Features
The Renaissance Of Queen: New Frontman, New Energy – And A Hit Movie
AP Photo / Chris Pizzello / Invision – We Are The Champions:
Queen + Adam Lambert kick things off at the Academy Awards at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre Feb. 24 with a rousing performance before “Bohemian Rhapsody” lead Rami Malek won the Oscar for Best Actor.
When accepting his Oscar for portraying the late rock star Freddie Mercury in the 2018 biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Best Actor winner Rami Malek thanked Queen for allowing him to be “the tiniest part of your phenomenal, extraordinary legacy” – capping an award season that saw numerous wins for the young actor in the film about the iconic rock band’s legendary frontman.
The film, released last fall, came during a time of renaissance for Queen that has been building steadily since the introduction of lead singer Adam Lambert – one whose participation in the band’s legacy has moved far beyond “tiniest part.”
Lambert first sang with Queen on the television show “American Idol” when he was the Season 8 runner-up in 2009. That performance led to the band’s interest in the singer touring as the official frontman.
After an initial appearance together late in 2011, they first joined forces on the road in the summer of 2012 for a handful of European dates. By the time 2014 arrived, the members of Queen, together with Lambert, announced a full-fledged arena tour through North America that was set to kick off during that summer.
The successful pairing led to an expanded 2014 tour with legs added in Asia and Oceania as well as a European run and a final Latin American stint in 2015. Queen + Adam Lambert ended both years ranked among Pollstar’s Top 100 Worldwide tours. In 2014 the group took the No. 35 slot with $37 million in sales from 338,146 sold tickets and scored the No. 46 ranking the following year based on a gross of $31.7 million from a total ticket count of 319,106.
Their next road outing came during the summer of 2016 with a string of summer dates in Europe, primarily at festivals, stadiums and other outdoor concert sites. Only two of the headlining performances were reported – the first one a June 15 event in Brussels at Palais 12, one of the larger indoor arenas in Belgium. Grossing more than half-a-million dollars, the venue hosted 7,068 Queen fans. Later that month, the group also played an outdoor event at the piazza Anfiteatro Camerini in the city of Piazzola sul Brenta in northern Italy, moving 10,189 tickets with sales topping $1 million. In September of that year the group headed to Asia for a string of concerts. One of those shows is also recorded in Pollstar’s boxoffice archives – a Sept. 26 concert in China that grossed just over $1 million from a crowd of 8,913 fans at Shanghai’s Mercedes-Benz Arena.
The most recent worldwide arena trek for Queen + Adam Lambert began the following year on June 23, 2017, in Phoenix, the first stop on a six-week run through the U.S. and Canada. The tour included 25 shows in 24 cities that summer and produced $27.9 million in boxoffice revenue from 287,032 sold tickets. Los Angeles was the one city that hosted the band for two nights, drawing a two-show total of 32,433 fans for performances on June 26-27 at the Hollywood Bowl. Later in the tour, the group completed two stretches through Europe, the first in November and December of 2017 and the second in June and July of 2018. Wedged in between was a six-city jaunt in Australia and New Zealand beginning on Feb. 17, 2018, and finishing on March 6.
The 2017-18 trek wrapped in September with a 10-show engagement at the Park Theater at Park MGM in Las Vegas. The band saw sold ticket revenue reach $7.4 million at the venue from 46,866 sold seats. Dubbed “The Crown Jewels,” the mini-residency – which included taped segments of Freddie Mercury’s actual vocals along with the live performances by the band – ran from Sept. 1-22.
AP Photo / Chris Pizzello / Invision – Stone Cold Crazy:
In 2014 and 2015, Queen + Adam Lambert grossed a combined $68.7 million.
Along with Malek’s personal success as the star of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the film itself earned awards and nominations as one of the most critically acclaimed of 2018. In addition to an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture-Drama back in January.
Building on the popularity of the movie, Queen + Adam Lambert announced a new tour in December that will debut this summer, launching in Vancouver on July 10 and continuing through Aug. 23 with a finale planned in Charlotte. Named the Rhapsody Tour, it will play arenas in 23 cities in North America including New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, Houston and Washington, D.C. among others. They also announced a documentary called “The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story” to air on ABC April 29.
Guitarist Brian May commented in a press release when the tour was announced that the upcoming trek is a great opportunity for the band. “Our last tour featured our most ambitious production ever, and got us our best notices ever. So we decided to rip it apart and get even more ambitious! Watch out, America!” Bandmate Roger Taylor continued, “We are ready for America and raring to get back in the saddle.” Lambert also weighed in on the upcoming summer jaunt, stating, “We have been designing a brand new visual spectacle that will reframe these iconic songs and we are excited to unveil it.”