indicated he wasn’t taking ABC’s decision to nix his morning appearance personally, adding, “Obviously I respect their decision, they gotta do what they gotta do. It’s too bad, I think there were a lot of fans who were excited to come see me. They probably had a lot of pressure coming at them from certain people who weren’t happy about it. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but they need to do what they need to do.”

Infamous crotch-rock moments, from Lambert’s AMAs to “Dick in a Box.” (more…)

Of the over 14 million viewers who watched the American Music Awards Sunday night, only 1,500 people called in complaints to ABC following Adam Lambert’s controversial, show-closing performance. According to Reuters, the Federal Communications Commission would not confirm nor deny whether viewers registered complaints with the agency following Lambert’s “For Your Entertainment,” which featured simulated oral sex with a male backup dancer, a brief make-out session with a male keyboardist and a middle finger to the stunned audience. (Read Rob Sheffield’s account of the Full-Frontal Glambgasm.) MTV reports the event pulled in 14.2 million viewers this year, for the awards’ best showing since 2002.

Adam Lambert shocks, Taylor Swift soars: the 2009 AMAs in photos.

ABC also confirmed the network did edit a portion of Lambert’s performance for the West Coast feed, removing the performance’s most controversial moment — “Lambert rubbing the face of a male dancer in his crotch,” Reuters colorfully writes — but Lambert’s kiss with his keyboardist remained in the final cut. Dick Clark Productions, who produced the AMAs, said in a statement that they “did not expect the impromptu moments” based on Lambert’s pre-show rehearsals.

Infamous crotch-rock moments, from Lambert’s AMAs to “Dick in a Box.” (more…)

Photo: Mazur/AMA 2009/WireImage

Oh, Adam — that was nutballs. If there was any worry Adam Lambert was going to tone down his wild glam-rock side, the American Idol star shattered it in his debut performance of “For Your Entertainment” at the American Music Awards. Glambert didn’t show any skin last night. He did, however, grab a leather dude’s head and grind it into his crotch, shortly after leading his gimp across the stage on a leash. (ABC cut the audio, maybe because Adam’s moans were too much for us to take?) It was a full-frontal Glambgasm, in the style of his slutty David Bowie medley on last summer’s Idol tour, moving his hips like six kinds of yeah and moaning “Can you handle what I’m ‘bout to do?” Now that’s Glambertainment!

See photos of the AMAs Glambglory plus more from the big show.

Adam strutted around the stage with a cane and a shoulder-padded black suit, looking uncannily like Bowie doing “Young Americans” on The Dick Cavett Show in 1974, except with a Heat Miser pompadour and buckets of eyeliner. And those severe-tire-damage spikes on the right shoulder were excellent. He spent the whole performance writhing and sucking face with his back-up dancers, some male, some female, none wearing all that much besides complicated underwear. Paula Abdul must have been proud to see the choreography pay homage to her “Cold Hearted” video from back in the day, except it was a wise move for Adam to keep walking up and down staircases, since his “Feelin’ Good” performance proved this man can handle some stairs. (more…)

Photo:Djansezian/Getty

Hours before Adam Lambert hit the American Music Awards stage for a wild spectacle of a finale, he was already the talk of the red carpet. It seemed of all the divas performing that night — Janet, Whitney, Rihanna, Gaga: the ones who need no last name (or first) — plenty considered the American Idol runner-up to be queen supreme. “Don’t you wanna see what his hair looks like?” singer and presenter Melissa Etheridge cooed with tween-like glee. “And just how much makeup he’s gonna wear? Finally — finally! — we’ve got a real diva. I can say it.”

Adam Lambert shocks, Taylor Swift soars: the 2009 AMAs in photos.

But as countless pop and rock stars both gay and straight have learned, with the pipes and popularity often comes responsibility — whether it be to your fans, the media, the public at large or an organized movement. Lambert learned that early on in Idol, and the lesson was reaffirmed more recently when the editor of Out magazine chose to call out the Idol imaging machine (and Lambert’s apparent complicity in a make-me-seem-less-gay plot) in a scathing letter to readers. It too was a big topic of conversation during the pre-show and a heated one at that.

“I think he’s just afraid and so is his management,” offered celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. “It’s difficult because he doesn’t have that many people to look up to. There are only a few openly gay successful pop stars.” (more…)

Photo: Djansezian/Getty

In approximately 30 minutes the West Coast will get a look at the American Music Awards performance that has everyone talking: Adam Lambert’s racy rendition of For Your Entertainment’s title track. When Lambert finished his song — complete with simulated oral sex with a male backup dancer and a passionate kiss with a male keyboardist — earlier tonight, fans hit the Internet to debate whether the American Idol runner-up’s first major televised performance since the Idol finale pushed the envelope too far. Lambert tells Rolling Stone he didn’t do anything female performers haven’t done on television already — and that if ABC cuts any part of his performance for the rebroadcast it will amount to “discrimination.”

Adam Lambert shocks, Taylor Swift soars: the 2009 AMAs in photos.

“It’s a shame because I think that there’s a double standard going on in the entertainment community right now,” Lambert tells RS backstage after the show at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre. “Female performers have been doing this for years — pushing the envelope about sexuality — and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out. We’re in 2009; it’s time to take risks, be a little more brave, time to open people’s eyes and if it offends them, then maybe I’m not for them. My goal was not to piss people off, it was to promote freedom of expression and artistic freedom.” (more…)

For his first televised performance since the Season Eight finale of American Idol, Adam Lambert aimed for the kind of controversy Britney Spears and Madonna are known for generating, completely stunning the audience at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre and the millions watching the American Music Awards live on ABC with a risqué rendition of “For Your Entertainment.” Rolling Stone didn’t label Lambert the Wild Idol for nothing, and Glambert definitely delivered on his promise of a “sexy” performance as he closed the live show with simulated oral sex from a male backup dancer, a brief make-out session with his male keyboardist and a giant mirrored prop so the audience could see the looks on their own shocked faces. Rolling Stone has learned that producers weren’t informed about the guy-on-guy kiss in advance, and after the show, Lambert told RS the musician he kissed is a straight man.

Lambert also told RS that if ABC decides to cut any parts of his performance for the West Coast rebroadcast, it would amount to “discrimination.” Read the full story here.

Adam Lambert shocks, Taylor Swift soars: the 2009 AMAs in photos.

The ‘09 American Music Awards featured performances from blockbuster stars like Whitney Houston, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, Green Day, Eminem and Rihanna, but newcomer Lambert was selected to close out the show, and his performance was advertised as “eye-popping” and something you’d be talking about tomorrow. (more…)

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In our new issue, Adam Lambert tells Rolling Stone how whiskey and David Bowie influenced his debut album, For Your Entertainment. American Idol’s first real rock star also opened up about working with Muse and writing one of the record’s most tender ballads. Click here for more from Jenny Eliscu’s conversation with the man RS dubbed a glam-rock sex god during his fantastic Idol run.

• Adam Lambert on the Demons and Dance Behind For Your Entertainment

Can’t bear waiting another 20 days to find out what Adam Lambert’s debut disc For Your Entertainment sounds like? Thanks to the Amazon.co.uk MP3 store, which along with iTunes has made it a habit lately of spoiling the surprise of upcoming releases, Glambert Nation can now listen to 30-second clips of every song on For Your Entertainment, giving fans a preview of the musical odyssey the American Idol runner-up takes on his first LP.

Think Lambert’s album cover is out of this world? Check out these alternate takes dreamed up by Rolling Stone.

Based on the half-minute previews, For Your Entertainment seems to be evenly divided between glam stompers like the title track, “Sure Fire Winners” and “Strut” and big ballads like “Broken Open,” “A Loaded Smile” and “Soaked,” which was written by Muse’s Matt Bellamy and sounds similar to the band’s own “Unintended.” You can definitely hear the influence of Lambert’s all-star songwriters as well. “Music Again,” penned by the Darkness’ Justin Hawkins, serves as a glamtastic opening track that both welcomes listeners to For Your Entertainment and has us wishing the “I Believe In a Thing Called Love” rockers would reform. (more…)

Photo: Cohen/WireImage
Adam Lambert premiered “For Your Entertainment,” the first single from his debut album of the same name, on On Air with Ryan Seacrest this morning. A press release promises that “For Your Entertainment” will be available as a stream on the AdamOfficial Website and a download on digital music services later in the day. “Hope you’re gonna wanna blast it while you’re gettin ready for Halloween!! Then at the club!!!,” Lambert tweeted minutes before the song’s first radio spin.

Lambert live: shots from the American Idol tour.

“It’s dance music with a glam-rock shuffle beat, in the style of T. Rex and ‘Rock & Roll, Part 2,’ ” Lambert told Seacrest’s listeners. The Dr. Luke-produced, Claude Kelly-penned song does boast a chugging backbeat straight off of T. Rex’s The Slider Side A, with Lambert belting out a chorus of “Can you handle what I’m about to do, it’s about to get rough for you, because I’m here for your entertainment” like the love child of Lady Gaga and Bowie’s “Lady Stardust.” (more…)

Do not adjust you computer monitors: the above image of Adam Lambert is in fact the cover for his post-Idol debut album For Your Entertainment, due out November 23rd. The album cover was confirmed by Lambert’s Adam Official website today, and judging solely by the art, his debut is venturing to a glammed-out galaxy far, far away from his image on his 2012 single “Time for Miracles” — probably landing someplace where there are Spiders from Mars. From his bright blue hair to For Your Entertainment’s straight-off-Purple Rain font, this album looks like it’ll live up to Lambert’s Twitter promise that “Glam is back!!!”

Go behind the scenes of Lambert’s RS cover shoot in exclusive photos.

So how do Lambert’s fans feel about this striking cover? Apparently, the commenters on the Adam Official Website love it. One fan compares Lambert to a “Glittery Alien from Planet Fierce,” which could be the best comparison one can make when discussing this cover. Elsewhere, there’s tons of “OMFG” and “GLAM” in the comments. (more…)

Adam Lambert’s “Time for Miracles” video wasn’t supposed to debut until it was featured in movie theaters prior to Michael Jackson’s This Is It starting October 28th, but since the song was prematurely released this past weekend, Lambert’s official MySpace video page unveiled the “Miracles” clip early. Considering the single is from the upcoming disaster film 2012, Lambert scales back on the glam for the clip, opting to instead focus on the performance and his towering vocals.

Go behind the scenes of Lambert’s RS cover shoot in exclusive photos.

“I’m just walking through looking straight at the camera singing the song, and there’s a riot going on around me — people being tossed in front of me, looting, you know, people being arrested,” Lambert told MTV last week. (more…)

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Adam Lambert made two surprise announcements last night on his Twitter: the American Idol runner-up revealed that his upcoming November 23rd debut will be titled For Your Entertainment, and also told fans that he spent yesterday collaborating with another Rolling Stone cover star — Lady Gaga. “Yes it’s true: I spent yesterday in the studio w the insanely talented and creative Lady GaGa recording a song that she wrote! I love her,” Lambert tweeted just after midnight EST.

Go behind the scenes of Lambert’s RS cover shoot in exclusive photos.

As Rolling Stone reported, Lambert previously hit the studio with producer RedOne, who assisted on The Fame’s “Just Dance” and “Poker Face,” so it seemed inevitable that the Wild Idol would collaborate with the Hot Diva. “Gaga wrote the song a while ago and she thought it would be a good fit for me. It’s a solo track. I feel so honored and lucky to be asked,” Lambert tweeted. “GaGa just gets it, ya know?” For those keeping track at home, Gaga joins a long list of top-flight production talent like Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Howard Benson, Rob Cavallo, Ryan Tedder, Claude Kelly, Linda Perry and Idol judge Kara DioGuardi to all work with Lambert post-AI. (more…)

Adam Lambert’s first post-Idol single “Time for Miracles” made its unexpected full debut this weekend after it reportedly became available prematurely on the iTunes Store in Italy. As Rolling Stone previously reported, “Time for Miracles” features in upcoming disaster film 2012 and its soundtrack, and the song’s music video was set to premiere before screenings of Michael Jackson’s This Is It documentary starting October 27th. According to Amazon.com, October 27th is also the day the song becomes available for download in the States, but you can take a listen to “Time for Miracles” on YouTube.

Go behind the scenes of Lambert’s RS cover shoot in exclusive photos.

“We wanted to match how epic the film is. We wanted to reach out and grab people by the heart,” Lambert said of “Time for Miracles.” On the track, Lambert proves how flexible his pipes truly are, effortlessly shifting from heartfelt, Ryan Adams-esque verses — complete with what sounds like a pedal steel guitar — to swelling arena-rock chorus. Throughout, Lambert’s incredible voice, which moved Queen’s Brian May “to jelly” when he heard the song this summer, shines through. May also predicted the song would be a “Number One smash.” (more…)