Adam Lambert Draws Praise for His Version of "Mad World"

Adam Lambert, a favorite of many fans of "American Idol," is drawing praise from a variety of sources recently for his recent rendition of "Mad World," a song originally written and performed by Tears for Fears and then brought to greater popularity by Gary Jules, whose version was part of the "Donnie Darko" film. As Jules sat down to watch Idol, he became preoccupied with some videos he was simultaneously watching on his computer.

When Lambert launched into his version of "Mad World," which held closely to Jules’ own version, he had quite a reaction. "I ran out and I was like, ‘I knew he was gonna do it! I knew it!’ I’ve been waiting for years for somebody to do it. I thought David Cook was gonna do it last year for sure. As soon as I saw that guy Adam on ‘American Idol,’ I was like, ‘Oooh, this could be it.’" Jules gushed further about the performance, noting, "It was fantastic. He has a beautiful voice. I heard his Michael Jackson cover and I heard some of his other stuff, and I think that he’s probably one of the most – if not the most – interesting performer I’ve ever seen on ‘American Idol.’"

Lambert even drew praise from hard-edged Simon Cowell, who actually stood up and clapped for Lambert after he performed the song. It’s not Cowell’s first encounter with the song either, as Jules noted that he got a call from Simon right after his own version of the song went to No. 1 overseas. Said Jules, "Simon said that he loved it. That he thought it was a beautiful performance. That he thought it was better than the first one, better than the original and that it was very very heartfelt and blah blah blah — and I was, like, really grateful except I had no idea who he was."