The wait for new music from Adam Lambert is over. Variety has confirmed that Lambert will drop a brand new song, “Feel Something,” tonight (Feb. 21). Written by Benedict Cork, Josh Cumbee and Lambert, and produced by Cumbee and Afishin Salman, it will be released through the independent label and distributor EMPIRE.
“Feel Something” is the first new track since last summer’s “Two Fux,” and a taste of things to come with his forthcoming album, which follows the 2015 Warner Bros. Records release “The Original High.” Lambert teased details of the new record — estimating has written “35-ish” songs — in a Twitter chat earlier this month. Wrote Lambert: “I have been working really hard on it! The album is gonna be yummy! It’s basically all of my influences rolled into my own special blend…”
The song arrives nearly ten years after Lambert’s season-eight run on “American Idol.” Since then, his career has seen a string of highs, including a Grammy nomination (for 2011’s “Whataya Want From Me”) and the No. 1 debut of his 2012 album, “Trespassing” (both released by RCA); his portrayal of Eddie on Fox’s “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” live; a judging gig on “The X Factor Australia;” and his show-stopping performance of Cher’s “Believe” at the Kennedy Center Honors, which brought the iconic singer to tears. Most recently, Lambert delivered a spot-on interpretation of Elvis Presley’s “Blue Suede Shoes” on NBC’s all-star tribute to Elvis Presley.
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A consummate showman, Lambert continues to front Queen, and the band — dubbed Queen + Adam Lambert — which wrapped a successful residency in Las Vegas in 2018, will have a high profile gig on Feb. 24 opening the Oscars ceremony. “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the biopic about late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, is nominated for five Academy Awards. The group will also tour this summer.
Lambert is represented by Philymack, the management firm founded by Phil McIntyre which also counts Nick Jonas, DNCE, The Band Perry and Lambert’s fellow “X Factor Australia” judge Iggy Azalea on its roster.
Writing on Instagram, Lambert addressed his fans: “Let me offer a most sincere thank you for your patience and continued faith in me. You’ve pushed me to keep going even when I felt discouraged. I love making and performing music, but there have been many times where I’ve had to compromise on my artistic vision, with executives making decisions based on money and not art.”
“Don’t get me wrong – I’m VERY proud of my body of work. But I’m coming out of a dark period of second-guessing my own artistry and having my mental health suffer because of it,” Lambert continues. “I started asking myself, ‘is all this hustle really worth it?’ I put all my focus on my work and started to feel detached in my personal life. My self-worth was suffering. I was lonely and becoming depressed.”
“With a bit of professional help and the support of colleagues, friends and family, I pulled myself out of the darkness,” Lambert says. “I decided to begin my next album on my own so I wouldn’t be influenced by anything but my passion for music. I reached out to fellow writers and artists that I’d met over the years and began booking sessions with them. I wanted to make the music I wanted to make, and to get in the headspace I was in when I first dreamed of being a singer-before playing industry game started messing with my love for music.”
“After the first few songs were written, I began to realized that the only way to get this new project released the way I envisioned it was to change up my team,” he explains. “So I hired a new management company and signed with a new record label. A fresh start!”
“This was written about me climbing out of the low period, defying my disillusionment, owning my needs, and opening my heart,” he writes. “The life of a bachelor can be a laugh, with plenty of flings, but after awhile it starts to feel empty. Between frustrations with my career and many lost connections, I felt numb- and though I wanted to fall in love, I knew I wasn’t ready. That’s what inspired me to cry out, ‘I don’t need to feel love, I just wanted to feel something!’ It was in this realization that I took my first step toward self-care and nursing my spirit back to health. This song is the emotional starting point of my new album.”
“The tracks will chronicle the journey of taking responsibility for my own happiness and strength, and searching for intimacy. Since writing this song, I’ve found the joy I was missing and I’m back in my power. I can’t wait for you to hear more!”
