Queen + Adam Lambert (sometimes referred to as Q+AL or QAL) is a collaboration between the remaining active members of the British band Queen (Brian May and Roger Taylor) and American vocalist Adam Lambert. As with all other Queen performances since 1997, longstanding bassist John Deacon has declined to participate in the project due to his retirement. This is the first long-term collaboration of Queen since the Queen + Paul Rodgers project ended in 2009. Like the previous project, it was made clear that Lambert would not be replacing Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, but rather that he would be featured with the band's active members.
The Queen + Adam Lambert collaboration originated when May and Taylor appeared on American Idol in 2009, when Lambert was a contestant. They began performing occasionally in 2011, conducted a short European tour in 2012, and in 2014 announced a world tour, the Queen + Adam Lambert Tour 2014–2015 with international dates in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe and South America. In the summer of 2016, the group performed several dates as part of a festival tour in Europe and several dates in Asia. The next year, the group announced a second worldwide tour scheduled for 2017 and 2018. After the success of the film Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), they announced their third worldwide tour called The Rhapsody Tour. This tour took the band back to North America in 2019, and to South Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, playing stadiums, in early 2020. Further European dates (including 10 shows at The O2 Arena in London) were scheduled for the summer of 2020. These shows were then postponed until Summer 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. In the fall of 2023 the band went back to North America for 23 dates. In February 2024, the band performed five shows in Japan.
Joining May, Taylor and Lambert are long-time Queen touring keyboardist Spike Edney, bassist Neil Fairclough and percussionist Tyler Warren. Although there are no immediate plans to release a studio album with this line-up, May and Taylor have stated that there is a possibility of the group recording their own, original material.[1]
