EVERETT — Mary Lambert is coming home.
The Everett native of “Same Love” fame is headlining the We Are Everett Run & Concert next weekend.
The Everett Music Initiative and Snohomish Running Co. are partnering to put on a 5K run near Washington State University Everett followed by a concert at Everett Memorial Stadium on Sept. 29. About 5,000 people are expected to run and dance for Everett. Proceeds go toward We Are Everett grants to benefit student athletes and artists within the Everett School District.
“I was just so excited about the prospect of it,” Lambert, 29, said in a phone call with The Daily Herald from her home in Massachusetts. “Oh my God, it’s going to be in my hometown, and it’s going to be this big thing. It feels really, really special. It feels like I’m coming home — because I am.”
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Same Love,” featuring Lambert in the hook, was released in 2012 in support of legalizing gay marriage in Washington. The song, which was re-released on Macklemore’s album “The Heist” (2012), led to Lambert’s Grammy Award nominations for “Song Of The Year” and “Album Of The Year.”
Lambert’s fame continued to rise with “Same Love”: She toured with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and performed with the hip-hop duo on the “MTV Video Music Awards,” “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “The Colbert Report.”
She soon released the single “She Keeps Me Warm,” based on her lyrics in “Same Love.” She has three EPs, “Letters Don’t Talk” (2012), “Welcome to the Age of My Body” (2013) and “Bold” (2017), and two albums, “Heart on My Sleeve” (2014) and “Pride Jams (2016).”
The two-time Grammy-award nominee will perform a mix of her favorite songs off her albums at the We Are Everett concert — including the pop-heavy “Secrets” and the ballad “She Keeps Me Warm” — as well as spoken word from a yet-to-be-released collection of poems.
“(We’ve) been looking forward to having Mary Lambert back to Everett since (our founding),” Everett Music Initiative founder Ryan Crowther wrote in an email to The Herald. “It’s been so much fun to watch her success over the last several years. She’s the first artist that came to mind (for this concert).
“I’m looking forward to seeing the community come together to celebrate Everett.”
Lambert’s book, “Shame is an Ocean I Swim Across,” will be released in October. She describes it as a collection of “devastating” poems that either inspired lyrics or were inspired by lyrics.
“I can’t do vocal acrobatics, I’m not a genius piano player,” said Lambert, who graduated from Mariner High School in 2007. “There’s one thing I do incredibly well; that’s finding emotion inside, being vulnerable enough to let it out and connecting with people that way. So when I’m on stage, that’s what I do.”
“I really do think that’s what’s going to heal the world — a cycle of vulnerability and empathy and connection.”
In addition to the book, Lambert has been working on what she calls her “dream album.”
“I wanted to make an album that has strong writing and poetry,” she said. “I want it to be really thoughtful; it’s really, really sad but it offers a glimmer of hope. It’s almost there.”
Lambert is frank about the struggles she faced while growing up: Her parents divorced when she was 5 years old, she was molested repeatedly by her father as a child, she abused drugs and alcohol before she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and she was a victim of gang rape at 17.
Her family was kicked out of their church when her mother came out as gay. It was around that time that she, too, realized she was a lesbian.
Lambert had always wanted to be a performer, but figured that, for a poor girl from south Everett, it was a long-shot.
“Same Love,” which became a double-platinum hit, jump-started Lambert’s career as a singer-songwriter.
She said she wrote the lyrics for “Same Love” as the voice of a lesbian and Christian, not knowing the song would be her big break.
“‘Same Love’ fell into my lap,” she said. “I feel very, very lucky.”
If you go
What: We Are Everett Run & Concert
Where: Runners meet Washington State University-Everett, 915 N. Broadway; concert follows at Everett Memorial Stadium, 3802 Broadway
When: 5K run is 4 p.m.; concert is 6 p.m. Sept. 29
Tickets: Start at $45
More: www.weareeverett.org
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