Over the course of the QUEEN + Adam Lambert collaboration, the performance of the QUEEN and David Bowie song "Under Pressure" as a duet between Roger Taylor and Adam Lambert has been a highlight of the show.
One particular musical phrase fascinated the fans during the early QAL concerts in 2012, then disappeared from the live performances for several years, and then returned gradually to become such a fan favorite that some would seek it out first thing after each show to marvel at the technical aspects and spine-tingling effect on the audience.
In the original studio recording, that phrase comes in around 2 minutes 16 seconds into the song and consist of a "Why?" sliding up to an A5.
In the live QAL performances, the top note is usually "just" E5, but it is sung in full voice.
In the live performances of the song by QUEEN with Freddie Mercury that phrase was omitted. It was not even attempted by Roger Taylor who would normally handle the higher notes.
Below is the first live performance of the song at the Montreal Forum on November 24, 1981 - see 2:24 for just the "Why?".
At the first QUEEN+Adam Lambert concert in Kiev on June 30, 2012, Adam went for the high note just as the camera was panning over the audience. This performance became a fan favorite due to its sheer "balls of steel" quality, as the band was performing a full concert for the first time, and in front of at least 250,000 people. Jump to 2:14 - it was sustained for about 11 seconds, but compared to the 2019 performances, it is not as clean.
Adam performed the song in a similar way in the remaining five concerts in 2012.
When the first QAL North American tour started, the sliding "Why?" was sadly missing.
The song was performed in a similar way at the Asian tour shows, including the Tokyo Summer Sonic festival released as a live DVD/BluRay, as well as at the BBC NYE show that closed 2014.
Nothing changed in the following year's European tour.
The performance of Under Pressure remained about the same during the South American tour.
Not much to report about the stadium tour in 2016.
The "Why? Why? Love-Love-Love" form remained the same throughout the tour.
During this tour, things finally started changing!
This was the first leg of a QAL tour to consistently deliver a high "Why?" in the Under Pressure performance since 2012.
The 2018 European leg of the tour continued with high-sliding E5, at least in most cases.
The 2018 Las Vegas Residency "The Crown Jewels" consisted of 10 shows, all of them with a high note.
During The Rhapsody Tour, the high-sliding "Why?" in Under Pressure became one of the highlights of the show, together with the nearly perfect "The Show Must Go On" performances.