Queen feat. Adam Lambert at 2011 MTV EMAs

[cailuj365]

I thought this was too cool to be buried in the Idol thread...

Queen was honored with the "Global Icons" award at the MTV Europe Music Awards Sunday night in Belfast, and they closed out the show with a three-song medley featuring Adam Lambert on vocals. It was awesome!

Link to the performance: "The Show Must Go On," "We Will Rock You," "We Are The Champions"

Now, it's irrefutable that no one can replace Freddie Mercury. Truthfully, Adam's and Freddie's vocal styles are very different from each other - if you would like to hear someone who can imitate Freddie's recordings, look up Marc Martel - but what they do have in common are a lot of power and control to their voice as well as great stage presence and showmanship.

Anyway, I thought this would interest both Queen and Adam Lambert fans alike, and I thought it was a great tribute.

The rest of the EMAs was fun too with performances from Bruno Mars (cute!!), Gaga (a bit boring until the last minute when she started dancing and then flashed her butt at the end), Bieber, Coldplay, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc. I'd give the youtube links, but MTV started taking everything down. It should be on the MTV website though if you're curious.

[BigB08822]

All I could think was that it must have been quite an honor for Adam but I wished they had asked Marc Martel to stand in. It would have been even better.

[Sally1214]

I LOVED Adam's performance with Queen. He really brought the house down. As one person tweeted, "Wow, that dude just outsang everyone who won an award tonight." AMEN to that!

[cailuj365]

All I could think was that it must have been quite an honor for Adam but I wished they had asked Marc Martel to stand in. It would have been even better.

I think Marc Martel's voice is really impressive, and it sounds almost exactly Freddie's. However, in the previous thread about him, a poster mentioned how he is just very good at imitating other artist's voices, and he has done this before with another artist. I looked up the videos and saw what he or she meant. This made me think that he's more just a great imitator than a great artist or singer, which is fine if he only does covers. Also, Marc doesn't have the flair or flamboyance of Freddie nor really the experience singing in front of 8000 people live in a big arena show setting like that.

Besides, what other current male artist could sing "my makeup may be flaking" so unabashedly other than Adam Lambert?

[BigB08822]

If you can imitate Freddie Mercury so flawlessly then you are a great singer as well. I get that he doesn't have the flamboyance to pull off Mercury but I just think people would have FREAKED over how much he sounds like him.

One thing I loved about Adam was how humble he was. He wasn't even announced, he just stood in to sing FOR Queen. It wasn't Queen featuring Lambert. How many famous people would do that?

[cailuj365]

If you can imitate Freddie Mercury so flawlessly then you are a great singer as well. I get that he doesn't have the flamboyance to pull off Mercury but I just think people would have FREAKED over how much he sounds like him.

It just became less cool to me when I learned that he could just copy very, very well. But yes, you're right, he has great vocal talent. He should definitely be the singer of a Queen cover band. I think people are already stunned with how much he sounds like Freddie as his youtube hits have shown, but it's also fun to watch how other artists interpret Queen songs, both melodically and stylistically.

One thing I loved about Adam was how humble he was. He wasn't even announced, he just stood in to sing FOR Queen. It wasn't Queen featuring Lambert. How many famous people would do that?

Lol, not Gaga, that's for sure. She made it a point to mention Brian May's name during one of her acceptance speeches right before the performance. I liked how they kept his face hidden too for the first 30 seconds or so just to keep up the mystery. Though, I think simply announcing the band as "Queen" also confused a lot of Queen fans who may have thought that Adam was going to become the band's new lead singer, especially since he's sung with them once before. I don't think either of them have any of intention of doing this as a long-term thing. However, Brian and Roger both adore Adam, and I'm so glad he got to perform with them again.

In the future, I would love to hear Mika sing with Queen. His voice isn't as nimble or powerful as Adam's, but I think his vocal style is more similar to Mercury's. He also has great energy on stage.