Fifteen years after Entertainment Weekly ran a weirdly invasive and speculative cover story about Adam Lambert's sexuality, and 15 years after the former American Idol went off-script at the American Music Awards, kissed a man onstage, and nearly got cancelled, the glam-pop powerhouse is very much writing and rewriting his own script. What a difference a decade-and-a-half makes.
On Friday, Lambert kicked off the City of West Hollywood's Pride weekend in a most wet 'n' wild fashion, performing on the OUTLOUD festival's main stage and live-debuting his sexy, sweaty, and definitely unsubtle new single, "Lube." Lambert also belted the similarly hot house-music bop "Wet Dream" and a yet-to-be-released racy romp called "C--ty" (feel free to fill in that NSFW song title's blanks on your own). All three tracks will appear on Lambert's upcoming pleasure-seeking EP, AFTERS.
Lambert's full OUTLOUD set, which preceded his friend Kesha's headlining comeback performance, can be viewed below:
Suffice to say, "Lube," with lusty lyrics like "Slip in the room/Slip right into you" and "Gonna make you nut," and "Wet Dream," with its pre-chorus refrain, "In the zone, here we go-go, silicone/Now you know how a homo take it home," would have had panicked ABC censors lunging for the seven-second-delay button during the 2009 AMAs. But as Lambert asserted in a pre-Pride press release, these tracks represent "a new chapter in my artistry where I refuse to edit or filter myself."
NEW SONG pic.twitter.com/8r0uYuTFHW
— Ali (@aleebabee) June 1, 2024
Lambert further explained: "Creating AFTERS has been such a liberating experience as I chose to craft an EP of house music that's unapologetically queer and sex-positive. I throw many house parties and my aim was to create a soundtrack inspired by wild nights, giving a voice to our communities' hedonistic desires and exploits. Feeling more confident than ever, I wanted to get shamelessly raw and real with the listener. AFTERS is meant to make you move, sweat, fantasize, and connect!"
"Lube" was co-penned with fellow LGBTQ+ pop sensations Vincint (who will perform Sunday at OUTLOUD, and recently released the effervescent duet "Another Lover" with Lambert) and singer-songwriter Parson James. "Wet Dream" is a collaboration with Sarah Hudson (Katy Perry, Iggy Azalea, Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber, 5 Seconds of Summer, Santigold), Ferras (Dua Lipa, Ricky Martin, Idina Menzel, Luis Fonsi, Katy Perry), and Jhart (Camila Cabello, Troye Siva, Sabrina Carpenter, Charlie Puth, Keith Urban, Maneskin, Cher). Lambert's AFTERS EP will arrive to heat up everyone's summer on July 19.
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