QUEEN + Adam Lambert - History In Numbers

The information on this page is based on data as of End Of Year 2020.

This page is considered Work In Progress!

 

Tour vs. Special Events Statistics

Between their first performance on the American Idol finale's stage and the end of the 2020 Rhapsody Tour, QUEEN+Adam Lambert (QAL) have performed together 225 official tour concerts, and participated 14 times in special events, for a total of 239 performance.

The 14 special events were:

Since the setlists of these special events could range from a single song performance (e.g. X-Factor UK) to a whole concert (Microsoft Inspire corporate event), they have been separated from the statistics of the official tour performances to avoid skewing the song percentages below.

 

Most Performed Tour Songs

Counting only the 225 official tour performances from June 30, 2012 in Kyiv, Ukraine to February 29, 2020 in Gold Coast, Australia, the following 7 songs have been performed during every single show:

A few songs were performed at nearly every show:

In other words, had we categorized the two Japan Summer Sonic concerts as special events and not as part of the 2014 Asia tour, then I Want It All, Somebody To Love, and Brian May's Guitar Solo would have scored 100%, too.

The total number of songs performed during official tour shows is 62, including 6 instrumental sections, 4 Adam Lambert covers (Ghost Town, Two Fux, Lucy, Whataya Want From Me), 2 call-and-response sections, 1 Elvis cover, and 1 Led Zeppelin cover. Some of them used video and audio recordings of Freddie Mercury (You Take My Breath Away, Ay-Oh), Brian May (Procession, God Save The Queen), or an orchestra (Innuendo).

 

Tour Songs By Primary Author

It is known that in the later years of its existence, the group QUEEN credited all its members for all compositions. However, even from that period there are clear historical records of the main driving force behind each song. Based on that, here is the make-up of the tours by composer:

This means that the two remaining active members of QUEEN were responsible for 27 of the 49 QUEEN songs performed at the QUEEN + Adam Lambert tour shows - that is slightly more than half.

 

Tour Songs By Performer

During the official tour concerts, QUEEN+Adam Lambert performed 6,237 songs (308 of them were played from a record, including God Save The Queen, Procession, Innuendo, Flash).

Note that double performances of the same song in the same concert were not counted twice, e.g. opening verse of We Will Rock You and full song at the end of the show during the 2017 tour counted as one performance. However, We Will Rock You and We Will Rock You (Fast) during the 2012 shows were counted as two separate performances.

Here are the numbers of songs each performer had a leading role in:

 

The Evolution Of The Bohemian Rhapsody Performance

As mentioned earlier, Freddie's Magnum Opus Bohemian Rhapsody has been an integral part of every single tour concert. For the first 5 years of touring, starting with the Kyiv, Ukraine performance through the 2014, 2015 and 2016 tours of North America, Asia x2, Australia and New Zealand, Europe x2, and South America, the general structure of the song remained the same:

This structure was used for a total of 96 performance.

This changed somewhat on June 23, 2017 in Glendale, AZ with the start of the second North American tour. Adam took over the first half of the song, performing both verses before the operatic section. He had performed the second verse at the X-Factor UK finale duet with Saara Aalto, and retained the same unique upward melodic line for the "never been born at all" phrase in most of the QAL performances. Also, the "Is This A Real Life..." intro was added and played from a recording.

This new configuration survived for 29 performances - the whole second North American tour, plus the first three shows of the European leg of the 2017 tour. Then, in the fourth European show in Lodz, Poland on November 06, 2017, it abruptly changed to remove the remaining Freddie lines except for the music video's operatic section. It even caught some music journalists by surprise - an article previewing the upcoming Vienna, Austria show scheduled for November 08, 2017 explicitly mentioned Freddie's appearance in the song; in the post-concert article the same publication lamented the lack of Freddie (and of the Blue Danube Waltz rumored as part of Brian's solo).

This new performance structure was used in the remaining 23 shows of the 2017 European tour, the 10 Australia/New Zealand 2018 shows, the 16 European shows in 2018, the 10 Vegas Residency shows in 2018, 25 North American shows in 2019, and 16 Asia, Australia/NZ shows in 2020, for a total of 100 performances so far.

 

The Evolution Of The "Why?"

Another song that has been performed at every single tour show is Under Pressure.

See the dedicated page to follow its evolution through the years starting with the spine-tingling Kyiv concert performance.

 

Killing The Queen On A Sofa, Chair, Head, Piano

The song Killer Queen was first introduced to the setlist in the 2014 North American tour and remained one of the most theatrical segments throughout the following years, albeit with significant changes in the set pieces:

Image by @husariaagatka Image from adamlambertmedia.com Image from plsn.com Image by @skaschep

 

God Save The Queen

The instrumental recording closed all but these 3 shows:

In the case of Argentina, this was most probably because of the historical animosity due to the Falkland war from 1982. The following night on September 26 in Cordoba did include God Save The Queen. The difference might have been the official radio broadcast from Estadio GEBA which was available not only throughout the country, but was even streamed worldwide.

See this controversy as an example of a possible reason for not playing the recording in the Republic of Ireland. But it is not clear why it was not included in Belfast, as it is often used as the national anthem of Northern Ireland, for example at sporting events. Also, it seems to have been used to close the Dublin, Ireland show a year later on July 08, 2018, without any incidents.

 

Most Performed Songs At Any Events

Looking at all 239 performances of QUEEN+Adam Lambert since 2009, here are the songs that were performed most often, including both tour shows and special events:

 

Adam Lambert Songs Covered By QUEEN+Adam Lambert

Since the South America tour in 2015, QAL has performed 4 songs originally recorded by Adam Lambert:

 

Least Performed Songs

A few songs were performed only occasionally, usually due to special circumstances:

 

Most Popular Tour Locations

Since 2012, QUEEN+Adam Lambert have toured around the world several times, visiting and re-visiting North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and hopping to South America just once so far. The following is an overview of the most popular geographical regions of these tours:

Continents:

Countries:

Cities:

Venues:

Tour Concert Pacing

When planning a tour, the timing of the concerts depends on a multitude of factors, including travel time between locations, venue availability, and the physical limits of the (super)human body - singing three concerts on three consecutive days could be dangerous to the vocal cords.

The following section looks at the spacing between concerts during the various QAL tours. When calculating averages, the lowest possible value would be 1.0, meaning back-to-back shows without a breather. 2.0 would mean one free day between shows, etc.