Adam Lambert And Queen Give Performance Of 'Killer Queen' That Would Have Impressed Frontman Freddie Mercury
Apr 03, 2020 by apost team
In front of an enthusiastic crowd in Chiba, Japan, American Idol star Adam Lambert joined Queen to sing signature track Killer Queen at 2014’s Summer Sonic festival. Lambert and Queen performed at the festival with other legendary bands like Arctic Monkeys, Phoenix and Kraftwerk.
Wearing high heels and a gold-studded fringe top — not to mention his hand fan — Lambert rocks the performance with just the right amount of theatrics. He sings nearly the entire ‘70s hit while sitting on a purple couch and casually fanning his face, for example, which makes for a humorous and playful rendition of Freddie Mercury’s lively track.
While you might remember him as American Idol’s season eight runner-up, Adam Lambert has made a name for himself as one of the country’s most successful vocalists. It’s no wonder, then, that the 38-year-old singer caught the legendary British rock band Queen’s attention as early as in 2009, which began what has become a longtime, fruitful musical relationship, including this standout Summer Sonic performance in Japan.
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“A musician friend of mine in America was like, ‘You’ve gotta check out this guy on Idol,” Queen drummer Roger Taylor told Rolling Stone in 2014. “So we Googled him. His voice was phenomenal. He had this sort of slight Elvis look going on. I just thought, ‘Wow, what a voice! Those octaves!'”
Lambert’s impressive performances on the show were so good in fact that they got Taylor and Queen guitarist Brian May to fly out to Los Angeles to join the American Idol star for the show’s season finale. Nonetheless, Lambert ended up losing to Kris Allen despite back up from the rock and roll greats. But luckily, that didn’t mean an end to Lambert and Queen’s musical collaboration.
Shortly after American Idol, Lambert was preoccupied with the American Idol tour as well as the singer’s first studio album, For Your Entertainment, which came out in 2009. But in 2011, he and the band reunited to play three songs at the MTV Europe Awards, which sparked some more conversation around future collaborations. The talks eventually culminated in a performance in Kiev and the 2012 Euro tour, which Lambert described as “beautiful” in a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone.
“It is surreal. I feel honored. I feel inspired by it. It’s also one of those things where you’re going to sink or swim, especially when we were onstage for for the first time in the Ukraine in front of 300,000 people,” Lambert told Rolling Stone. “I was like, ‘Well, it’s now or never. You gotta run with it.’ It’s similar to be in camera with Idol. You go for it.”
If Lambert’s mini tour with the band was akin to an audition, he seems to have passed with flying colors given that the band has toured multiple times together since they first took the stage together as part of Queen Live in 2012. In fact, since Lambert and Queen’s tour in 2014, the American Idol singer and the band have been on the road together every year. That includes, of course, the stunning 2014 Summer Sonic concert that featured lots of guitar shredding and a star-studded lineup. According to Rolling Stone, Lambert’s new role as touring singer in the band came after former vocalist Paul Roger’s departure back in 2009.
Of course, there’s no replacing the late, great Freddie Mercury whose absence on stage will always be felt, no matter the replacement. But Lambert has shown that while he might not be Freddie Mercury, the American singer does justice to Mercury’s historic musical legacy — and for that, we can be thankful. But to really understand Lambert’s talent as a singer, make sure to turn up the volume and watch the I Want To Break Free 2014 performance. Whether you’re a Queen fan, a Lambert fan or just someone who loves to rock out, the band knows how to put on a good show.
What did you think of Adam Lambert's Killer Queen performance? Does he live up to Freddie Mercury's legacy? Let us know and pass this story on to your musically-inclined friends and family members.