Adam Lambert and Queen’s poignant performance at the Isle of Wight festival came the day after the devastating Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016.

When Adam Lambert and Queen take to a stage, a powerful show is always guaranteed.

As the opening chords to the 1986 power ballad ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ echoed across a hushed audience at the Isle of Wight in 2016, the incredible song was even more poignant that evening.

The night before, 49 people were killed and 53 wounded in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando.

In a Smooth Virtual Coffee Break with Jenni Falconer, Lambert described how hearing the news the next morning made him feel “really awful”.

“I woke up that morning to the news and just feeling really awful about it, and knowing that that could have been me or any one of my friends,” he said.

In a Smooth Virtual Coffee Break with Jenni Falconer, Lambert described how hearing the news the next morning made him feel “really awful”. Picture: YouTube / Trespasser
Virtual Coffee Break interview with Adam Lambert!
Smooth’s Jenni Falconer catches up with Adam Lambert about Queen’s new album, his favourite performances and paying tribute to Freddie Mercury.
The American singer revealed the spontaneous decision the group made on the night after the tragic incident.

“So, sort of in the spur of the moment, when we got to that song, I dedicated the meaning of the song to those people that lost their lives,” Lambert said.

“So it took on this very poignant sort of energy in that moment. It was one of those nights where the song just sort of captured that feeling.”

He added: “It was powerful, I think.”

Alongside Lambert’s extraordinary vocals, Brian May and Roger Taylor gave the festival a spine-tingling performance of the Queen classic.

Brian May penned the hit after watching the first cut of the film, and apparently wrote the famous line “Who wants to live forever” in a taxi on his way home after the viewing.

During the movie it soundtracks the scenes of Connor MacLeod’s (Christopher Lambert) wife Heather (Beatie Edney) growing old and dying while he stays forever young.

It was sixth track on the album A Kind of Magic and peaked at number 24 in the UK charts.
Opening up to Jenni about keeping Freddie Mercury’s legacy alive, Lambert said: “Freddie’s such an irreplaceable figure. So we celebrate him every night on stage.

“We acknowledge that, especially me to the audience. There’s no way I can compare to this rock god.”

Lambert has been performing with the rock band as lead vocalist since 2011.