Top 10 facts about Adam Lambert (AKA the Adam Lambert incident)

Picture the scene – a cold Tuesday night in York, nothing on TV. I was channel flicking and stumbled across the closing performance of the MTV EMAs. Queen were performing with a singer who I’d never heard of before – Adam Lambert.

Every once in a while, an artist comes along with a voice that makes you stop in your tracks. It was only after the after the performance had finished that I realised I’d actually stopped what I was doing to give this guy my full attention.

I went to my favourite source of information to find out more:

http://twitter.com/#!/markgilroymusic/status/134011061501313024

I was completely unprepared for what happened next.

Within 48 hours I’d received 516 messages, been retweeted 349 times (reaching a total audience of over 303,000 people), and picked-up 218 incredible new followers.

Since asking that question, I’ve spent a great deal of time this week listening to Adam Lambert tracks and watching YouTube videos of live performances. I’ve also been sent some wonderful messages from Adam’s twitter fans – the ‘Glamberts’ or ‘Glamily’ as they like to be known. I thought a great way to find out more would be to look at some great facts about Adam, so I tweeted another question:

http://twitter.com/#!/markgilroymusic/status/134345598764724224

This was met with much the same response as before.

After many, many messages from the Glamily, here are my Top 10 facts about Adam Lambert:

1. In 2011, beat competition from Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber & Snoop Dogg,  to win the MTV O Award for ‘Must Follow Artist on Twitter’.
2. Adam is an opera-trained liggerio-tenor who can hold a note for 22 seconds.
3. His ‘porn name’ (pet’s first name + mother’s maiden name) is Maggie Longfellow.
4. Although Adam was runner-up in Season 8 of American Idol, he has gone on to earn more than many of the winners, before or since. He made Forbes list for being the the 2nd highest earning American Idol (tied with Daughtry) at $6 million.
5. He is naturally a redhead.
6.  For his 29th birthday he asked fans to donate to Charity:Water, saying he would like to raise $29K. That was raised in a matter of hours. In total $323K was raised. To date, Adam’s fans have donated more than $1 million, in his name, to such charities as The Trevor Project, Charity:Water and Donors Choose.
7. Adam is the first talent show contestant to be asked to sing the theme to a major film before even releasing any of his own material. In July 2009, he recorded ‘Time for Miracles’ for the film ‘2012’ that was released in November 2009, two weeks before his album.
8. The only US Idol contestant to tour worldwide after releasing his first album.
9. During Season 8 of American Idol, Adam Lambert performed ‘Mad World’ and received a rare standing ovation from Simon Cowell. Earlier in the competition, his version of ‘Tracks of my Tears’ received a standing ovation from Smokey Robinson.
10. Counts Meat Loaf among his celebrity fans: Meat Loaf recently said in an interview: “Adam Lambert is the only singer that I’ve ever thought was amazing. I think there have been great singers, you know, Freddie Mercury, Steven Tyler, you know, a lot of great rock singers. Michael Jackson was one, but Adam Lambert is one I haven’t been awestruck with since [Janis] Joplin in the ’60s. I don’t think anybody actually comprehends how good this guy is. I mean, I downloaded everything he did for “American Idol.” I’m like this Adam Lambert groupie.”

My apologies if I forgot any really important ones – feel free to add more of your favourite facts in the comments box!

Signing off now – after a crazy week, in which I’ve picked-up a ton of new twitter pals, discovered a new artist…and become a Glambert.

Check out this performance of one of my all time favourite songs and join the club: