By Ralf Kuhling
When Queen come to town, Freddie Mercury is always there somehow, even if it’s been more than 30 years since his death.
On Friday, the band will be making a guest appearance with US singer Adam Lambert, 40, in the sold-out Mercedes-Benz Arena. In 2012 he followed in those footsteps that no one really fits in.
When Lambert sings “Somebody To Love” it’s intense, soulful, stirring. But it is one thing above all: Adam, not Freddie, anything but a copy. Lambert is gay, just like Freddie was, loves the theatrics.
Unreachable: Freddie Mercury Photo: Getty Images
And how does he master the supreme discipline, i.e. “Bohemian Rhapsody”? Sovereign. It was precisely this masterpiece that he performed on a US talent show in 2009, and where the judges asked themselves: How much self-confidence does someone have to have to compete with such a tricky work?
As early as 2003, Lambert demonstrated his versatile singing talent. He lived in Berlin for six months and belonged to the ensemble of the musical “Hair” at the Schiller Theater.
Before Lambert, blues rock legend Paul Rodgers was allowed to take the Queen mic. Together they released the album “The Cosmos Rocks”. It didn’t even remotely breathe the spirit of Freddie Mercury.
Queen and Lambert did not make an album. The tour aims to be a dip in the most exciting songs in rock history.
