American Idol' : Adam Lambert Says It's Hard to Be Yourself, Kris Allen Denies Religion Will Help Him Win

"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."

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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."