"American Idol" finalist Adam Lambert lives in the land which prides itself on enabling freedom of expression, but the 27-year-old said its still very challenging to be accepted for who you are in the United States.
"I vowed to be myself as much as possible. I vowed from the get go to try to be myself throughout this competition and the fact that people have backed me on that really feels good because that's a hard thing to do — be yourself in front of America," Lambert said. "My big thing was I don't want to freak people out. I want people to get to know who I am in the way that I present myself visually and the songs that I chose. Sometimes they're just for shock value, sometimes they're just the way I express myself and I didn't want that to get in the way of my singing."
YOU DECIDE: Who Will Be the Next 'American Idol'?
But despite Lambert being the face-value favorite to take the 2009 "Idol" crown on Wednesday evening, many are now questioning whether fellow finalist Kris Allen, a devoted church singer from Arkansas, could cause an upset by scoring the Christian vote. However the 23-year-old was quick to avoid the topic when we caught up with him on Monday afternoon.
"This is a singing competition, not a church thing," he said while Lambert added that the "vote is based on talent and performing, not religion."
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