Trespassing

Album: Trespassing (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the title track of singer-songwriter Adam Lambert's second album. The song finds Lambert portraying himself as a rebel outsider: "Well, I was walking for some time," he croons. "When I came across this sign. Saying who are you and where are you from. We don't like when visitors come."
  • Pharrell Williams' production transforms the song into a funky, foot-stomping anthem. Lambert told Billboard magazine that he hosted a Halloween party on a bus with about 25 friends, in which he trialled some of the songs he intended to include on his sophomore release. Their favorable reaction to this track ensured it would make the album. "I found I really wanted to get into that funk," he said of the sound on Trespassing. "It's disco, funk, dance for, like, now."
  • Lambert and Pharell Williams came up with this song after a conversation, "about the music industry and life and identity." Lambert told AOL Music: "One of the main things we talked about, which kind of kicked off the song 'Trespassing,' was different types of discrimination, and fitting into the world and finding your own path."
  • Lambert explained the song's meaning to AOL Music: "It's about saying, "I know I may not be welcome here, I know I'm different and I know you're saying 'keep out,' but I'm not going to let that stop me. I'm going to do what my heart is telling me to do and do it proudly."
  • According to Lambert, he sees this song as "a mission statement." He explained to AOL Music: "I felt like the lyrics of the song summed up what I'm about as an artist and as a person. I do feel like a trespasser, but not in a literal sense, because I don't think I've broken into any property recently. On a more figurative level, I feel like I'm very different than the normal dude. I'm pretty eccentric, and as far as the music industry is concerned, I feel like a bit of an outsider. There are times when I feel like I'm breaking new ground by breaking in."
  • The Trespassing album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. This meant that Lambert became the first American artist to top the album chart as an openly gay man. UK singer Elton John has had one chart-topping record after coming out - the soundtrack to The Lion King.

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