| "The Show Must Go On" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Artwork for UK release | ||||
| Single byQueen | ||||
| from the albumInnuendoandGreatest Hits II | ||||
| B-side |
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| Released | 14 October 1991 (1991-10-14) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 4:31 | |||
| Label |
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| Songwriter | Queen (Brian May) | |||
| Producers |
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| Queen singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "The Show Must Go On" onYouTube | ||||
"The Show Must Go On" is a song by Britishrock bandQueen, featured as the twelfth and final track on their fourteenth album,Innuendo (1991), and is the final single to be released before the death of frontmanFreddie Mercury. It is credited to Queen, but was primarily written by guitaristBrian May.[2] The song chronicles Mercury's efforts continuing to perform despite approaching the end of his life, although his diagnosis withHIV/AIDS had not yet been made public in spite of ongoing media speculation that he was seriously ill.[3] When the band recorded the song in 1990, Mercury's condition had deteriorated to the point that May had concerns as to whether he was physically capable of singing it. May recalls; "I said, 'Fred, I don't know if this is going to be possible to sing.' And he went, 'I'll fucking do it, darling' — vodka down — and went in and killed it, completely lacerated that vocal".[4]
Thepower ballad[5] was released as a single in the United Kingdom on 14 October 1991 in promotion for theGreatest Hits II album, just six weeks before Mercury died. FollowingMercury's death on 24 November 1991, the song re-entered the British charts and spent as many weeks in the top 75 (five) as it did upon its original release, initially reaching a peak of 16. A live version withElton John on vocals appeared on Queen'sGreatest Hits III album.[6]
The song was first played live on 20 April 1992, duringThe Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, performed by the three remaining members of Queen, with Elton John singing lead vocals andBlack Sabbath guitaristTony Iommi playing rhythm guitar.[7] It has since been played live byQueen + Paul Rodgers andQueen + Adam Lambert with Rodgers citing one of the performances as the best of his career. Since its release, the song has appeared on television, film (including an operatic version inMoulin Rouge!), and has been covered by a number of artists.
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After listening toJohn Deacon andRoger Taylor playing the chord sequence that later on would be the basis for almost the entire song,Brian May sat down withFreddie 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 added a bridge with a chord sequence inspired byPachelbel's Canon. May was convinced the song's title was too predictable and offered to change it, but Mercury refused.[8]
Demo versions featured May singing, having to sing some parts infalsetto because they were too high. When 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 ameasure ofvodka and said "I'll fucking do it, darling!" then proceeded to perform the vocal line.[4]
May sang most of the backing vocals (including the last line) and playedKorg M1 synthesiser as well as guitar. Producer David Richards suggested the key-shift in the second 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.
— Brian May, 1994[9]
The lyrics are full of allusions, metaphors and other figures of speech, making it somewhat difficult to understand. Thinly disguised tragedy ahead is announced. In the end, the text refers to the determination, the furious desire to live ("I have to find the will to carry on with the show") in spite of vanishing strength ("inside my heart is breaking, my make-up may be flaking").[10] From the perspective of harmony, the song begins inB minor; then there is amodulation toC♯ minor as if the song implied a hope (an increase of tone); but eventually it falls back to B minor.[11]
I woke up one morning with this image of butterflies in my head, and I thought I would love to hear Freddie sing: 'My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies.' I thought: this is Freddie. And he's not going to write it for himself, because he wasn't going to thrust himself forward in that way, you know? But I can write it for him. I wanted to put those words in his mouth. And it was a gift from God. I don't even know where those lyrics came from. So I presented it all to him the next time he turned up in the studio, and by that time he was suffering a lot. He could hardly stand. I played him some of the demo, with me singing, which went incredibly high and was very difficult. In the past, Freddie was always shouting at me, like, 'It's too fucking high! You're making me ruin my beautiful voice!' So he downed a couple of vodkas, neat, then propped himself up on the desk and worked his way through singing all of that song. And it was amazing. I think he did three or four takes, and he absolutely smashed that vocal. It's like he reached into a place that even he'd never got to before. I remember saying to Freddie, 'I don't want you to hurt yourself. You know, don't force yourself to do this if it's not going to feel good.' But he said, 'I'll fucking do it, Brian!' And he did. And it was beautiful. I think it's one of his finest performances of all time. It's incredible.
— Brian May, 2023
Jim Hutton, Mercury's partner who was with him for the last 6 years until his death, mentions the lyric that refers to the use of make up[12] during his last days:
To me, the most autobiographical line was: "My make-up may be flaking but my smile still stays on". That was true. No matter how ill Freddie felt, he never grumbled to anyone or sought sympathy of any kind. It was his battle, no one else's, and he always wore a brave face against the ever-increasing odds against him.
— Jim Hutton, 1994[13]
With Mercury's condition having deteriorated significantly due to complications withHIV/AIDS, no new footage of the lead singer was shot. The music video instead consisted of a montage of clips spanning Queen's music videos from 1981 to 1991, as a precursor to the imminent release of the band'sGreatest Hits II album spanning that period.[14] Footage from promo videos from the 1980s are shown in the montage, apart from "Under Pressure" and "Hammer to Fall", including "I Want to Break Free", "Friends Will Be Friends", "I'm Going Slightly Mad", "Breakthru", "Radio Ga Ga", "I Want It All", "The Miracle", "The Invisible Man", "Headlong", "Calling All Girls", "Body Language", "Innuendo", "Back Chat", "Who Wants to Live Forever", "Scandal" and "One Vision".[14]
The montage, along with the manner of the song's lyrics, continued to fuel long-running media reports that Mercury was seriously ill, although it was still officially denied that anything was seriously wrong. The following month, Mercury finally announced that he was suffering from AIDS, and he died barely 24 hours after this announcement. The music video was compiled and edited by Austrian director teamDoRo, consisting ofRudi Dolezal andHannes Rossacher.[10]
7-inch single[18]
Limited CD single
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[42] | Gold | 30,000‡ |
| France (SNEP)[43] | Silver | 125,000* |
| Germany (BVMI)[44] | Gold | 300,000‡ |
| Italy (FIMI)[45] | Platinum | 50,000‡ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[46] | Platinum | 30,000‡ |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE)[47] | Platinum | 60,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[48] | Platinum | 600,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[49] | Gold | 500,000^ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 14 October 1991 |
| Parlophone | [50] |
| 21 October 1991 | CD box set | [51] | ||
| Australia | 18 November 1991 |
| [52] |
| "The Show Must Go On" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byCeline Dion featuringLindsey Stirling | ||||
| Released | 20 May 2016 (2016-05-20) | |||
| Recorded | 2016 | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length |
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| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Humberto Gatica | |||
| Celine Dion singles chronology | ||||
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| Lindsey Stirling singles chronology | ||||
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| Audio | ||||
| "The Show Must Go On" onYouTube | ||||
Celine Dion recorded a studio version of Queen's "The Show Must Go On" and released it as adigital single on 20 May 2016. The track featuresLindsey Stirling on violin.[53]
In 2007, Dion performed "The Show Must Go On" as a tribute toFreddie Mercury on aTF1 TV Special with French singers,Christophe Maé andDavid Hallyday.[54] Dion performed the song live during herTaking Chances World Tour in 2008, paying tribute to Queen and Mercury. Her performance was released onTaking Chances World Tour: The Concert andCeline: Through the Eyes of the World in 2010. Since 2015, she has performed "The Show Must Go On" for her Las Vegas residency show,Celine.
Dion also performed the song during the2016Billboard Music Awards on 22 May 2016, where she received theIcon Award.[55] It was her first performance outside theColosseum at Caesars Palace since her husband,René Angélil died in January 2016.[56][57] The performance received rave reviews.[58][59][60] It was released onYouTube andVevo on 3 June 2016.[61] Dion also performed "The Show Must Go On" during her2016 and2017 tours.[62]
On 20 May 2016, "The Show Must Go On" was released oniTunes,Amazon.com and other digital platforms, and became available on streaming services, includingYouTube andVevo.[63]
In France, "The Show Must Go On" debuted at number twenty-three, selling 1,000 copies in the first week.[64] In Canada, it entered theHot Digital Songs chart at number twenty-three as well.[65] "The Show Must Go On" also debuted at number eighty-nine on theCanadian Hot 100.[66] In Quebec, Dion entered theADISQ chart at the top.[67] In the US, "The Show Must Go On" entered thePop Digital Songs chart at number forty-five.[68] In Belgium Wallonia, it peaked at number forty-seven on theUltratip chart.[69]
| Chart (2016) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgium (Ultratip Bubbling Under Wallonia)[69] | 47 |
| CanadaHot 100 (Billboard)[66] | 89 |
| France (SNEP)[70] | 23 |
| Quebec (ADISQ)[67] | 1 |
| Switzerland (Media Control Romandy)[71] | 17 |
| South Africa (EMA)[72] | 38 |
| US Pop Digital Songs (Billboard)[68] | 45 |
| Region | Date | Format | Label | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various | 20 May 2016 | Digital download | Columbia | [53] |
| Italy | 22 July 2016 | Contemporary hit radio | Sony | [73] |
Innuendo also contain powerful hard rock energy with 'Headlong' and 'The Show Must Go On,'
