[1] Although he was runner-up, Lambert launched a music career with the release of the studio album For Your Entertainment (November 2009) after signing with 19 in a joint venture with RCA.

The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, sold 198,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week, and reached the top 10 in several countries worldwide.

[3] Lambert took executive producer credit and was a principal writer on his second studio album, Trespassing, released in May 2012, to critical acclaim.

[7] Citing influence from various artists and genres, Lambert has a flamboyant, theatrical and androgynous performance style, and a powerful, technically skilled tenor voice with multi-octave range.

[13] The Times identified Lambert as the first openly gay mainstream pop artist to launch a career on a major label in the U.S.[14]