Adam Lambert Honors Queen at the Polar Music Prize with Two Very Different Songs

At the Polar Music Prize ceremony, Adam Lambert sang Queen’s music in front of Brian May and Roger Taylor. The two members were in the audience to receive the honor, and their reactions became part of the performance.

The selection put two very different parts of Queen’s catalog beside each other. One is built around rhythm, while the other leaves space for a long dramatic vocal line.

‘Another One Bites the Dust’ gets much of its identity from its groove. Lambert can place the vocal around a pulse the room recognizes before he has sung much of the song.

‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ changes the terms of the performance. Its slower movement gives Lambert time to use both the softer parts of his voice and the larger sound the refrain calls for.

The camera catches May and Taylor listening from their seats. Their presence makes it possible to watch the music travel back to people who helped make it.

Watch the performance

The two musicians stood to applaud. That response gives the tribute a personal finish within the formal setting of the prize ceremony.

Lambert’s work with Queen has long involved singing material closely associated with Freddie Mercury. In this setting he gives the songs their recognizable shape and places his own voice inside it.

Hearing the two selections together makes the change in scale especially clear. A tight rhythmic line gives way to a ballad whose phrases have much more room to stretch.

The setting also makes the exchange easier to see than in an arena show. The people being celebrated are near the stage, and the camera can follow the response.

Listeners familiar with Lambert’s performances alongside Queen can hear that history in his familiarity with the material. Each song still asks him for a different kind of control.

May and Taylor’s faces are part of the record of the evening. The performance and their attention to it carry the feeling of a conversation across the room.

Freddie Mercury’s role in Queen gives both selections another layer of meaning. They remain songs many listeners first heard in his voice, even as Lambert approaches them from his own.

The ballad in the main video is a clear place to hear that balance. Lambert can shape its long phrases differently while leaving the melody and the pace of the build recognizable.

The standing applause closes the performance with the people it was meant to honor. A tribute that could have been formal becomes a direct exchange between musicians.

The companion performance from the ceremony gives the rhythmic side of the selection its own space. It helps explain how far the evening traveled between the two Queen songs.

The Budapest recording below provides a second comparison from Queen’s classic lineup. Its arrangement lets the listener hear the ballad in an earlier concert setting.

Two more performances to explore

Adam Lambert – Another One Bites the Dust (Queen) 2025

Lambert’s ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ comes from the same Polar Music Prize occasion. Listen for how he places the vocal against the steady groove after hearing him in the ballad.

Queen – Who Wants to Live Forever (Live in Budapest)

Queen’s live ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ from Budapest returns to the song with Freddie Mercury. It offers a point of comparison for the scale and phrasing of Lambert’s later performance.