American singer Adam Lambert says he does not "do controversy on purpose".
He was speaking at a press conference on Wednesday (Dec 30) in response to the petition drama that took place last month over his scheduled performance at Mediacorp's New Year's Eve concert, Celebrate 2016, at the Marina Bay Floating Platform.
"I was actually flattered that people cared so much," says Lambert, 33.
"Depending on where you're from in the world, certain things may seem controversial to you or not, but my intention is not to provoke - it's to reflect, to be honest and to be real."
He also insisted that his preparations for the show were no different from those for other shows.
"Over the past five years, whenever I do a TV performance, I work very carefully with the producer and with my team to figure out what's appropriate for the programme so that's what we did for this," he says.
During his performance at the American Music Awards in 2009, Lambert kissed a male band member and simulated sexual acts with dancers on stage.
For the show here tomorrow, Lambert said that he had created it "especially for Singapore".
"I took a lot of time to figure out which songs were going to speak to as many different people as possible, which songs best represented me and my current album and mission statement."
Last month, some Singaporeans objected to the openly gay singer performing at the countdown show, which will be broadcast on free-to-air television, started an online petition to remove him from the programme.
The online petition against Lambert performing here closed on Nov 29, four days after it was started, securing 20,065 signatures.
In a note on the page, the petition organisers - who signed off as "Concerned citizens, Concerned parents, Concerned individuals" - said that the petition was closed because: "Thankfully, the performer himself has responded that he will be putting on a different show, which is hopefully in better taste and shows greater restraint."
An opposing petition in support of him performing here, started one day after the first was launched, received more than 24,000 signatures. It closed with a note that said: "The opposing petition has lost, Adam is still going to do the concert."
After his stop in Singapore, he will be heading to China, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. As the stand-in lead singer of iconic rock band Queen, he is also set to headline the Isle of Wight festival in the United Kingdom in June next year.
