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"the show must go on" is a song by english rock band queen, featured as the twelfth and final track on their 1991 album innuendo. it is credited to queen, but written primarily by brian may. the song chronicles the effort of freddie mercury continuing to perform despite approaching the end of his life.[1] the title is derived from the phrase "the show must go on", and may be in reaction to the numerous press speculations about lead singer mercury's critically declining health since the late 1980s. much of the lyrics and imagery of the song can also be construed to be a reflection on life and imminent death. it is regarded as one of queen's most emotive, powerful songs by many fans.[1]
it was released as a single in the united kingdom on 14 october 1991 in promotion for the greatest hits ii album, just six weeks before mercury died. following mercury's death in november 1991, the song re-entered the british charts and spent longer in the top 75 than it did on its original release, eventually reaching a peak of 16. a live version with elton john on vocals appeared on queen's greatest hits iii album.
the song was first played live on april 20, 1992, during the freddie mercury tribute concert, performed by the three remaining members of queen, with elton john singing lead vocals and tony iommi playing rhythm guitar.
songwriting and recording process
after listening to john deacon and roger taylor playing the chord sequence that later on would be the basis for almost the entire song, brian may sat down with freddie mercury and the two of them decided the theme of the song and wrote some lyrics. may wrote down the rest of the words as well as the melody, and put a bridge with chord sequence inspired by pachelbel's canon.
demo versions featured may singing, having to sing some parts in falsetto because they were too high. when brian may presented the final demo to mercury, he had doubts that mercury would be physically capable of singing the song's highly demanding vocal line, due to the extent of his illness at the time. to may's surprise, when the time came to record the vocals, mercury consumed a measure of vodka and said "i'll fucking do it, darling!" then proceeded to nail the vocal line in one take without problems. to this day, brian may regards this vocal performance as one of mercury's best.[2]
for the record, may sang most of the backing vocals (including the very last line) and played yamaha dx7 synthesiser as well as guitar. producer david richards suggested the key-shift in the third verse.
'the show must go on' came from roger and john playing the sequence, and i started to put things down. at the beginning, it was just this chord sequence, but i had this strange feeling that it could be somehow important, and i got very impassioned and went and beavered away at it. i sat down with freddie, and we decided what the theme should be and wrote the first verse. it's a long story, that song, but i always felt it would be important because we were dealing with things that were hard to talk about at the time, but in the world of music, you could do it."[3]
—brian may - 1994
promotional video
due to mercury's deteriorating health at the time, no new footage of the lead singer could be shot. with the song released within just a few weeks of his death, shots of freddie mercury instead had to be salvaged from previous videos. the video was conceived and released as a montage of clips spanning queen's music video career from 1981 to 1991.
during the section of the video where a number of masks appear sequentially, one of the masks is of a roboto, from the music video of "mr. roboto" by styx.
the music video was compiled and edited by austrian director team doro, consisting of rudi dolezal and hannes rossacher.
cover versions
the song was one of many used in the 2001 film moulin rouge!, performed by jim broadbent and nicole kidman.
shirley bassey recorded a version of the song for her 2001 album show must go on.
the music was recorded in 2006 by divinefire for their album hero.
it is one of the last songs grégory lemarchal premonitorily sang before his death.
it was also covered by michael ball on his album music.
the esperanto group kore sings an esperanto version of the song on their album tielas vivo, translation to esperanto by roel haveman
it also appears on pet shop boys album back to mine as a chris lowe selection.
it has also been covered by german power metal band metalium on their album nothing to undo: chapter six.
extracts from the song appear in the first movement of the queen symphony by tolga kashif
celine dion sang this song in her 2008-2009 taking chances tour.
dc comics character pied piper used this song, thinking it would be the final thing he played, to destroy the planet apokolips in countdown to final crisis.
the song was covered on the danish final of their edition of x-factor in 2008, with several of the "rejects" and "outsiders" who never made it far, but made a lasting impression on many viewers, performed the song together.
paris bennett performed an abridged version of the song on the fifth season of american idol.
carly smithson performed an abridged version of the song, and recorded a lyrically complete studio version, for the seventh season of american idol.
elton john performed the song on his 1992 tour; the song appears on the dvd live in barcelona.
anatoliy aleshin performed the song on russian tv show superstar 2008.
russian singer irina nelson sang this song in 2008.
hip-hop/rock group twiztid made their version called "it don't stop", which featured the original song's sample and sped up chorus. it was released on their seventh studio album w.i.c.k.e.d. as a bonus track.
israeli singer dana international recorded a version sung in hebrew/english for her debut album danna international in 1993 called "ha-hatzga chayyevet l-himshakh".
the song was performed by patrick fiori, liane foly, garou and lââm during the annual les enfoires concert in 2010.
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