Love him or hate him, one thing Adam Lambert never was on American Idol was off-pitch. His singing style may not have been everyone's thing, but he tended to be technically on target. Not so last night at the American Music Awards, which is why it's a fortunate thing for Lambert that all the talk today is about the kissing and simulated you-know-what that took place on stage. If there weren't that to talk about, what you'd be reading about is that this was a pretty inauspicious beginning, musically speaking, for a guy who's been so highly praised.

A bigger stage, after the jump.

 

Now, it's entirely possible that sound problems made it hard for him to hear himself. And it's entirely possible that the distractions of this massively complicated, multi-performer stage show threw him off. But that first big note at about the 35-second mark? That's a bum note. And around the two-minute mark, he's out of breath. And the thing that's happening around 2:53? That's off-pitch, too. The screams have never been my style, but I've never heard them be off-key before.

Of course, this isn't the major topic of the day. The major topics of the day are (1) He kissed the keyboard player; and (2) he pulled a dancer's face into his crotch and began thrusting. He's claiming that the kiss wasn't planned. He also says it's ridiculous to be bothered by the simulated oral sex and the S&M imagery, since women are always "pushing the envelope about sexuality."

Rolling Stone quotes him saying:

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.

He went on to say that if any part of the performance was snipped from the West Coast broadcast by ABC, that would be discrimination, because MTV didn't remove Britney Spears and Madonna kissing from one of their awards shows. Of course, (1) cable isn't broadcast; (2) MTV isn't ABC; and (3) simulated oral sex isn't the equivalent of kissing if you are a broadcast network. I don't think the kiss was ever in much danger of being cut, but I wasn't surprised to hear they cut away from the ... you know, grinding somebody's face into his crotch. I don't think I've ever seen a female performer do that on a broadcast channel without anyone being bothered by it.

But honestly, this is all a distraction, and probably one he should welcome. In the long run, his bigger problem is that, despite being a strong live performer, he was given a giant forum to perform live in front of a non-Idol audience and didn't sing very well. This isn't the result of lack of ability — everybody who saw him on television, and anybody who's seen him live, knows that the talent is there. But this wasn't a strong performance, and he's pretty lucky this morning that he's getting to spend the day talking about artistic freedom and not pitch problems.