Queen’s guitarist Brian May says that the American singer Adam Lambert has a better vocal range than Freddie Mercury.
Lambert has been touring as the replacement singer for Queen for the past few years, in 2012 Queen and Lambert were named as the best live act of 2012.
The guitarist stated in the past how Adam has an uncanny gift for interpreting Freddie’s songs, saying his voice has a “sensitivity, depth, maturity and awesome range and power which will make jaws drop.”
Many singers over the years have commented on how phenomenal Mercury’s range was, with the top opera singers in the world remarking on how talented he was at reaching the highest and hardest notes.
While Queen’s drummer Roger Taylor told the BBC in 2012 that he has “the best range i’ve ever heard.
May told Universal Music Japan (via Digital Spy): “We didn’t look for this guy, suddenly he’s there, and he can sing all of those lines. See, they’re difficult songs to sing, Queen songs. There’s too much range. So many people can’t sing them in the original key – even if they are good singers.
“Adam comes along, and he can do it easy. He can do it in his sleep. He can sing higher than even Freddie could in a live situation. So I think Freddie would look at this guy and think, ‘Hmm, yeah. Okay’. There would be a kind of, ‘Hmm, you bastard, you can do this’.”
“He is a showman. He doesn’t have to try. He is a natural, in the same way that Freddie was.”
Watch Adam Lambert’s first audition from 2009 when he sang ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ below.
