Mary Lambert: The voice behind Macklemore's 'Same Love'

By Casey McNerthney, Seattlepi.com, April 10, 2013

 There had to be at least 400 people packed into the grand atrium of Seattle's Museum of History and Industry last month, gathered for the annual Arts Corps fundraiser.

The non-profit, which provides classes for children who may otherwise not have access to creative outlets, draws some of the Northwest biggest arts supporters. And when Mary Lambert sang her hook from "Same Love" - a song that's gained more than 31 million YouTube views - the room stopped.

And I can't change

 Even if I tried

 Even if I wanted to

 My love, my love, my love

At one of the tables, Dave Matthews mouthed the words along with her, as many did that night.

"I've been wanting to meet you," Lambert recalled Matthews saying later. He told how he loved the song and her performance. And Matthews was glad to hear hisM wife had asked for an autograph – he said they and their daughters are big fans of Lambert and Macklemore, who created "Same Love" with Ryan Lewis.

"Same Love" came out in 2012 and quickly became an unofficial anthem for the Referendum 74 campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington. When crowds flooded onto East Pike Street in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood after it was clear the measure would pass last November, hundreds of supporters chanted for the song to be played.

And the momentum is still going.

"Same Love" has gone double platinum in Australia, went to No. 1 there and in New Zealand earlier this year, and peaked at No. 89 here on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Later this month, the group is expecting another national television audience and Lambert plans to join Macklemore and Lewis at the Sasquatch Music Festival.

"We would not have won in four states if there had not been as many cultural influences," longtime LGBT community leader Anne Levinson said. "And these cultural influences happen in the music community, in movies, on TV, with support from professional athletes, military heroes, and individuals coming out.

"It's very hard to demonize people when you know them."

Though crowds haven't always been as accepting as people in Seattle.

A few days after Lambert's standout performance at the Art Corps Festa, she performed "Same Love" with Macklemore and Lewis at the Paid Dues Independent Hip Hop Festival in California. When she looked out onto the tens of thousands of hip hop fans, people stared with little visible emotion. Some artists didn't say much when she went backstage. It was the coldest reception she'd ever had for the chart-topping song.

"I felt like I was singing to homophobia," Lambert said.

Macklemore, who has gay uncles and wrote the song out of frustration with hip hop's position on homosexuality, helped her put the performance in perspective.

In the crowd of 20,000 people, there were 2,000 of those who felt something, he told her. And though you might never be told, something good will come from that.

There were times that Lambert, 23, thought she'd never be in a position to change people's hearts.

"As a teenager, I was a complete mess," she told the Arts Corps crowd. "I was heavy into drugs, completely reckless, and I was basically just waiting to die. I grew up in an abusive home, poor, suicidal, and a severe case of the gay."

Lambert was 18 when she went to her first poetry slam hosted by Youth Speaks Seattle, which is now an Arts Corps program. She went to writing circles taught by some of the greatest poets she knew, and met friends that helped her find the strength to be a proud gay artist.

"I wanted to live again," she said, "so I could go to the next poetry slam."

Today Lambert's a full-time artist, and it was through poetry that she met Hollis Wong-Wear, who has co-written songs with Macklemore and Lewis and also co-produced videos for "Thrift Shop" and "Wings."

"Can you come to the studio today?," Wong-Wear asked last May. Macklemore and Lewis had one track to finish on "The Heist," and they wanted to hear her ideas.

Lambert penned the hook for "Same Love" in two hours.

Her echoing line "Not crying on Sundays" came from her own experiences at Mars Hill Church in Seattle – a place Lambert said isn't hateful, but clearly thinks being gay is a sin. She would come home from services and cry, ashamed and apologizing to God for being who she was.

That continued until she realized that a loving God wouldn't condemn her for being herself, Lambert said.

When she sang the song for Macklemore and Lewis, both were in tears. Don't change a thing, Lewis told her.

You can make the case for gay rights politically and with evidence, Lambert said. "But the only way you that you really, really change people is reaching into their heart and grabbing them and saying, 'We're the same.' And I think that was my goal."

Since the release of "Same Love," dozen of high school and college kids have contacted Lambert sharing stories of how her song helped them find acceptance.

At the Arts Corps benefit, she told the crowd about a student who came out to her parents during Thanksgiving break. The parents accepted what was said, but didn't call as much afterward. And the topic was never brought up again.

As the student and her mother made the roughly three-hour drive back, there was the urge to talk more. But she didn't know how to start the conversation. So she played "Same Love."

"'She started crying,'" the student wrote. "'So did I. Then she apologized for being upset with me. She asked me to forgive her for not understanding, but she said she would try to. She told me she doesn't want anything to separate us and that she wants me to feel comfortable opening up to her.

"I am so glad that 'Same Love' exists," she wrote to Lambert. "I'm so happy I was able to use it to tell my mom how I was feeling. Even the first time I heard the song, just your words and voice made me cry.

"Because that was the first time I felt like someone was on my side."