Days after announcing their first-ever album release, Live Around the World, Queen + Adam Lambert has shared a searing live performance of "The Show Must Go On."
The last track from Queen's Innuendo album "The Show Must Go On" contains the powerful Brian May-penned mantra by which Queen has operated for much of the last 25-plus years.
While Freddie Mercury himself was never able to perform the song live before his death, and it took on additional meaning after his passing in the fall of 1991. The following year, the song was performed live for the first time at the star-studded Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium, featuring Elton John on lead vocals and May's longtime friend Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi on guitar.
Lambert's heartfelt tribute to the lost-legend has made the song a nightly highlight over his time fronting Queen.
Watch the performance via the video player above!
In a press release, May recalled working on the Innuendo album while Mercury was in the advanced stages of AIDS. Despite the singer's illness, May says the band had "some inspired and joyful times in the studio."
"We didn’t speak much about Freddie’s illness — he just wanted to get on with ‘business as usual’ as far as possible," May recalled in a press release. "But already there was only a day or two per week when Freddie was well enough to come in and work with us. We grabbed those precious moments and made the most of them. I’d been working on 'The Show Must Go On' as an idea, but I was uncertain whether the title was too obvious. Freddie heard it and loved it and dismissed any thoughts that there was a problem with the chorus or the title. He wanted to work on it."
Queen + Adam Live Around the World will arrive October 2 in CD, vinyl and DVD/Blu-ray formats.
The release contains a compilation of Queen + Adam Lambert concert highlights from over 200 performances around the world, including concerts in Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas.
Photo: Brojan Hohnjec