Adam Lambert returns to American Idol

Photo from Tomdog via Wikimedia

San Diego’s own, Adam Lambert, will perform on tonight’s “American Idol” results show. Lambert was this week’s mentor to the contestants on an Elvis themed show. After coming in second place in last season’s “American Idol”, Lambert has acquired great success. His current single from his debut album “Whataya Want from Me” is number 13 on Billboard’s Top Pop songs chart and is one of the titles with the greatest sales gain this week.

Lambert is enjoying international recognition with a number one single in Japan in its fifth week at the top, and in Canada, Lambert’s album and single have gone Platinum and his debut single “For Your Entertainment” has been certified Gold.

Here in the US, Lambert’s album debuted at number three in the Top 200 albums chart and is still within the top 100 sellers having been certified Gold. This year Lambert is nominated for a People’s Choice Award for Break-Out Musical Artist and a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Music Artist. He will also be performing at the GLAAD Media Awards this Saturday April 17 in Los Angeles.

Despite his accomplishments, it was considered a surprise that Lambert would be invited back to mentor the contestants of this year’s show when he himself was in their shoes last year. However, American Idol seems to be going in a new direction this season. Younger artists seem to be the focus with Miley Cyrus and Usher both mentoring this season, and Avril Lavigne, Joe Jonas and Katy Perry all guest judged during the auditions.

The reason for bringing Lambert back could also be because the show has been lagging behind in the ratings recently. More people watched last Monday night’s episode of “Dancing With the Stars” than last Tuesday’s “American Idol” episode. The difference in numbers was not huge but it adds to the reasons critics are giving for naming this the show’s worst season. One reason could be that none of this year’s contestants seems to have the same allure that Lambert did. Perhaps “American Idol” producers hoped that he would inspire this season’s finalists to step it up and take more risks in their performances.

“American Idol” executive producer, Ken Warwick, gave a different reason for bringing Adam Lambert back to the show telling Entertainment Weekly, “it upsets me that at the moment he’s not doing quite as well…” he explained that he hoped his appearance on “Idol” would put him “back firmly where he belongs, as a major star… it kind of breaks my heart to see someone with that much talent struggle a bit.” Lambert responded to the comments today, telling Entertainment Weekly, “I don’t feel like I’m struggling at all. I think things are right where they need to be.