Queen’s Brian May gets emotional after duetting with Freddie Mercury hologram

Virgin Radio

14 Jun 2022, 12:47

Guitarist Brian May sheds a tear following a duet of Love Of My Life with a hologram of his late friend and bandmate Freddie Mercury. 

The legendary British band is currently on their hugely successful Bohemian Rhapsody tour with Adam Lambert, and every show includes a duet between Brian May and an optical illusion of Mercury. During a recent performance at London’s O2 Arena, the guitarist appears to get emotional as he wipes a tear away. 

In a video uploaded by TikTok user @impsk77, May can be seen playing the final few notes of Mercury’s ballad from their 1977 album A Night At The Opera, and as it finishes, he applauds and bows to the hologram of Freddie beside him before getting teary-eyed. 

Watch the video here. 

The hologram of the late singer was taken from archive footage of his performance of the song during Queen’s Wembley gig on 12 July, 1986 and thanks to the magic of optical illusion, it appears as though Mercury is actually performing on stage. 

Queen first used the technology back in 2012 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the We Will Rock You musical in London and was initially opposed to including it in their tour. 

At the time, May told Classic Rock: “I don’t want to be touring with a hologram. It makes you feel like museum pieces, and we’re not fossils, we’re alive.”

However, they seem to have gone back on that decision, and the illusion, that always tugs on the heartstrings of audiences, has become a staple part of their current shows. 

Others who have seen the concert for themselves also took to the comments below the video to share their emotional responses.

One user wrote: “I adore how they keep him alive through this song. Best show I’ve ever seen. 🥰”

Another said: “This had me and everybody else in tears. How he just fades to black and Brian reaching out for him 😭😭😭😭.”

A third simply commented: “I cried so hard during this.”