ADAM LAMBERT On Reprising QUEEN's LIVE AID Set At FIRE FIGHT AUSTRALIA: It Was 'A Cool Idea And Something Different'

For first time in its history, QUEEN, fronted by singer Adam Lambert, performed the band's iconic 1985 Live Aid set on February 16 at the Fire Fight Australia benefit concert in Sydney.

QUEEN played the original 22-minute set consisting of six songs: "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Radio Ga Ga", "Hammer To Fall", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions".

As part of the performance, QUEEN included footage and audio of late singer Freddie Mercury from Live Aid for a crowd sing-along.

Asked by Australia's Music Feeds about the significance of that set choice and how it felt performing it, Adam said: "It was not my idea. I can't take credit for that. [Laughs] But we were doing a gig around New Year's Eve and we're thinking, 'What songs should we do?' and got that idea. We immediately thought that was a cool idea and something different; we hadn't done that before. They're all songs that we play every night anyway, so it made sense. Just putting it in that order, it had some full circle resonance to it.

"That moment was made so iconic in the film [QUEEN biopic 'Bohemian Rhapsody']," he continued. "To be fair, we were selling out tours before the film, but the film has taken it to the next level for this tour. We've changed our demographic. We have kids in the audience and full families there. It's so cool."

Lambert went on to say that he is "so honored" to be singing with QUEEN. "I'm a huge Freddie Mercury fan," he explained. "The treat for me is that it's great music for a singer to sing and it's a big honor. The other thing that's always been very special to me is that Freddie is this queer icon. He might not have been out because it was a time where it was so taboo that it would've been difficult. But now, learning about him in the past eight years, I feel like he's somebody I would've gotten along with and if he was still with us, he's someone I would've continued to look up to. So to be able to carry the torch for him is really special."

QUEEN's appearance at the Live Aid benefit concert at Wembley Stadium has been referred to as the "greatest live performance of all time." The July 13, 1985 concert was set up to raise funds for the famine in Ethiopia and QUEEN delivered what was arguably the performance that stole the show.

QUEEN's Live Aid performance was recreated for the band's biopic, "Bohemian Rhapsody", which was released in 2018. The film has become the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time, bringing in more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office. This was despite a lukewarm reaction from critics upon release.