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MUSIC FEATURE

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We can’t imagine Lambert ever not being in mint, showroom condition, and when his ridiculously telegenic face pops up on Zoom, his hair and makeup looks immaculate –and that leopard-print loungewear he’s rocking has just gotta be high fashion. Our first delectable taste of Lambert’s latest covers album, High Drama , was his smouldering, jazz-leaning take on Noël Coward’s Mad About the Boy (the title song from a new documentary, Mad About the Boy – The Noël Coward Story , scheduled for

High Drama by Adam Lambert is out now via Warner.

release this year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of this legendary British playwright’s death). In 1932, Coward wrote this song about a man, but – since it would’ve been “taboo” for a male to sing about same-sex romantic love back then – it became a popular torch song recorded by a string of female vocalists, including Dinah Washington and Lena Horne. “When they decided to put this bio-documentary

INTERVIEW

THE KING OF COVERS While writing a musical (stay tuned), ADAM LAMBERT also decided to record and release a collection of covers, injecting them with “an extra dose of” his trademark High Drama .We Zoomed the global superstar to discuss how fronting Queen has impacted his artistry as a solo entertainer, and to make sure the stunt-glass injury he sustained during this album’s cover shoot has healed. Words Bryget Chrisfield

I still like to show off and sing big! But I've settled into the value of a melody...

together, they thought, ‘Well,

why don’t we have someone cover it

W hen asked whether he thinks his ongoing reign fronting Queen live – belting out the incomparable Freddie Mercury’s vocal parts night after night – has further strengthened his already breathtaking voice, Adam Lambert muses, “I think my instrument was formed before I got that gig. What it did is: I think being on tour with them for so many years and getting to perform that music... I think it improved my musicality a bit. I think I became more tasteful in how I interpret

songs. When I was younger it was more about, like, ‘Look at all the things I can do with my voice… I’m gonna be an acrobat!’ you know? “Then, I think as you get a little older and start becoming more settled in who you are, and what you’re capable of, there’s less of a need to prove so much. And, you know, I still like to show off and sing big! But [I've] settled into the value of a melody, and realised that less can be more sometimes, when it comes to how to sing a song.”

who is a guy that could sing about being in love with another guy?’ and I jumped at the chance,” Lambert enthuses. “I’d never really recorded anything jazz-based before, and that was exciting to me. Then when the producers proposed that we give it ‘90s trip hop style production, I was like, ‘Well I’m in! This sounds fantastic..."

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Music fans were experiencing major whiplash in March three decades ago, as Whitney Houston’s ballad I Will Always Love You fell off a 14-week number one to make way for Snow’s Informer – and “a-licky boom-boom down” became a lyric to savour for evermore.

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14 MARCH 2023

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