Friends, the AP is reporting this:

"Complaints poured in Monday about Adam Lambert's sexually charged performance at the American Music Awards, including criticism of his kiss with a male keyboard player that was left out of rehearsals for the show. ABC did not expect one of Lambert's dancers to stick his face in the singer's crotch during the S&M-themed performance of "For Your Entertainment," a moment that was cut out when the awards show was broadcast on a tape-delayed basis on the West Coast on Sunday."

I did not watch the AMAs Sunday night but after reading about the uproar over Lambert's performance, I watched it on YouTube yesterday. He sang his new single "For Your Entertainment" off his new CD of the same name.

Here's what I said yesterday on Twitter (twitter.com/TheRemoteTheDay): "Adam Lambert on the AMAs: Like the bad Britney Spears doing a worse rendition of Paula Abdul's Cold-Hearted Snake. Oh Adam. I'm sorry."

Now, I don't care who he kisses or gyrates against or drags across the stage by his or her hair. (I did love how the censors panicked during the simulated oral sex part by killing the sound. At least on Fox they would've had the wherewithal cut to their signature ceiling shot).

What bothered me was twofold: A) It was a terrible vocal performance by a stellar singer. I mean, Adam Lambert's performances on American Idol last winter shattered some of the crystal in my dining room. My dog's head exploded! (I'm making that up, of course). I mean, he was off-key sometimes, screeching at other times, and just generally not good.

Also, the entire performance, from the set to the interaction with the dancers and the musicians reeked of desperation to me; like Lambert yelling "Look at me! Look at me!" The beauty of Adam on Idol last winter was that he never had to do that; he just relied on his ridiculous talent and his sense of self and he made his points that way.

I hope the AMA performance was merely Adam being off his game vocally and having gotten bad advice performance-wise. I hope that in the first five minutes of his real-post Idol career that he has turned into Madonna circa 2003 (made out with Britney onstage).

What do you think?