Adam Lambert is looking back at his musical journey and revealed he once thought he couldn’t be a singer because of his sexual orientation.

When speaking to BBC about new album High Drama, the singer said he was drawn to cover Duran Duran‘s “Ordinary World” because it spoke to his feelings of being an outsider. 

“When I was a teenager coming to terms with my sexuality, I didn’t think I’d have a shot in the music industry, mostly because I was gay,” he said. “We had artists that came out once they had success, Elton John, George Michael, but there was no one I could compare myself to.”

Adam says the industry is more welcoming of queer artists now and that his album cover symbolizes the barriers he broke through to get where he is.

In an interview with Gay Times, the singer spoke about being part of a wave that opened more doors for queer singers, suggesting “the industry isn’t as scared” of such artists.

“Someone asked me, ‘Are you jealous?’ I was like, ‘Why? It’s great for everybody.’ I’m f***ing thrilled,” he added.

“We have proof and reinforcement that you can be queer, and it doesn’t mean that your audience is only queer,” Adam added. “It doesn’t matter to young people anymore. No one gives a f***.”

The singer continued, “I’m 40 and I’m looking at what’s going on, the conversations with pop culture and what young people are into. It’s blown all the way open. It’s the idealistic version of how we all wanted it to be, and now it’s started looking like that.”

He also has this message to those who say he’s going to hell because of his sexuality: “Sign me up, I’ll wear good shoes.”

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Dierks Bentley‘s set to sing the Gravel & Gold track “Sun Sets in Colorado” on the Monday, March 27, edition of NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

The band Alabama is bringing back the famed June Jam after a 26-year break. Set to take place June 3 at the VFW Fairgrounds in the group’s hometown of Ft. Payne, the Country Music Hall of Famers will headline the event, with their special guests still to be announced. Tickets go on sale to the public Wednesday, March 1.

A public Celebration of Life for founding member Jeff Cook, who passed away in November, will take place in the days leading up to the June Jam. 

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Drake‘s habit of name-dropping his exes in his music, which has been teased in an SNL skit, is something he feels he probably “coulda done without.”

Speaking with Lil Yachty on FUTUREMOOD’s A Moody Conversation, he said that in retrospect dissing people for their age or “disrupting somebody’s life” are things he could have avoided. 

“So I’ve tried my best to stop doing that. But I like to be honest in music, too, so that one’s a push and pull,” he said.

When discussing his career, he shared with Yachty that he’s been thinking a lot about “a graceful exit.”

“I feel like I’m kind of introducing the concept in my mind of a graceful exit,” he said, noting he’d still be involved in music in some capacity.

“I’ll still be around to, like, you know, work with people or do a show here or there, but I’m not going to, like, force myself to compete,” he continued. “So I guess that’s the one thing that I want for myself really badly.”

Drake made it clear he’s “not ready now” when it comes to retirement. His intention is “to gracefully continue making projects that are extremely, like, interesting and hopefully cherished by people. And then to find the right time to say, like, ‘I can’t wait to see what the next generation does.’”

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The Kid LAROI took a swipe at celebrity romance with the music video for his song “I Guess It’s Love?” 

The video dropped Monday, which features his girlfriend, Katarina Deme. The two star in “a satirical commentary on todays self-obsessed culture, in the tale of a tumultuous Hollywood romance,” per a press release.

The video starts with LAROI staging a prank on his unamused girlfriend before showing brief clips taken from home videos. Then things take a hard left when the story looks into the couple’s future, which apparently includes an abundance of plastic surgery, drama and passion. 

The video also includes footage of what they think they’d look like — and how they’d behave — as senior citizens. 

This is the third single off of LAROI’s debut album, The First Time, which has yet to receive a release date. He’s previously dropped the tracks “Kids Are Growing Up (Part 1)” and “Love Again.”

His Bleed for You college tour kicks off March 24 in Syracuse, New York.

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An exhibition of Linda McCartney’s 30-year photography career just opened in Tucson, Arizona. The Linda McCartney Retrospective, co-curated by Paul and Mary McCartney and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, has been traveling the globe since 2013, but this is its first stop in North America.

As part of the exhibit, CCP students got to ask Sir Paul some questions about Linda’s work, including what parts of her photography most excited her. 

McCartney notes that she was “excited about all her photography, because it was her life,” sharing that when she started out her photography was focused on the music scene, but then shifted to “family life with the kids, horses, countryside and landscapes.”

He notes, “Whatever situation she was in she would use it for her art, and her craft naturally developed that way.” 

McCartney also shared whether or not his and Linda’s creative partnership extended to photography. “I was very into photography, so I could relate to what she was doing. But I knew she was better,” he says. “There was never any question of that. I admired her skills, and we could talk about photography.”

The Linda McCartney Retrospective is running until August 5 at University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography. It is free to visit.

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Babyface has released the music video for his single with Ari Lennox, “Liquor.” In the Jean Estene-directed clip, the singers star as a bartender and vocalist at a club, respectively.

“Liquor” appears on Babyface’s recently released Girls Night Out (Extended), which features the 13 original tracks and two new additions: “Sometimes” featuring Jenevieve and “If You Knew How” featuring BJRNCK.

The video is now available to watch on YouTube.

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Selena Gomez recently reunited with her Wizards of Waverly Place co-stars and shared the deep, positive impact the show had on her life.

She appeared on the Wizards of Waverly Pod with co-stars Jennifer Stone and David DeLuise, who played her on-screen best friend and father, respectively. Selena starred as Alex Russo on the series, which ran from 2007 to 2012.

“I felt safe and that’s a really hard thing for me to feel … You guys genuinely loved me and that’s all I could have asked for — the unconditional trust and bond we had that I miss so much,” the singer said. 

“I can’t begin to tell you guys without making it such a little cry session,” the singer shared, adding she misses how the show made her feel. “I felt like I was the happiest I had been my whole life, and I don’t want that to be a sad thought, because I’m really grateful and happy, but it was definitely the happiest times for me.”

Selena also appeared to apologize for not reaching out to Stone and DeLuise more. She explained she “felt ashamed of the decisions I made” and that’s why she didn’t keep in touch.

“I didn’t want you guys to see me in the state that I was in, because A, you would have told me the truth, which terrifies me, and B, I didn’t want to let you down,” she said. 

Stone shared she felt she had been dropped as a friend because she might have said the wrong thing to Selena. The actress also expressed appreciation for Selena’s words.

The singer validated Stone’s feelings and told her former co-stars, “I love you so much in a way that I’ve never loved anybody else.”

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