Adam Lambert’s fascinating new documentary celebrates LGBTQ+ artists who shaped music history

American Idol star Adam Lambert’s new ITV documentary will delve into queer music history and the state of the industry for LGBTQ+ artists.

Grammy Award-nominated artist and Queen frontman Lambert has advocated for LGBTQ+ rights throughout his career.

This year alone, the singer has lambasted the drag bans sweeping the US, confronted homophobic online trolls, headlined Pride in London, starred in Aids crisis drama Fairyland and supported targeted non-binary artist Sam Smith.

His latest project, currently only titled Loud: An Adam Lambert Documentary, will see the LGBTQ+ activist present a one-off, 60-minute documentary, featuring some of the UK’s most-successful queer pop icons.

The documentary aims to unearth the experience of LGBTQ+ musicians and offer a range of perspectives, including Lambert’s, around queerness within music.

Lambert made waves in 2012 as the first openly gay artist to top the US Billboard chart with his second studio album, Trespassing.

“LGBTQ+ representation in the music industry has increased significantly over the [past] decade,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to work with ITV and the Lifted Entertainment team in creating a documentary exploring the intersection of music and Pride as well as some incredible LGBTQ+ artists embracing their authentic selves, and the impact they’ve had on pop culture and the obstacles queer artists have faced.”

Katie Rawcliffe, the head of entertainment commissioning at ITV, said Lambert would “offer first-hand experience of the music industry [and bring] important issues to our attention”, such as the difficulties currently facing the queer community in the industry.

LGBTQ+ representation within music has made huge strides in recent years. In February, Sam Smith and trans artist Kim Petras made history as the first gender-non-confirming pair to win best pop duo at the Grammys.

Elsewhere, queer artists such as Janelle Monáe and Troye Sivan have aired their LGBTQ+ bodies in viral music videos “Lipstick Lover” and “Rush”, respectively.

But there is still more work to do, from diversifying music to represent all LGBTQ+ experiences to protecting queer artists from any right-wing backlash.

Alongside Loud, ITV have also commissioned An Audience with Kylie Minogue. The special promises “sensational live performances” from the music legend and “Padam Padam” hit-maker as well as a Q&A with the Aussie icon.

There is currently no release date for Loud: An Adam Lambert Documentary which will air on ITV1 and ITVX.