Adam Lambert Reveals It Was ‘Tricky’ To Be Openly Gay After Competing On ‘American Idol’

Times have changed for the LGBTQ+ community since Adam Lambert has competed on “American Idol.”

In honor of Pride Month, the Grammy nominee sat down with students at the Mosaic LGBT Youth Centre in London on Thursday, where he gave kids advice and discussed his own experience as an openly gay musician. 

While Adam is currently out and proud, he revealed it was tricky coming out after placing second in the singing competition show in 2009.

“After ‘American Idol’ for a year it was all anyone wanted to talk about in the media,” he said. “Part of me was like this is cool, this is important and I’m comfortable with my sexuality. But it also became weird because I was like I also sing, and I have a record that I’d love you to hear. It was tricky to balance it.”

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Since then, the music industry has embraced up-and-coming LGBTQ+ artists like Troye Sivan, Hayley Kiyoko and Kim Petras, which Adam is especially proud of. 

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“Now we’re at a point where other artists are out, and the landscape has changed,” he added. “Watching the queer movement over the past ten years has been awesome – we’ve come so far, you can see the conversation starting and things are really changing. Making it more than just gay or straight. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel and I’m very proud of that.”