Adam Lambert (center) is pictured with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor at their press event March 6. (VT Photo)
REPORTING FROM BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. — Queen is planning a 19-city arena tour with American Idol winner Adam Lambert as lead vocals, singing standards like “We Will Rock You,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Are the Champions.”
Those songs, and many others, were made popular by Queen’s original singer Freddie Mercury, who passed away in 1991. The British band formed in 1970, and by the early 1980s they were one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world, recording the multiplatinum “Queen: Live at Wembley Stadium” in 1986 during the London stopover of their Magic Tour.
In 2014, the band will be playing arena dates, launching their tour June 19 at the United Center in Chicago, before playing The Forum in Los Angeles, two nights at the The Joint in Las Vegas and a July 17 show at Madison Square Garden in New York.
“This is my first time playing at Madison Square Garden and it’s going to be a very special night on the tour for me,” said Lambert.
“If someone had said to me, 'By the way, you are going to be on the stage with them at Madison Square Garden in five years,' I would have laughed. This is so surreal,” Lambert said.
Queen drummer Roger Taylor added that’s Lambert’s “extraordinary voice” reminded him of the power of Freddy Mercury’s own four-octave range and added that Lambert has a great stage presence, which will pair nicely with the theatrical flair the show plans to encapsulate. “He’s a great diva,” Taylor said during the press conference.
While Lambert said that it is a “treat” to pay his respects to Mercury on stage, guitarist Brian May pointed out that Lambert’s arrangements of the songs are not identical to those of the late singer.
“One of the great things about Adam is he is never an imitator. He finds his way with the songs,” he said. “That is what we want. We want our music to be alive and dangerous and still open to change. Every time we work with Adam, we do that.”
Lambert has performed with members of Queen in the past including May and Taylor — in 2009 while still a contestant on American Idol, he performed in a televised tribute to Queen, and two years later he was invited to join Queen to perform three songs at the MTV Europe Music Awards.
In 2012, Lambert again performed with Queen for a number of shows in London, Russia and Ukraine, and last September he joined the band for their headlining slot at the iHeartRadio festival inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas in September.